thnidu has graciously corrected my grammar: the phrase I want is "Per coitum ad coronam".  Not "Per copula ad corona" as I'd originally coined it.  I think my original version flows better and is more clearly playing off the "per ardua ad astra" motto, but it's important to communicate correctly.

I don't tend to see the glass as half-full or half-empty.  I see it as containing a liquid which appears to be water and therefore (if true) possibly useful if one were thirsty or wanting to cook or do other chemical work, but also presenting a hazard by aspiration or slippage (if spilled), and dangerously fragile, and too close to someone's elbow.

Bailing the boat with a teacup is a lot of work and may seem pointless.  But if a teacup is all you have, a teacup is what you use; it's better than not bailing at all, and may buy you time to find a bucket.  It's important not to get so fixated on having only a teacup that you miss seeing the bucket, or miss sending a message for help.  There are ( Read more... )

Timbitis: abdominal swelling caused by excessive incremental absorption of dietary fats and sugars.
 

They say that hindsight is 20-20.  It really isn't.  You see the events of your past through the same clouds and filters that shade your view of the present.
 

Don't forget that one of the main pleasures of childhood  is rebellion.  If you are too permissive with [your children], you'll force the poor blighters to turn to drugs and abortions on order to rebel.

- David Nobbs, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
 

"In a media-saturated age, you can really start to resent the amount of information you absorb, despite your steadfast disinterest, about certain utterly unworthy subjects.  It's like the data equivalent of secondary smoke inhalation."

-- Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks

There is no intrinsic virtue in expending energy ineffectively, doing things *your* way, instead of doing something effective.