Frankly My Dear, I don't Give a Damn.....

... is a line from the 1939 film "Gone With The Wind" starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. It was spoken by Gable, as Rhett Butler, in his last words to Scarlett O'Hara. It occurs at the end of the film when Scarlett asks Rhett,

- "Where shall I go? What shall I do?" if he leaves her.

The line is memorable not only because it contains profanity (which was generally not allowed in films of that time period), but because it demonstrates that Rhett has finally given up on Scarlett and no longer cares what happens to her. This quotation was voted the number one movie line of all time by the American Film Institute 2005.

In the novel "Gone With The Wind", Rhett does not say "Frankly," but simply "My dear, I don't give a damn." The context is also different; he is speaking quietly to Scarlett in a room, not storming dramatically out of the house.

Laughter's the Best Medicine

Castaway

From a passenger ship one can see a bearded man on a small island who is shouting and desperately waving his hands.

- “Who is it?” a passenger asks the captain.

- “No idea. Every year when we pass, he goes mad like that” answered the captain!

Good Ol’ King Arthur

A knight and his men return to their castle after a long hard day of fighting.

- "How are we faring?" asks the king.

- "Sire," replies the knight, "I have been robbing and pillaging
on your behalf all day, burning the towns of your enemies in the west.

- "What?!" shrieks the king. "I don't have any enemies to the west!"

- "Oh," says the knight. "Well, you do now, Sire".

Grammar Lessons

Two crazy teachers were driving through Kansas. As they were approaching the town of “Nacogdoches”, they started arguing about the pronunciation of the name of the town. They argued back and forth until they stopped for lunch. As they stood at the counter, one teacher asked the blonde attendant,

- "before we order, could you please settle an argument for us? Would you please pronounce where we are now... very slowly?"

The girl leaned over the counter and said,

- "Maaaccc-Doooooonnnnnaaaaaallllllllddddd'sss."

English is a crazy language

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.


We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preacher praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and wise guy are opposites? How can overlook and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another.

Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm clock goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it.

Rules of Thumb

HERE’S THE POINT

Common Prefixes
Prefixes are elements placed before a word to create a new word. Look at the following examples:

Anti- = against - antisocial (a person who does not like being with other people)
antiwar (a person who does not believe in war; opposed to war)
Hyper- = beyond the ordinary - hyperactive (a person who is very active; more active than other people)
hypersensitive (a person who is very sensitive; extra sensitive to things)
il-, in-, im-, ir- = not - illogical (not logical)
insufficient (not sufficient; not enough)
impossible (not possible)
irresponsible (not responsible)
Poly- = many - polyglot (a person who speaks many languages)
polygon (a shape with many sides and angles)
Post- = after - postseason (after the regular season) postscript (PS; additional remarks at the end of a letter)

Word of The Day

Walking Papers

Function: noun (plural)

Status: US, informal

Meaning:
Walking papers is used to say that someone has been ordered to leave a place, job, etc.

eg: His boss gave him his walking papers. (British - marching orders; his boss fired him)

"When Harry Met Sally"

... is a 1989 romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The film raises the question "Can men and women ever just be friends?" The orgasm scene was filmed at Katz's Deli, an actual restaurant on New York's E. Houston Street. Curiosity: The table at which the scene was filmed now has a plaque on it that reads, "Congratulations! You're sitting where Harry met Sally." The woman who says "I'll have what she's having" after Sally's faked orgasm is director Rob Reiner's mother who happened to be visiting the set. HC.

Laughter's the Best Medicine

A businessman had arranged an important formal dinner party at his home where they were going to serve stuffed whole baked fish as the main course. While the guests were eating the appetizer, the cook came to the host and whispered "Please come urgently to the kitchen."

The host went to the kitchen where the cook explained that while she was serving the starter, the cat ate a big chunk of the fish which they were going to serve.

The host said, "Just fill the hole with stuffing and turn the other side up, nobody will notice."

The fish was served and when they were nearly finished eating, the host was again called to the kitchen. The cook said,

"The cat is dead!"

The host rushed back to the dinner party and apologized, "Something was wrong with the fish and everyone must have their stomachs pumped out at the hospital."

When they came back everything was still fine and the host went to ask the cook, "Where is the cat?"

"Oh," said the chef, "The cat is still by the road where the truck ran it down!"

Word of The Day

rile

Function: verb [with object]

Inflected forms:
riles; riled; riling

Meanings:
1 : to make (someone) angry : to irritate or annoy (someone)
Example:


Note: This sense of rile is usually followed by up.
Example:


2 US, informal : to make (someone) very excited — usually followed by up
Example:

RULES OF THUMB

Em inglês nunca se usa o número Cardinal antes do Ordinal como em português.

e.g.: Caruaru está entre as Cinco Primeiras cidades de PE.

Caruaru is among the First Five cities of Pernambuco.

Em inglês, usa-se “Mais” Depois do número e não Antes como em português.

e.g.: Ela ficou no Rio Mais 4 semanas depois da Páscoa.
She stayed in Rio 4 More weeks after Easter.
O Santa Cruz marcou Mais 5 gols no segundo tempo.
Santa Cruz scored 5 More goals in the second half-time.

TIP OF THE DAY – PREPOSITION – PART XI

FROM – De. Desde. Indica o objeto do qual alguma coisa é separada, removida, defendida etc.

Emprega-se com várias outras preposições. Procedência.

e.g.: - He is from Germany.
Rain comes from the sky.
Do never judge from appearances.
Defend us from all danger.
He retired from the party very early.
Brazil is separated from Portugal by the language.
They are so alike that I cannot distinguish one from another.
A familiar voice was heard from outside the door.
She stepped out from behind the curtain.

IN - Em. Dentro de. Indica interioridade. Refere-se também a grandes localidades. Continentes, Países, Estados, Cidades, Bairros, Meses, Ano. Um Período de Tempo qualquer.

e.g.: - They are in the classroom.
In Australia.
We live in Brazil.
In Pernambuco.
In Recife.
In Boa Viagem.
I usually go to Rio in July.
In 1963.
In the morning.
In the Afternoon.
In Summer.

The most sexy dance of all cinema

One of the sultriest, sexiest moments in the movies: Kim Novak (Marge) and William Holden (Hal) dancing to "Moonglow" in the film "Picnic" (1955). In the first few frames, you see a young Susan Strasberg the daughter of well-known drama teacher Lee Strasberg. William Holden was 37 years old and wary of playing Hal. Kim Novak was about half his age. Curiosity: He had to shave his chest for the shirtless shots and was reportedly nervous about his dancing for the "Moonglow" scene. I wouldn't care as long as I had Miss Novak in my arms. HC.

The Necklace - Final

Guy de Maupassant

He stood up, bewildered.

"What!--how? Impossible!"

They looked among the folds of her skirt, of her cloak, in her pockets, everywhere, but did not find it.

"You're sure you had it on when you left the ball?" he asked.

"Yes, I felt it in the vestibule of the minister's house."

"But if you had lost it in the street we should have heard it fall. It must be in the cab."

"Yes, probably. Did you take his number?"

"No. And you--didn't you notice it?"

"No."

They looked, thunderstruck, at each other. At last Loisel put on his clothes.

"I shall go back on foot," said he, "over the whole route, to see whether I can find it."

He went out. She sat waiting on a chair in her ball dress, without strength to go to bed, overwhelmed, without any fire, without a thought.

Her husband returned about seven o'clock. He had found nothing.

He went to police headquarters, to the newspaper offices to offer a reward; he went to the cab companies--everywhere, in fact, whither he was urged by the least spark of hope.

She waited all day, in the same condition of mad fear before this terrible calamity.

Loisel returned at night with a hollow, pale face. He had discovered nothing.

"You must write to your friend," said he, "that you have broken the clasp of her necklace and that you are having it mended. That will give us time to turn round."

She wrote at his dictation.

At the end of a week they had lost all hope. Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:

"We must consider how to replace that ornament."

The next day they took the box that had contained it and went to the jeweler whose name was found within. He consulted his books.

"It was not I, madame, who sold that necklace; I must simply have furnished the case."

Then they went from jeweler to jeweler, searching for a necklace like the other, trying to recall it, both sick with chagrin and grief.

They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds that seemed to them exactly like the one they had lost. It was worth forty thousand francs. They could have it for thirty-six.

So they begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days yet. And they made a bargain that he should buy it back for thirty-four thousand francs, in case they should find the lost necklace before the end of February.

Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. He would borrow the rest.

He did borrow, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of another, five louis here, three louis there. He gave notes, took up ruinous obligations, dealt with usurers and all the race of lenders. He compromised all the rest of his life, risked signing a note without even knowing whether he could meet it; and, frightened by the trouble yet to come, by the black misery that was about to fall upon him, by the prospect of all the physical privations and moral tortures that he was to suffer, he went to get the new necklace, laying upon the jeweler's counter thirty-six thousand francs.

When Madame Loisel took back the necklace Madame Forestier said to her with a chilly manner:

"You should have returned it sooner; I might have needed it."

She did not open the case, as her friend had so much feared. If she had detected the substitution, what would she have thought, what would she have said? Would she not have taken Madame Loisel for a thief?

Thereafter Madame Loisel knew the horrible existence of the needy. She bore her part, however, with sudden heroism. That dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. They dismissed their servant; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret under the roof.

She came to know what heavy housework meant and the odious cares of the kitchen. She washed the dishes, using her dainty fingers and rosy nails on greasy pots and pans. She washed the soiled linen, the shirts and the dishcloths, which she dried upon a line; she carried the slops down to the street every morning and carried up the water, stopping for breath at every landing. And dressed like a woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, a basket on her arm, bargaining, meeting with impertinence, defending her miserable money, sou by sou.

Every month they had to meet some notes, renew others, obtain more time.

Her husband worked evenings, making up a tradesman's accounts, and late at night he often copied manuscript for five sous a page.

This life lasted ten years.

At the end of ten years they had paid everything, everything, with the rates of usury and the accumulations of the compound interest.

Madame Loisel looked old now. She had become the woman of impoverished households--strong and hard and rough. With frowsy hair, skirts askew and red hands, she talked loud while washing the floor with great swishes of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the office, she sat down near the window and she thought of that gay evening of long ago, of that ball where she had been so beautiful and so admired.

What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? who knows? How strange and changeful is life! How small a thing is needed to make or ruin us!

But one Sunday, having gone to take a walk in the Champs Elysees to refresh herself after the labors of the week, she suddenly perceived a woman who was leading a child. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still charming.

Madame Loisel felt moved. Should she speak to her? Yes, certainly. And now that she had paid, she would tell her all about it. Why not?

She went up.

"Good-day, Jeanne."

The other, astonished to be familiarly addressed by this plain good-wife, did not recognize her at all and stammered:

"But--madame!--I do not know---- You must have mistaken."

"No. I am Mathilde Loisel."

Her friend uttered a cry.

"Oh, my poor Mathilde! How you are changed!"

"Yes, I have had a pretty hard life, since I last saw you, and great poverty--and that because of you!"

"Of me! How so?"

"Do you remember that diamond necklace you lent me to wear at the ministerial ball?"

"Yes. Well?"

"Well, I lost it."

"What do you mean? You brought it back."

"I brought you back another exactly like it. And it has taken us ten years to pay for it. You can understand that it was not easy for us, for us who had nothing. At last it is ended, and I am very glad."

Madame Forestier had stopped.

"You say that you bought a necklace of diamonds to replace mine?"

"Yes. You never noticed it, then! They were very similar."

And she smiled with a joy that was at once proud and ingenuous.

Madame Forestier, deeply moved, took her hands.

"Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, my necklace was false! It was not worth more than five hundred francs at the most!"

The 15 Greatest Drinking Quotes

These aren’t in any particular order but it’s easy to see with four entries in the list the W.C. Fields is by far the best boozer that has lived.

“Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the Bible says love thine enemy.”
–Frank Sinatra

“Back in my rummy days, I would tremble and shake for hours upon arising. It was the only exercise I got.”
–W. C. Fields

“Here’s to alcohol: the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.” –Homer Simpson

“You’re not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.” –Dean Martin

“There can’t be good living where there is not good drinking.”
–Benjamin Franklin

“I don’t care how liberated this world becomes – a man will always be judged by the amount of alcohol he can consume – and a woman will be impressed, whether she likes it or not.” –Doug Coughlin

“I never drink anything stronger than gin before breakfast.”
–W. C. Fields

“My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.” –Winston Churchill

“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel shamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, “It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.” –Jack Handy

“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.” –W. C. Fields

“It was a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to thank her for it.” –W. C. Fields

“I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. They wake up in the morning and that’s the best they are going to feel all day.” –Frank Sinatra

“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline… it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.” –Frank Zappa

“The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind.” –Humphrey Bogart

“It takes only one drink to get me drunk. The trouble is, I can’t remember if it’s the thirteenth or the fourteenth.” –
George Burns