On The Ning Nang Nong

In another article on the rivalry and tempestuous relationship between Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo, I stumbled on a foodie trivia.

Dumas has written a dictionary on cooking called Le Grand Dictionaire de Cuisine.

Excerpts here and story here

After HG Wells' love affairs, here comes Dumas' sensual (gourmet) and sexual (girlf) appetite:

1. Appetite that comes from hunger. It makes no fuss over the food that satisfies it. If it is great enough, a piece of raw meat will appease it as easily as a roasted pheasant or woodcock.

2. Appetite aroused, hunger or no hunger, by a succulent dish appearing at the right moment, illustrating the proverb that hunger comes with eating.

3. Appetite is that roused at the end of a meal when, after normal hunger has been satisfied by the main courses, and the guest is truly ready to rise without regret, a delicious dish holds him to the table with a final tempting of his sensuality.

(1) can still be managed but (2) and (3) are impossible to discipline.

During this period he earned large sums of money, more than enough for him to spend on sumptuous living: grand love affairs (even though married he had over 40 mistresses), beautiful houses, rich foods and expensive wines. A man of tremendous energy and enormous self-esteem, he was described as a giant, both in mind and body. Dumas boasted, “If I were locked in a room with five women, pens, paper, and a play to be written, by the end of an hour I would have finished the five acts and had the five women.”

 

@Gauri03

On Politics and missiles

Politics and military go hand in hand. The diplomatic tensions always transpire as military threats. However, in the past, the standoffs were not only ominous but also witty. Here's Adlai Stevenson's memorable UN speech during Cuban Missile Crisis: Don't wait for the translation.

Millions of Americans were glued to their television sets on that fateful day in October 1962 as Adlai Stevenson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he had "one simple question" for his Soviet counterpart: "Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed, and is placing, medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no -- don't wait for the translation -- yes or no?"

Valerian A. Zorin, the poker-faced Soviet ambassador, squirmed in his chair. The Kremlin had failed to inform him about the deployment of Soviet missiles to Cuba. He had no instructions from Moscow. Trying to wiggle out of the trap that Stevenson had set for him, Zorin equivocated. "I am not in an American courtroom, sir. . . . You will have your answer in due course."

Stevenson, an intellectual politician who usually shied away from confrontation, twisted the knife. "I am prepared to wait for an answer until Hell freezes over, if that is your decision. I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room." After waiting for the laughter over Zorin's discomfiture to subside, Stevenson proceeded to unveil a series of poster-size black-and-white photographs putting the lie to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's claim that the Soviet Union did not have offensive weapons deployed in Cuba.

"Terrific," President John F. Kennedy murmured to his aides in the Oval Office as he watched the live broadcast. "I didn't know that Adlai had it in him."

The video is available here. Sadly, we don't get to see such political humour anymore in dire circumstances. That "don't wait for the translation" is pièce de résistance. Watch the clip.

 

What we have today is political laugh or slapstick but not humour or wit, eh?

Remember that time in United Nations General Assembly when Nikita Khrushchev removed a shoe and began protesting by banging the shoe on a table. A delegate beckoned his interpreter and requested: Could I have that translated, please?

That's humour! The political climate we have today is someone taking their own shoe and banging louder.

 

On gaucherie

I don't read many life-hack articles but this is a good one I came across recently: seven seconds of anxiety.

We all have been there, given ourselves that mental slap, ruined our mood with speculations. There is no antidote to such persistent anxiety breakouts but we can mitigate them through reasoning. I loved the below message.

Here’s why seven seconds: It’s the exact amount of time you need to remember the thing you said, cringe deeply, and then snuff it right out. Poof, gone forever. You know what seven seconds is too short for? Deciding you’re going to write a long apology email right now that will almost certainly embarrass everyone further. Because the thing is, you probably don’t need to do that. Again, sure, sometimes you need to clarify your actions. You’re dumb! We all are. But for the most part, no one is dwelling on the thing you’re dwelling on because they are too busy dwelling on their own personal queasiness they inflicted on someone else. And on and on forever, like a clammy line of dominoes straight to hell.

If I failed to hold the elevator for the oncoming lady, then I can console myself that she isn't thinking about my improper conduct because she is wracked thinking about her own rough behaviour towards that lady whose toe she stepped on in that chained grievance. Yo! Seven seconds, for your boo-boos and move on! Everyone is embarrassed about follies, their own follies, and not necessarily about your folly. How charming!