“Where did all the anvils go?”

LORELAI: I mean, they were extremely common until just recently — historically recently, not recently like “metrosexual is a word now” recently, but recently.

EMILY: Are we still talking about anvils?

LORELAI: Yes, where did all the anvils go?

EMILY: You’re talking about those big, heavy, metal things?

LORELAI: That blacksmiths hammered horseshoes and stuff on. Everyone had them. They were featured prominently in every movie western, so where did they all go?

RICHARD: I don’t know that they were that common.

LORELAI: Wile E. Coyote used them. That’s how common they were.

EMILY: Who?

LORELAI: The cartoon. He was always trying to drop an anvil on the Road Runner’s head or shoot it at him out of a giant slingshot or fire it at him out of a cannon. Inevitably, the cannon tilted up, shot it in the air, it fell down, and made an anvil-shaped impression on Wile E. Coyote’s head.

EMILY: This is a cartoon?

LORELAI: No, no, this just happened to me the other day. I was walking down the street, and this giant anvil — yes, mother, it’s a cartoon.

RORY: I know she sounds nuts, but it’s a very common cartoon.

RICHARD: But that doesn’t prove that anvils were so common.

LORELAI: It does. It proves that anvils were so ubiquitous at one point — is that the word, ubiquitous?

RORY: It depends on where you’re going.

LORELAI: That they knew that children would know what they were and delight in them. That’s how common they were — children watching cartoons.

RORY: That was the word.

RICHARD: I’ve forgotten your point.

LORELAI: Where are all the anvils? I mean, is there some sort of secret anvil storage facility the government is keeping from us?

RICHARD: Or they fell into disuse with the advent of other technologies, and so they melted them down and they’re gone.

LORELAI: But they’re not supposed to melt. They were made to withstand the red-hot hammer of the town blacksmith.

EMILY: This is easily the most pointless conversation we’ve ever had.

LORELAI: I don’t hear anyone chiming in with rational theories.

EMILY: Please change the subject, I beg of you, anyone.

RICHARD: Well the girls don’t know the big news about Jason and me.

LORELAI: You’re pregnant?

RICHARD: We’re acquiring another company.

LORELAI: I was close.

RORY: Already? You just started yours.

RICHARD: The insurance business is changing so rapidly, you have to adapt to keep up.

RORY: It’s a dog-eat-dog world, Grandpa.

RICHARD: Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s not a big company. It’s smaller than ours, but very powerful.

LORELAI: Wait, the company is smaller than yours? Your company is two guys — you and Jason.

RICHARD: This company is a one-man operation — Bob Sutton.

LORELAI: So, you’re acquiring Bob?

RICHARD: We’re acquiring his company, and his company is him.

LORELAI: Did he have to give himself two weeks’ notice? [Rory snickers.]

RICHARD: No.

LORELAI: Is there gonna be a sad little going-away party where he brings in his own cake and blows out his candles?

RICHARD: We are all celebrating with a dinner tomorrow — us and the wives.

EMILY: Ugh.

LORELAI: You’re not big on the Bob?

EMILY: Bob’s fine. We’ve known him for years. It’s that dolt he’s married to — classic trophy wife.

RICHARD: She is quite young.

LORELAI: How young?

EMILY: Her car looks [high, squeaky voice] just like Barbie’s.

RICHARD: Regardless, I hope you will be kind to her at dinner.

EMILY: I’ll have to bring my English-to-dumbbell dictionary.

RICHARD: Try and focus on Bob. Bob’s as sharp as they come.

EMILY: He’s very brilliant, I’ll give you that.

LORELAI: Bob’s brilliant, huh?

RICHARD: He’s a Rhodes scholar.

LORELAI: Ask him where the anvils went. …Or not.

-Gilmore Girls-

Culs-de-sac

RORY: It’s culs-de-sac.

LORELAI: No way!

RORY: It is.

LORELAI: The plural of cul-de-sac is culs-de-sac?

RORY: Yes.

LORELAI: That doesn’t even sound like English.

RORY: That’s because it’s French.

LORELAI: You know what I mean.

RORY: I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

LORELAI: Words should sound right to be right.

RORY: That’s not how it works.

LORELAI: So, what, the plural of yo-yo is yos-yo?

RORY: Yeah, ’cause that sounds so natural.

LORELAI: As natural as culs-de-sac.

LORELAI: Hey, Luke.

LUKE: Look at this.

LORELAI: Who, Lane? She’s super waitress, able to leap tall pancakes in a single bound. Or is that pans-cake?

RORY: Very funny.

LUKE: It’s not gonna work out.

LORELAI: Oh. What, she’s so good.

LUKE: She’s too good.

LORELAI: Oh, calm down.

LUKE: When there was a lull, she cleaned the menus without being asked.

LORELAI: Do you mean mens-u?

RORY: Stop it.

LORELAI: So, now, why do you have to get back to campus so early? Classes don’t start for a couple of days.

RORY: Yeah, I have a lot of stuff to do. And it’ll be nice and quiet with no roommates around.

LORELAI: Where are the rooms-mate?

RORY: Um, Janet’s mountain climbing, Tanna’s home, and Paris went skiing with her boyfriend.

LORELAI: So you’re just ignoring the plural thing now?

RORY: Yeah.

LORELAI: Boy, maybe this Lane/Luke team isn’t gonna work out.

RORY: Yeah.

LORELAI: Where do you think Luke will go?

RORY: I don’t know. Maybe a big chain will take him on.

LORELAI: I wonder if he has a forklift license.

RORY: He could redeem recyclables.

LORELAI: You mean recycs-able?

LORELAI: So everyone in the entire world knew the plural of cul-de-sac was culs-de-sac?

RICHARD: Yes.

LORELAI: Okay. So Mariah Carey is out with some friends and she’s had a couple cocktails, she glances down from the roof and says, “Oh, look at all those culs-de-sac.”

RORY: Why are they on the roof?

LORELAI: It’s a rooftop bar.

RICHARD: How have you been saying it?

LORELAI: Cul-de-sacs.

RICHARD: And no one ever corrected you?

LORELAI: No, because that’s the way it should be. Even if it isn’t technically correct, it should be pronounced that way.

RORY: Mom, Mom, just let it go.

LORELAI: I will never let this go.

Wind in the sails! Wind in the sails!

Gibbs : [ Jack throws a bucket of water at him] Curse you for breathing, you slack-jawed idiot! Mother’s love! Jack ! You should know better than to wake a man when he?s sleeping. T’is bad luck.

Jack : Ah, fortunately I know how to counter it. The man who did the waking buys, the man who was sleeping, a drink. The man who was sleeping drinks it while listening to a proposition from the man who did the waking.

Gibbs : Aye, that’ll about do it. [ Will throws another bucket of water at him] Blast! I’m already awake!

Will : That was for the smell.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gibbs : Feast your eyes, Captain. All of them, faithful hands before the mast, every man worth his salt. And crazy to boot.

Will : So this is your able-bodied crew?

Jack : You, sailor!

Gibbs : Cotton, sir.

Jack : Mr. Cotton ? do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death? Mr. Cotton ! Answer, man!

Gibbs : He’s a mute, sir. Poor devil had his tongue cut out, so he trained the parrot to talk for him. No one’s yet figured how.

Jack : Mr. Cotton ’s… parrot. Same question.

Parrot: Wind in the sails! Wind in the sails!

Gibbs : Mostly, we figure, that means ‘yes.’

Jack : O’course it does. [to Will ] Satisfied?

Will : Well, you’ve proved they’re mad.

Advice

“I give myself very good advice… but I very seldom follow it. That explains the trouble that I’m always in. Be patient is very good advice, but the waiting makes me curious. And I’d love the change, should something strange begin. Well, I went along my merry way, and I never stopped to reason. I should have known there’d be a price to pay, some day. Some day. I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it. Will I ever learn to do the things I should?”

-Alice in Wonderland-

On Critics and New Talent

‘In many ways the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgement. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.’

‘But, the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things… the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something… and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends.’

‘Last night I experienced something new, an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source.To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking, is a gross understatement– they have rocked me to my core. In the past I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau’s famous motto: “Anyone Can Cook”. But I realize only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genus now cooking at Gusteau’s, who is, in this critic’s opinion, nothing less than the finest Chef in France.’

- Ego, Ratatouille-

My First Year in Law

I have done my best. I have garnered experiences and knowledge that I have always longed for. The past year in the journey to the Ideal was not an inexplicable conundrum. It was the year which I did the most with my life hitherto. My failure to explain to myself the balance of the spectrum of things is captured best by the quote and poem below. Intermediate Year shall not be a bygone, no-no! It shall be firmly etched into my memory. A milestone compared to the uneventful past before this challenge. I have always been a spectator, a cheerleader nonetheless and sometimes the timekeeper.

Here’s to all the ‘Man’s in the Arena. Take heart.

Man In The Arena

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

“Citizenship in a Republic,”
Theodore Roosevelt’s speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

I first heard this through a movie ‘Coach Carter’ which eliminated all the spiritual lines. I found it deeply moving so I scribbled it down as the movie was playing. Here is the original piece by Marriane Williamson.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

A Return to Love