Seasonal Story in 100 words

Truce

Mad, he thought. Waving across No Man’s Land and shouting friendly greetings, when yesterday and tomorrow…   After all they’d been told about the enemy. And yet, from what he’d seen, they were men, dead or alive, not so different, certainly more like himself and his comrades than the generals and politicians on either side. Still it would mean trouble – although they had trouble already– and made no sense – unless they could make it last, all of them take control across the divide... He raised an arm, heard his own voice joining with the rest: “Frohe Weihnachten, Tommy! Happy Christmas nineteen-fourteen.”

Folie, pensa-t-il. On agite la main, on crie des félicitations à travers le terrain neutre, alors que, hier et demain… Après tout ce qu’on leur avait raconté au sujet de l’ennemi. Et pourtant, comme il les avait vus, c’était des hommes, morts ou vivants – pas si différents, sûrement plus semblables a lui et à ses camarades qu’étaient les chefs militaires et civils de chaque côté.  Ça leur apporterait néanmoins des ennuis – mais on en avait déjà! – et n’avait aucun sens – à moins qu’on ne s’arrange pour prolonger ça, s’unifier tous, s’arracher le contrôle…  Il leva le bras, s’entendit crier avec les autres: “Frohe Weihnachten, Tommy! Happy Christmas 1914.”   [OK, un peu plus long en français].

Quotations Challenge Quiz Part 2

Part 2: the mostly quite obscure

1. “a riband to stick in his coat”

2. “the palm of possession is dreary”

3.         “For thus the royal mandate ran,

            When first the human race began,

            ‘The social, friendly, honest man,

                                    whate'er he be –

            ‘Tis he fulfils great Nature’s plan

                                    And none but he.”

 

4. “their heads just out of the mist of years long dead.”

5. “roaming with a hungry heart”.

6. “The genius raids, but the common people occupy and possess”.

7. “Ye would not call this too indulged tongue

            Presumptuous, in thus venturing to be heard.”

 

8. “Not for golden fancies do iron truths make room. ”

9. “A sweet disorder in the dress.”

10. “The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.”

11.       “Through the long gorge to the far

                        light has won

            His path upward, and prevail’d.”

 

12.          “Not caring that those mighty columns rest

Each on the ruin of a human breast –

That to the shrine the victor’s chariot rolls

Across the anguish of ten thousand souls!”

 

13. “But nor satisfied ever, nor weary

            Is ever the wind.”

 

14.. “True to the kindred points”         

15. “And we run, because we like it.”

16. “We were young, we were merry, we were very very wise …”

17.. Business in deep waters.           

Supplementary:Question                   

In what publication can you find all of the above effectively invoked?

Answers here.

 

In what publication can you find all of the above effectively invoked?

SmothPubs December Holiday Quiz: Who said...?

Test your knowledge of Quotations

DIY Write Stuff: Try them on friends, students, teachers…

Part 1: the once familiar, more or less

Where do these come from, originally?    

1. “A PROPHET is not without honour save in his own country, and in his own house.”

2. “In faery lands forlorn”

3. “And, strange to tell, among that Earthen lot, some could articulate while others not.”

4. “woman wailing for her demon lover”

5. “One generation passeth away and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever.”

6.. “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”

7. “Sermons in stones, books in the running brooks.”

8.. “to be young was very heaven”

9. “if severe in aught ... the love he bore to learning was his fault.”

10. “All the earth and air, with thy voice is loud”.

11. “The colonel’s lady an’ Judy O’Grady are sisters under their skins.”

12.       “Whoso beset him round

                        With dismal stories,

            Do but themselves confound;

                        Hobgoblin nor foul fiend

                        Can daunt his spirit

He knows he at the end

                        Shall life inherit.”

 

13. “The starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel.”

 

14. “The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.” 

15.  a) “And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.”

            b) “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil.”

16. “Slowly, silently now the moon walks the night in her silver shoon.”

 

Supplementary:Question: In what publication may all of the above be found effectively invoked?                                                                                  Answers here.