Today's Forgotten English

[the_gneech]

illfare
The condition of faring badly; adversity; the opposite of welfare.

--Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1901

Birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), the American essayist and poet who greatly influenced Henry David Thoreau and many others. Emerson's best-known essay, "Self-Reliance" (1841), exemplified a spirit of individualism in America that would help shape modern times. In the essay he stressed: "I hope in these days we have heard the last of conformity and consistency. Let the words be gazetted and ridiculous henceforward. ... Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the face which is the upshot of all history that there is a great responsible thinker and actor moving wherever moves a man." But along with his salute came an appeal for personal responsibility: "Do not tell me of my obligation to put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor? I tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent I give to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong."

Yay, rugged individualism! If only it was more prevalent in postmodern times as well.

-The Gneech

Comments

[paradisacorbasi.livejournal.com]

I should say more often how much I adore these posts!

Thank you for posting your Forgotten English.

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

My pleasure entirely! But all the credit goes to Jeffrey Kacirk. (He used to have a webpage that I was going to link to here, but it seems to be gone, alas.)

-The Gneech

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

Hey Gneech, apropos of nothing in this post but a previous one I don't feel like digging back for?

I'm doing a panel</> with Count Gore. :D

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Sweet! Any chance you could get him to sign something "Captain 20" for me? ;)

-TG

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

Consider it done, fanboy.

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

You should go dig up your
and he can sign that. :)

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Now that's some heavy-duty geekery, and I salute it! Great googily-moogily, it even has Marine Boy on it. 0.o

Alas, if I had one, I'd get him to sign it in a heartbeat!

-TG

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

I'm astounded that I can name every show represented there. Clockwise, from upper left:

Gilligan's Island, Gomer Pyle USMC, Batman, Hogan's Heroes, The Banana Split Show, The Three Stooges, Marine Boy, The Bozo the Clown Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Get Smart, Bugs Bunny/Looney Toons, The Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound Show, Bewitched, Spiderman, Speed Racer, The Little Rascals, Ultraman, The Coyote/Road Runner Hour, Kimba the White Lion, and Mighty Mouse/Heckle & Jeckle (which was mostly some seriously crappy Harveytoons like Caspar).

Yeah, I watched HEALTHY amounts of TV as a young lad. My dad called me Gilligan.

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

Oh and according to a Dick Dyszel interview in 1995, they issued over 250,000 of those cards. You bet I had one.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Who's that guy in the lower left corner who looks like George W. Bush wearing Spock ears?

[partiallyclips.livejournal.com]

Why, my good man, that is none other than Captain 20 himself! This boyhood ...well, "idol" is perhaps too strong a word... this boyhood figure is the one I'll be doing a panel about blogging, fansites and webcomics on this weekend at Balticon. I logged more time with Captain 20 growing up than most of my relatives.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Strange picture of the Banana Splits here. Didn't one of them wear glasses?

Hmm, maybe he tried wearing contacts at one point. :}

[paulcurtis.livejournal.com]

Well, perhaps there's not enough room in our lives for Rugged Individualism. Perhaps there's more Carpeted Individualism.