Saturday, August 23rd. The Weekend Edition of William Shakespeare's Thought For The Day.

[Aristus]

"You are not worth another word, else I'd call you knave."

All's Well That Ends Well, Act II, Scene 3, Line 258.

[Tobin S.]

1. I think some people just have a secret fantasy of killing someone.

Be it a cop or a gun nut or just some random redneck, they want to feel the ultimate power. I'm going to guess that this man will land in prison and his time there will not be good. He'll be lucky if he makes it out alive.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. What a great line, my dear Aristus!

"You are not worth another word..."

That is just perfect, as always!

Thank you.

K&R

[pinboy3niner]

3. The Vietnamese have an expression

It goes something like, "You are not even worth (my, his, her) little fingernail." I always liked the way that one kind of says it all.

[Aristus]

4. A culture that is 3,000 years old will almost always have a great way

of expressing things...

[pinboy3niner]

5. One expression I have always marveled at was taught to me by a South Vietnamese Army officer

He was my friend and roommate in an Army training course at Ft. Knox long ago.

I still remember the phonetic Vietnamese pronunciation of the phrase he taught me, though I can't find that phrase anywhere else.

According to my friend, the Vietnamese way of saying "I know what you're thinking" translates to "I walk in your stomach with my wooden shoes."

[Aristus]

6. Yet another reason why one does not want to fuck with the Vietnamese.

The culture that gave us pho, ao dais, and what one author described as "shockingly beautiful" women, also gave us endless nasty wars, punji stakes, and walking in someone else's stomach with wooden shoes on...

[malthaussen]

8. Bah. Amateurs.

-- Mal

[pinboy3niner]

9. The punji stakes and wooden shoes expression are not really good examples

Booby traps are universal, and you use what you've got--even if all you've got is bamboo. And the wooden shoes thing isn't hostile--it's just a way of expressing getting inside you.

If you want a contradiction, I've got one for you. On visits to Vietnam I was impressed by how everyone addresses strangers as Mother, Uncle, Little Brother, Little Sister, depending on how they assess the position of that person. It seems a very inclusive and loving approach.

At the same time there is a strong exclusiveness--city people looking down on rural, provincial people and especially discriminating against people like the Montagnards and the progeny of American soldiers--the 'children of the dust.'

It's a wonderful land with a wonderful people who are just as full of contradictions as people anywhere else.

[Aristus]

10. I find Vietnamese culture very complex and interesting.

A classmate of mine from PA School lives there now. Before matriculating, he visited there often, fell in love with the place, and married a Vietnamese woman. After graduation, he moved there and established a home. He divides his time between Vietnam and the US, and is always posting pics on Facebook of his travels within the country.

[pinboy3niner]

11. Your classmate sounds like a friend of mine

He's a VN vet, SF, who met a woman working in a hotel on one of his trips back, and he wooed and married her.

They built a home near her family in Dalat and they divide their time between living here and there.

I see them at vet events here and it's always a pleasure to see them. I'm a hero in her book simply because I was able to sing a Vietnamese song. Foreigners are impressed by Americans who can speak only a few words in their language because that's so uncommon.

Your friend will have a lot more knowledge about the country than I do. He might even encourage you to visit there.

[Aristus]

12. I've wanted to visit Vietnam for years.

About twenty years ago, I was working in a bookstore the assistant manager of which was a Vietnamese woman. Her husband was a Vietnam vet who married her during his tour and brought her to the US.

She and I became close friends and she taught me a little Vietnamese.

She was beautiful. "Shockingly beautiful" as described above. She looked like a Vietnamese Ingrid Bergman.

[pinboy3niner]

13. I've seen net posts advising people to visit VN soon, while it's still an 'adventure destination'

Some are afraid that it just won't be the same with increasing development there. But the truth is that it's still worth visiting any time.

I don't usually talk about it here, but my second wife was Vietnamese. She had married an American AF Captain who brought her here just before Saigon fell. I met her at the Wall many years later when she was single.

[antiquie]

7. My hovercraft is full of eels.