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#125209 03/14/04 10:17 PM
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I was in the process of bidding a fond farewell to the few of you who have not urgently, or, at least, overtly urgently, desired it when someone described me in a PM as a "gadfly".

I have never been called a "gadfly" before so I consulted a dictionary.

"Any of various flies, especially of the family Tabanidae, that bite or annoy livestock and other animals."

And then it suddenly dawned on me!

"What better place for a gadfly to 'follow his bliss' than right here where he's already making a nuisance of himself?"

A gadfly is no more than a gnat
But at least he can be true to that.


I have finally come to my senses.

I am home where I belong.

"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploration shall be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." T. S. Eliot. Animal Farm.









#125210 03/14/04 10:22 PM
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err, welcome back?

watch out for the flypaper...



formerly known as etaoin...
#125211 03/14/04 10:52 PM
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a million years ago, back in the dark ages, i read a book, original written and published in italian, called The Gadfly--it was loaned to me by a friend, (and i dutifully returned it!) now i wish i was a bookkeeper!

does anyone know this book? it was a story of political civil disobience.. (set in modern european country--set in ? 1950's? early? (there were cars and highways.. so its at least last century!)

the book overwhelmed me at times.. i hardly remember a line, and yet as a whole, i remember it vividly.
(other books have effected me that way.. Steps-- and The painted Bird--horror stories.. that keep me mesmerized and under their spell--and repelled me, and frightened me with every word.)


#125212 03/14/04 11:48 PM
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The Gadfly was published in 1897 and was written by Ethel Lilian Voynich who was the wife of the owner of the exceedingly strange Voynich MS, which he donated to Harvard's Bieneke library.

http://www.voynich.nu/
http://members.aol.com/zetaomega/voypage.htm
http://www.dcc.unicamp.br/~stolfi/voynich/

Nobody has ever figured out what language this MS is written in, or indeed if it is written in a language. (Cf. the Codex Seraphinus.)

http://www.io.com/~iareth/codindx.html

The Gadfly is in the public domain and is available online:

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=3431

It was a big hit in the Soviet Union.



#125213 03/15/04 01:33 PM
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thanks!


#125214 03/17/04 02:53 PM
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thanks!

Gnats never get any fan mail, de Troy.

Re: "A gnat is a slugger's biggest fan."

If you want to swing at a gnat
You're gonna need more than a bat.


Folklore has it that you can catch more gadflies with honey ... but they actually prefer carrots.



#125215 03/17/04 03:16 PM
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Egad, Fly!
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Little Gidding V
Four Quartets
T.S. Eliot (1943)

Who knows what "Little Gidding V" means?
Edit: I found it:
Little Gidding is a village in Cambridgeshire visited by Eliot in 1936. It was the home of a religious community established in 1626. In 1633 Charles I visited the community; in 1646 he returned, fleeing Parliamentary troops who broke up the community

Full of sound and fury, a tale told by an Eliot.

#125216 03/17/04 03:38 PM
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Who knows what "Little Gidding V" means?

He's the great-grandson of "Little Gidding Two-shoes".


#125217 03/17/04 03:48 PM
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Whose name derived from a Florida Island.

Two-shoes Cay, Archie, Two-shoes Cay.

Does that make me hittable???



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Does that make me hittable???

No, but it might make you biteable.

Truth is, you just hit one outta the park.

I only chase fly balls.



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