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- -- "grooks"
#208740
01/05/13 05:59 PM
01/05/13 05:59 PM
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,158
Land of the Flat Water
LukeJavan8
OP
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,158
Land of the Flat Water
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Distilled Spirits
When Germany occupied Denmark in 1940, physicist Piet Hein published an innocent-seeming poem:
Losing one glove
is certainly painful,
but nothing compared to the pain
of losing one,
throwing away the other,
and finding the first one again.
The German censors let it go, not understanding its meaning -- that while enduring occupation was bad, ceasing to resist would be worse. "It said that what happens to you from outside is less important than how you take it," he explained later. "The Danes knew what I meant."
In later years Hein cultivated a talent for such tiny aphoristic poems, which he called "grooks":
Problems worthy
of attack
prove their worth
by hitting back.
There is
one art,
no more,
no less:
to do
all things
with art-
lessness.
The road to wisdom? -- Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.
Put up in a place
where it's easy to see
the cryptic admonishment
T.T.T.
When you feel how depressingly
slowly you climb,
it's well to remember that
Things Take Time.
In all he wrote more 7,000 grooks, which have become a part of Scandinavian culture. "I cannot really say where my activity as a scientist ends and where my activity as a man of letters begins," he said. "Whether I am writing a poem or solving some technical problem, I think the same."
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Re: - -- "grooks"
[Re: Avy]
#208758
01/06/13 05:16 PM
01/06/13 05:16 PM
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,158
Land of the Flat Water
LukeJavan8
OP
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,158
Land of the Flat Water
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Really, really, really wonderful and much needed post Luke. Thank you for sharing. Just ran across it and was intrigued myself, thought others might appreciate it. You're welcome.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Re: Counter Grooks. A new thread?
[Re: jenny jenny]
#208759
01/06/13 05:18 PM
01/06/13 05:18 PM
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Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,158
Land of the Flat Water
LukeJavan8
OP
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 9,158
Land of the Flat Water
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Put up in a place
You donna wanna be
The dynamite explosive
T.N.T.
And if you feel explosive
As you climb,
Be sure to remember that
Time Negates Time.
Very nice addition.
Last edited by LukeJavan8; 01/06/13 05:18 PM.
----please, draw me a sheep----
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Re: Counter Grooks. A new thread?
[Re: LukeJavan8]
#208937
01/11/13 06:03 PM
01/11/13 06:03 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Vermont
Buffalo Shrdlu
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 7,210
Vermont
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I know, I was just playing with Cool Hand Luke.
:¬ )
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