2018年2月9日 星期五

hirsute, aspergillum; absolute power corrupts absolutely, Haves vs. Have-Nots/ an absolute bargain

 
 
Peter the Great wanted to modernise Russian society by taking a hard line on the hirsute, discouraging the growing of facial hair. He introduced a beard tax – anyone who wanted to grow a beard was taxed and given this token as proof of payment. He died #onthisday in 1725.

Room for Debate

“Student protesters said that the higher costs will make it even harder for middle class and poor students to go to college, and will widen the education gap between the haves and the have-nots. But the students at the 10-campus California system are, on average, from far wealthier backgrounds than the average household in the state.”
Readers' Comments:
“The university administrators and professors are way overpaid for what they produce.”
Posted by prezal
“The students should pull their head in and, just as Ehrenburg said, realize they are still getting one of the best and cheapest college educations on earth. 10,000 is indeed still an absolute bargain.”
Posted by scientella
 
 
 http://books.google.com.tw/books?id=xDXnVrfSrH8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:ISBN9570827106&hl=zh-TW&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=editions%3AISBN9570827106&f=false
For the rest, his costume was neutral, subordinate, and even a little neglected in the matter of a detail or two: one pointed flap of his soft collar was held down by a button, but the other showed a frayed thread where the button once had been; his low patent-leather shoes were of a luster not solicitously cherished, and there could be no doubt that he needed to get his hair cut, while something might have been done, too, about the individualized hirsute prophecies which had made independent appearances, here and there, upon his chin. He examined these from time to time by the sense of touch, passing his hand across his face and allowing his finger-tips a slight tapping motion wherever they detected a prophecy.
 
 
 
hirsute
ˈhəːsjuːt/
adjective
literaryhumorous
  1. hairy.
    "their hirsute chests"

hirsute[hir・sute]

  • 発音記号[hə'ːrsuːt | -sjuːt]
[形]
1 ((文またはおどけて))〈人が〉(主に体や顔に)毛の多い, 毛深い, 毛むくじゃらな, 毛の, 毛質の.
2 《植物・動物》長い剛毛のある.

Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely

Origin

Absolute monarchies are those in which all power is given to or, as is more often the case, taken by, the monarch. Examples of absolute power corrupting are Roman emperors (who declared themselves gods) and Napoleon Bonaparte (who declared himself an emperor).
"Absolute power corrupts absolutely""Absolute power corrupts absolutely" arose as part of a quotation by the expansively named and impressively hirsute John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."
The text is a favourite of collectors of quotations and is always included in anthologies. If you are looking for the exact "power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" wording, then Acton is your man. He didn't invent the idea though; quotations very like it had been uttered by several authors well before 1887. Primary amongst them was another English politician with no shortage of names - William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham and British Prime Minister from 1766 to 1778, who said something similar in a speech to the UK House of Lords in 1770:
"Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it"
Acton is likely to have taken his lead from the writings of the French republican poet and politician, again a generously titled individual - Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine. An English translation of Lamartine's essay France and England: a Vision of the Future was published in London in 1848 and included this text:
It is not only the slave or serf who is ameliorated in becoming free... the master himself did not gain less in every point of view,... for absolute power corrupts the best natures.
Whether it is Lamartine or his anonymous English translator that can claim to have coined 'absolute power corrupts' we can't be sure, but we can be sure that it wasn't Lord Acton.
See also: the List of Proverbs
See also: Quotations.

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Though  many  readers and reviewers would disagree that
her charm is tender, few would deny that it is queer-- so  much
so that when director Stanley Kubrick proposed his plan to make
a movie of Lolita, you were quoted as saying, "Of course
they'll  have to change the plot. Perhaps they will make Lolita
a dwarfess. Or they will make her 16 and Humbert 26.  "  Though
you  finally  wrote  the screenplay yourself, several reviewers
took  the  film  to  task  for  watering   down   the   central
relationship. Were you satisfied with the final product? 

    I  thought  the  movie was absolutely first-rate. The four
main actors deserve the very highest praise. Sue Lyon  bringing
that breakfast tray or childishly pulling on her sweater in the
car--  these are moments of unforgettable acting and directing.
The killing of Quilty is a masterpiece, and so is the death  of
Mrs.  Haze.  I must point out, though, that I had nothing to do
with the actual production. If I had, I might have insisted  on
stressing  certain things that were not stressed-- for example,
the different motels at which they stayed. All I did was  write
the  screenplay,  a preponderating portion of which was used by
Kubrick. The "watering down," if any,  did  not  come  from  my
aspergillum.


aspergillum

  • sprdílm〕
or as·per·gill (-jĭl)
n. Roman Catholic Church, pl., -gil·la (-jĭl'ə), or -gil·lums.
An instrument, such as a brush or a perforated container, used for sprinkling holy water.

[New Latin, from Latin aspergere, to sprinkle. See asperse.]

[名](複-la 〔-l〕, 〜s)《カトリック》撒水(さんすい)器, 聖水はけ, 聖水盤.

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