h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's sceptical about acupuncture. It didn't do me any good, either. Although so many people swear by it, even those who were extremely sceptical beforehand. Not so much a question of "chacun à son gout" as "chacun a son attitude" perhaps in that case.

- I've only just got the pun in the subject line. Perhaps I ought to "detox" my head, if it took me that long!

It's been said that German philosophy can be summed up as:
"Remember: one day you will die."

Wheras Spanish philosophy can be summed up as:
"Remember: one day you will die."

>>Perhaps I ought to "detox" my head

Have you tried mental floss?

about Spanish and German philosophy.

I read about how much some spanish writers from the XVII century influenced germans. The Spanish were quite depressed about everything.
( very interesting the history of this time) Romanticism in Germany loved the Siglo de Oro works( XVI and XVII) like Life is a dream, by Calderón de la Barca, a dramaturg. Cervantes belongs to this epoch too and Shakespeare!!

About Hedonism,
Of course looking for and enjoy the Pleasure is quite "healthy" but Im much more of the Epicurean side.
With hedonism I refer to those people that are too concerned about their body, they suffer the condition of "being the most healthy and balanced person" they spend a lot of money in useless things. A lot are getting rich with this bunch of cosmic energy seekers.

Felonious~ your "moderation in moderation" and other advice reminds me of my 8-year-old grandson, who said "I've just worked out what a balanced diet means. Some healthy food, some junk!"

I misrepresented Campbell if I said that the difference between animal and vegetable protein consists in the former being harder to digest. His findings are more pointed than that: animal protein is bad for you, vegetable protein is good for you. Will post some quotes soon.

TC -- my header is a quote from Michael Flanders:

Have some Madeira, m'dear
It's really much nicer than beer
I don't care for sherry, one cannot drink stout
And port is a wine I can well do without
It's simply a case of chacun a son gout
So have some Madeira, m'dear

FM -- I need to reread Campbell; at the moment I have rightly or wrongly taken two contradictory messages:

1 Protein is not necessary in the diet

2 Common vegetables supply all the necessary protein

Number 2 may be rephrased "common vegetables contain all the necessary elements found in protein" which would solve the dichotomy, but I do remember charts showing how much protein certain vegetables do contain. Will get back when I have time.

Is that man still to be seen in Oxford St. with his "Eat Less Protein" placard? It enflames the passions, apparently.
http://www.geocities.com/londondestruction/protest.html

No. That link says he's dead.

Well whatever about lust, Campbell says vegetarianism is good, not bad, for your sexual potency . . . which reminds me of another few lines from Michael Flanders:

Have some Madeira, m'dear, it's really an excellent year!
Now if it were gin, you'd be wrong to say yes;
The evil gin does would be hard to assess--
And besides it's inclined to affect me prowess,
So have some Madeira, m'dear

A song of endless inspiration

Personally, it's the song about saying "no" in Tongan that has travelled through life with me

Ah yes . . . by the time you have finished pronouncing it, the deed is done.

"I'm just a girl who can't say n - n - n - . . . "

That's Pole Corter isn't it????

The Tongan song led me to Tonga, believe it or not I can remember sitting on the red carpet in our playroom dreaming about the hot place where women speak so exotically. 30 years later I got there - and wasn't disappointed at all

Incidentally, Boy George's record label is called 'More Protein'.

It's my second favourite record label name, after 'Fierce Panda'. What I can't work out is whether Fierce Panda took their name from the ep by the Cork band, Stump: 'A Fierce Pancake'.

But I digress...

I think we're all digressing, Ed

Maybe they fear Spandau.

Not Cole Porter but Rogers & Hammerstein: from "Oklahoma!"

Nice to have such an exotic image of a place and not be disappointed! The only place that didn't disappoint Proust (who formed specific images of places based on the sound of their names -- I think Parma was a pale violet for him) was Venice.

Venice never disappoints.

But my, how we digress.

>>I think Parma was a pale violet

Do they have these in Ireland?
http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/mini-parma-violets-p-451.html

Ah, Proustian memories of when my parents ran a sweet shop. I'd always assumed that they got their because Parma was famous for violets, but if the manufacturers were alluding to Proust, that would be . Intertextuality in a perfumed cachou.

A friend once adapted the opening of a John Cooper Clarke poem thus:
"Me granny smells of Paaarma violets...or is it Parma ham?"

What was that about protein again?

Never heard of those sweeties. How bizarre.

My Proust rimickle rises to consciousness like an anchor jerked adrift from a distant sea-bed . . .

The young Marcel Proust
Was often seduced
By a scent or a song or a hairdo
And À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
He therefore produced

[More rimickles at A1086770]

Oh yes - Parma violets - one of the delicacies we used to choose sometimes when trying to get as many sweeties for our thruppence as we could. I think they must have been a penny a packet. Can you still get them? Perhaps I ought to read the link.

No, I've never heard of parma violets either. And I have an unusual memory which appears to extend back before my time.

My friend was right, though. Grannies *do* tend to smell a bit like Parma ham.