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a.s.
Valinor
May 20 2009, 11:22am
Post #1 of 39
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Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more: What have you been reading this week?
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Feeling all Henry the Fifth this week, for some reason, having re-read a book about Ignaz Semmelweis and his fight to save women from dying in childbirth: Cry and the Covenant by Morton Thompson. This is a book I was assigned to read in my first class as a freshman in nursing school MANY years ago (we'll just avert our eyes from the actual number of decades, all rightie?) and made an indelible impression on me then. I re-read it now with an experienced (perhaps somewhat jaundiced) eye, and still find my pulse racing at the outright horror brought on by the stupidity of medical men of the day (it's OK, guys, the heroes were men, too--although the midwives quietly plying their age-old trade were the unsung heroes all along).
First, the writing. It stinks. I was terribly impressed as a wide-eyed twenty-year old, but find it overwrought, melodramatic, and just plain stinky in parts. It doesn't matter, though. The drama is so compelling and the horror so vivid and real that you will keep turning the page anyway.
I found a contemporary review from The British Medical Library Association that seems to indicate Thompson played a little loose with some of the historical characters. That doesn't matter, either. For anyone who scoffs at the scientific process, take a look at what happened to Semmelweis: he dropped maternal mortality on his wards from appalling and CRIMINALLY NEGLIGENT rates like 40-50% down to close to 1% by making the doctors wash their hands and use antisepsis (as known at the time)--and they LOCKED HIM UP IN A MENTAL WARD. Yes, that was me yelling. He begged one simple thing: don't go from the cadavers in the autopsy room who died of childbed fever straight to the maternity wards and do an internal exam WITHOUT WASHING YOUR HANDS. Which was, you know, ordinary medical practice at the time.
The midwives, of course, were too low down on the totem pole to ever have access to cadavers in the first place, and were always washing their hands anyway as standard practice. Women did not die in astounding numbers on their wards, only on the medical wards. In fact, women who delivered in the gutter on the way to the hospital and had no internal exams by any doctor survived in good numbers, too. The medical wards were killing fields for moms, in those times.
He's a hero, now. I hope when he got to heaven and met the souls of the women who died because no one would listen to him, they all gave him a round of applause.
Seriously, if you can find this book, read it. If not, read about Semmelweis, a true hero. Women who deliever in hospitals owe him a big debt, to this day.
So, from melodrama to quiet ordinary human drama written with humor: I read Alexander McCall Smith's latest Mma Ramotswe novel: Tea Time for the Traditionally Built. Oh my. I love these books. I wish there were hundreds. I wish Smith had started writing them thirty years ago so I could read dozens a year. I dread the day when I am holding the last one published. Nothing really much happens in Tea Time, even the "mystery" solved by the lady detectives isn't much, this time. But we learn what happens to the tiny white van, and we see Mma Ramotswe at her most vulnerable and loving. A+. Well, really, ungradable. Just great.
I also finished an audiobook version of What Was Lost, an interesting first novel by Catherine O'Flynn. Very good. Despite the descriptions, this is not really a traditional ghost story, nor a traditional "mystery" or detective story. It's just a moving and believable story about human beings, really, trite as it sounds. Try it!
And that's it for me. Not sure what I'm reading next, I have books on hold at the library and yet my resolution to finish the Barchester Tower series is staring me in the face (Dr. Thorne is on my bedside table getting dusty!) so we'll see what I pick up this week.
But what about you all? What have you been reading this week?
a.s.
"an seileachan"
"If any one had begun to rehearse a History, say not I know it well; and if he relate it not right and fully, shake not thine head, twinkle not thine eyes, and snigger not thereat; much less maist thou say, 'It is not so; you deceive yourself.'"
From: Youth's Behaviour, or, Decency in Conversation amongst Men, composed in French by Grave Persons, for the use and benefit of their Youth. The tenth impression. London, 1672
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Alassëa Eruvande
Valinor
May 20 2009, 1:15pm
Post #2 of 39
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Little Eruvande has started reading Roverandom! And he likes it so far, even though he has only gotten to page 10. He was a little nervous about starting it, since there aren't many pictures, which he equates with being a grown-up book. But I assured him it would be great and he would like it, because the author was the guy who wrote LOTR and The Hobbit, already favorites. Plus, he wrote the story for his kids, so how bad can it be? Well, he started it last night for his nightly reading for school, and said he really likes it!
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We now pause for a moment of geeky-mama verklemptitude. Yeah that's a word. Talk amongst yourselves...There, I'm better.
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Unfortunately, the school's database of Accelerated Reading doesn't include Roverandom, or anything by Tolkien for that matter. We may have to rectify that with a small donation.
And suddenly the Ainur saw afar off a light, as it were a cloud with a living heart of flame.
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
May 20 2009, 2:14pm
Post #3 of 39
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Hope he enjoys it!
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"For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century."
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"A Chance Meeting at Rivendell" and other stories
leleni at hotmail dot com
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
May 20 2009, 2:26pm
Post #4 of 39
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A few years ago it occurred to me that it would be good always to have a bit of reading material in my purse, and wanted something very small but meaty. I thought about one of those Gideon pocket Bibles that they hand out in front of school every fall, since I seem to have accumulated lots, but even that was too big. So I cut one apart (which made me grit my teeth) and put Luke and Acts in my checkbook, behind the checks. Luke is my favorite gospel, and Acts is pretty good storytelling, and supposedly by the same author. It's on very thin paper and very small print, so it fit my criteria.
So last week we were in the emergency room with my father-in-law, and as the hours dragged on, I started reading Luke, mostly for something to do, and Uncle Baggins asked me to read it out loud to him. He said he'd never read any of the gospels before (though of course he knew the story, having gone to Sunday School as a child.) We read about five chapters that night, and then, over the next week, which has been very trying , we've read on. Going back to the religion of one's childhood can be very comforting in times of trial.
One day last weekend, we were on the way to get my father-in-law some earphones so he could listen to the TV in the rehab place and turn it up loud without bothering his roommate. On the way back we saw a young man crawling along beside the road. We asked if he needed help, and he said he'd broken his foot skateboarding. We gave him a ride back to his house, and he thanked us copiously. (We asked if he wanted us to take him to the hospital, but he wanted his family to do that.) That evening as we were reading, we just happened to read the story of the Good Samaritan. Hmmmm....
Now we're in the throes of taking over finances and trying to figure out how to arrange and pay for nursing care. Bleah. Uncle Baggins lost his job, too. It's been very stressful, but Luke has been helpful, somehow.
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"For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century."
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"A Chance Meeting at Rivendell" and other stories
leleni at hotmail dot com
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(This post was edited by Aunt Dora Baggins on May 20 2009, 2:29pm)
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
May 20 2009, 2:41pm
Post #5 of 39
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I've watched bits of the LotR movies with my five-year-old grandson and am rubbing my hands together with glee anticipating my reading Tolkien to him and then him reading it for himself. And then there are the granddaughters, a bit too young just yet, but....
I managed to infect my sons with the Tolkien virus -- on to the next generation!
* * * * * * *
Do we walk in legends or on the green earth in the daylight?
A man may do both. For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day!
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Lily Fairbairn
Half-elven
May 20 2009, 2:43pm
Post #6 of 39
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I'm sorry you and Uncle Baggins are having such a stressful time of it, but then, I'm glad you've found some comfort. Surely your generosity to the young skateboarder will bring good fortune your way.
* * * * * * *
Do we walk in legends or on the green earth in the daylight?
A man may do both. For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day!
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Sunflower
Valinor
May 20 2009, 6:42pm
Post #7 of 39
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Speaking of medical lore...Laurie Garrett, here
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Her 2 acclaimed books, the eerily prescient "The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases In A World Out Of Balance", (1994) and esp "Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health" (2000).
Garrett is one of the world's leading medical writers and epidimologists; and she writes in an style clear and easy for the layman to understand. She recently wrote a long snd excellent cover story article in Newsweek about the swine flu, and that's what inspired me to go to the closet and digout her books. When tis whole thing came up, I thought firsthand of her and hoped we'd be hearing from her. "Betrayal of Trust" is esp compelling because she chronichles in painstaking detail the corporitization and privitization of the global health care system and how it has been bogged down by bearucracy and lost its origional sense of mission. She divides the book up into 5 sections, taking on a different part of the world: Africa, Russia, America, a section she calls "Biowar", and a scathing Epoilogue in which she decries what she calls a :"wholesale retreat from public health". Nobody of any political or legislative stripe is spared.
I had heard of Semmelweis but not of the book you mentioned. I will check it out. It is incredible, the lack of common sense...I mean, I would think it would have been a no-brainer--just as you would not touch food with hands thus polluted, so you would not examine or touch a woman in that dangerous condition with unclean hands. ..how did people ever live to grow up. Well, the answer is they didn't....no wonder child mortality used to be so high.
A great book is "London: the Biogrpahy" by Peter Ackroyd....he talks a lot of the condition of the city in 1700's and further back, the health hazards of the city.
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Sunflower
Valinor
May 20 2009, 7:10pm
Post #8 of 39
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As someone who is recently familiar with financial difficultuies, but is now recovered from them (for the most part), (((((((HUGS and BIG LOVE)))))) for you and Uncle Baggins...I can't relate to being out of work though, but will send up smoke signals for both of you!
Luke has long been my favorite gospel. The writer of Luke presents a more human Jesus, he presents the very mortal aspect of the Son of Man. It's only in Luke that Jesus weeps in the Garden of Gethsemene, for example. "And being in a fever He prayed all the more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. And there appeared to Him an angel from Heaven, strengthening Him." The Jesus in Luke was someone I could identify the most with.
Perhaps that is because the legends surrounding the mysterious writer of Luke might have a grain of truth in them. Tradition says the writer of Luke was the Greek physician Lucanus, who also got to interview Mary before She died, as well as perhaps John the Apostle. And was supposedly one of those in the room when the Spirit first appeared to the Disciples. Of course this is all not fact, who knows, but I'd like to believe some of it is true.
Or maybe it's just sentimentality. One of my favorite books as a teen, which gave me much comfort then and I have recently rediscovered, is Taylor Caldwell's novel of Lucanus's life, "Dear And Glorious Physician." She had a very florid and melodranatic style, but makes up for it with very moving and powerful passages, some of which even as a seasoned adult move me to tears. She wrote another one called "Great Lion of God" about Paul, but this one about Luke is many people's favorite novel from her.
She presents Luke as the son of Greek slaves, an unusually gifted boy who whose family served in the house of Diodorus Cyranus, a prominent Roman soldier and later general, whose job forced him to confab in the Senate, but he despised the state of Rome and his duties often made him physically ill. He was the virtuous solider of the Old School who decried the vacant and corrupt state into which his beloved Republic had fallen. (this aspect of the novel sailed over my head as a teen but now, reading it, it is incredibly haunting--it is a mirror of the state of America today--there's a scene where Diodorous gives an impassioned speech to the Senate and then rips his tunic, showing them his battle scars, and cries "Let me move your hearts!" Let Rome return to the ideals that once made her great. And seeing no response but snickers, he tells them off as the perfumed, corrupt, fat grasping toads they all are, sucking on the Imperial teat while the populace wallows in misery. Where were you when I was out fighting? Have your sons gone to war? You wouldn't leave the arms of a Syrian whore to save your Republic...(sound familar? How I wish we had a Diodorus in Congress.)
Luke as a child admires his mentor, the slave physician in the Diodorus houseold, an Eastern Mystic named Keptah, who practices medicine with advanced techniqies unknown to the West. He is also a secret Beleiver in the Messiah legend and is presented as a friend of the Wise Men, though he did not see Bethlehem. His response to seeing the Star had me in tears. Lucanus the child was a believer in the Unknown God of the Greeks, and knew something great would happen.
But when his beloved playmate, Diodorus's daughter Rubria, dies of the "white sickness" (leukemia?) at the age of 14, he turns bitter towards God and develops a lifelong passion to practice medicine for free to the poor of the Empire, so that he might snatch God's victims from Him. He becomes famed throughout the empire as a divien messenger of mercy, sent by Apollo, the poor worship him. Some of the most haunting passages of the novel describe Lucanus;s nedical practice and the cases he has of poor slaves, peasants, etc who are cured or healed of dieases, as well as Lucanus's addresses to the Unknown God with Whom he is fighting, how he goes from battling Him to begging Him to be merciful and spare a life. You feel as if you a nurse following him around from bed to bed. (
Caldwell herself was a strange figure; she dabbled in mysticim and she never did too much technical research. )
He likewise takes a vow never to marry. But he later falls in love with a Jewish girl who happened to have met Jesus during the events of the a Passover, when she and He--this was when he was in His 20's, I guess) wee camping out outside Jerusalem in tents, as Jews did at that time for the High Holy Days. She has no idea who He is, He is just a strange young man who finds her weeping for her dead father, and He gives her a drink and silently comforts her.
She tells this to Lucanus and he laughs in scorn. The novel is full of this type of thing. All with no historical basis currently whatsover, but incredibly moving and vivid. Her description of a Roman Orgy in the Palatine Hill, with Lucanus consorting-or not--with the Empres Julia, is unforgettable. The story of how he went from despiser of religion to disciple and Gospel chronicler, as well as her description of Mary, is so beautiful and powerful that you really wish it were true, and over the years I have tried to pretend it is. Anyway, I see different things in it as an adult than as a child, and it has given me almost as much comfort as the real Gospel itself.
(This post was edited by Sunflower on May 20 2009, 7:20pm)
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Ainu Laire
Tol Eressea
May 20 2009, 7:14pm
Post #9 of 39
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I used the last of my B&N gift card from Christmas on some Neil Gaiman books, and I picked up Coraline.
Some spoilers ahead.
I was told that it was actually creepier than the film, but I would have to disagree; I think it was the visuals, as well as the story line, that really creeped me out in the movie (though some of the illustrations were very odd, to say the least). I was really surprised to see that Wybie was not a character in the books, considering he had such a large role in the film. Coraline's mother also seemed less frigid than the film mother, so Coraline only going through the door once voluntarily made sense. The film version made her seem almost as if the mother was emotionally negligent towards Coraline.
I enjoyed it, though. Loved the cat, and in the book the neighbor characters did not creep me out nearly as much as they did in the film XD
My LiveJournal ~ My artwork and photography ~ My LOTR fan fiction
NARF since age 8, when I refused to read the Hobbit because the cover looked boring and icky.
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Sunflower
Valinor
May 20 2009, 7:30pm
Post #11 of 39
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You ought to read his Sandman graphic novel series. These were the characters he first became acclaimed for. There's a new book called "Neil Gaiman: Prince of Stories" that covers his portfolio wuite well. Quite the profligate author, and now film-maker as well.
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Kimi
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
May 20 2009, 9:23pm
Post #12 of 39
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Confessing my secret indulgence.
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Which is not a book title :-) A few months ago I joined a writer's site, where people share parts or all of their manuscripts for peer review and help. Since then, I've been spending unwise amounts of time there. It's astonishing how many good, unpublished manuscripts are around.
There's a competitive aspect, but I manage to ignore that, not being much of a competitor myself. And there's a dim prospect of getting a publisher's review, and an even dimmer one of being picked up by said publisher. I think a lot of people sign up with that in mind, but stay for other reasons.
I took a deep breath and uploaded a chunk of my own first book. I hoped I wouldn't be ridiculed, then hoped I wouldn't be completely ignored. The results have been rather better than that! I've been amazed at the help and encouragement I've had. I honestly didn't think there'd be much interest in a gently-paced New Zealand story that lacks car chases, rich and powerful people, and many other characteristics of best-sellers. My writing has improved, as has my own confidence in my work.
If you want to check the site out, it's at www.authonomy.com. I'm there (obviously), but not under the name of Kimi.
My writing (including The Passing of Mistress Rose)
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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Laitholiel_the_SeaElf
Lorien
May 20 2009, 9:30pm
Post #13 of 39
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It's the ending that gets me. (spoiler?)
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The book ending was very, very unsettling.
It's still alive down there! Ick.
Captain Jack: Who has a sonic screwdriver?
The Doctor: I do!
Captain Jack: Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, "Woo, this could be a little more sonic."?
The Doctor: What, you've never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?
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Laitholiel_the_SeaElf
Lorien
May 20 2009, 9:33pm
Post #14 of 39
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Just finished The Graveyard Book by Gaiman.
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While I liked it, I admit I was a little underwhelmed with the last two chapters. Things seem so glossed over and unexplained -- it irked me.
Captain Jack: Who has a sonic screwdriver?
The Doctor: I do!
Captain Jack: Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, "Woo, this could be a little more sonic."?
The Doctor: What, you've never been bored? Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?
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Kimi
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
May 20 2009, 10:32pm
Post #15 of 39
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You have such a lot on your plate right now. I'm glad to hear that the Good News is bringing some comfort. This morning's reading in church was the opening chapter of Acts.
You'll be in my prayers, dear friend.
My writing (including The Passing of Mistress Rose)
Do we find happiness so often that we should turn it off the box when it happens to sit there?
- A Room With a View
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Mar
Gondor
May 21 2009, 1:07am
Post #16 of 39
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Angry Housewives eating Bon Bons
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I'm neither a housewife nor angry but I do eat bon-bons.
Wonderful story - full of life and friendship. Lots of funny references to good books to read, as the 'housewives' form a book club.....The story spans many many years.
I like it!
Don't get your knickers in a knot; it solves nothing and makes you walk funny.
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
May 21 2009, 2:32am
Post #17 of 39
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This day has been interesting. After driving a hundred miles to see my father-in-law and have him sign some papers, and then another ten miles the other way to do some more paperwork, my car broke down and we had to get it towed home. We kept thinking of some words my brother sent us by way of condolence:
When in trouble
When in doubt
Run in circles,
Scream and shout.
But we're off to the nearby lake to listen to the frogs sing. And first I'm going to have ICE CREAM! :-)
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"For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A Chance Meeting at Rivendell" and other stories
leleni at hotmail dot com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
May 21 2009, 3:05am
Post #18 of 39
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I'll have to look for that. In my teen years I loved Biblical novels like The Big Fisherman. That one sounds like something I might enjoy.
I'm also thinking of another childhood favorite, The Cotton Patch Version of Luke and Acts, which was a translation that takes place in modern (sort of) Georgia and Alabama. Jesus is born in Valdosta and laid in an apple crate, and the farmers tending their baby ducks hear the angels sing.
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"For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A Chance Meeting at Rivendell" and other stories
leleni at hotmail dot com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
May 21 2009, 3:25am
Post #19 of 39
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Watching this video saved me from doing the same thing :-D
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When in trouble...
We gave up on the frogs; ice cream wore us out. But laughing at this video kept me from doing what the woman in the video is doing :-DDDD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"For DORA BAGGINS in memory of a LONG correspondence, with love from Bilbo; on a large wastebasket. Dora was Drogo's sister, and the eldest surviving female relative of Bilbo and Frodo; she was ninety-nine, and had written reams of good advice for more than half a century."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"A Chance Meeting at Rivendell" and other stories
leleni at hotmail dot com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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a.s.
Valinor
May 21 2009, 4:19am
Post #20 of 39
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"Go, and do thou in like manner" are
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words to live by, I think. Even when I struggle to believe. Even when I DON'T believe. I still believe in this parable.
Sending my thoughts from far away.
a.s.
"an seileachan"
"If any one had begun to rehearse a History, say not I know it well; and if he relate it not right and fully, shake not thine head, twinkle not thine eyes, and snigger not thereat; much less maist thou say, 'It is not so; you deceive yourself.'"
From: Youth's Behaviour, or, Decency in Conversation amongst Men, composed in French by Grave Persons, for the use and benefit of their Youth. The tenth impression. London, 1672
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a.s.
Valinor
May 21 2009, 4:25am
Post #21 of 39
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what is WRONG with those AR people!!!???
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Unfortunately, the school's database of Accelerated Reading doesn't include Roverandom, or anything by Tolkien for that matter. We may have to rectify that with a small donation.
Go, mom.
a.s.
"an seileachan"
"If any one had begun to rehearse a History, say not I know it well; and if he relate it not right and fully, shake not thine head, twinkle not thine eyes, and snigger not thereat; much less maist thou say, 'It is not so; you deceive yourself.'"
From: Youth's Behaviour, or, Decency in Conversation amongst Men, composed in French by Grave Persons, for the use and benefit of their Youth. The tenth impression. London, 1672
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a.s.
Valinor
May 21 2009, 4:40am
Post #22 of 39
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strange as it may seem, antisepsis was not standard
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I know. It seems so SENSIBLE!! LOL. But no one knew about microbes, yet. Even Semmelweis didn't really 'know" what was causing the contagion, he just surmised from the differences between the two kinds of wards (midwives vs. medical doctors/students) that the students were carrying "cadaver particles" with them and the particles were somehow causing the infection.
But it truly was not in the normal realm of the way doctors understood disease, in Western countries in the mid 19th century anway. Others had begun to recommend handwashing, as well, so the thought was starting to circulate. But it was "new thinking". Perhaps things were made worse by the slower transmission of published studies (and Semmelweis was not an avid writer). Even Pasteur in the 1870s was met with skepticism.
I should have read Garrett's "Betrayal of Trust" by now...I have always meant to. I think I need to find a copy and get to it!!
a.s.
"an seileachan"
"If any one had begun to rehearse a History, say not I know it well; and if he relate it not right and fully, shake not thine head, twinkle not thine eyes, and snigger not thereat; much less maist thou say, 'It is not so; you deceive yourself.'"
From: Youth's Behaviour, or, Decency in Conversation amongst Men, composed in French by Grave Persons, for the use and benefit of their Youth. The tenth impression. London, 1672
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a.s.
Valinor
May 21 2009, 4:43am
Post #23 of 39
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how about an occasionally angry working woman eating "no sugar added" ice cream?
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We could all start our own niche clubs that way.
LOL
a.s.
"an seileachan"
"If any one had begun to rehearse a History, say not I know it well; and if he relate it not right and fully, shake not thine head, twinkle not thine eyes, and snigger not thereat; much less maist thou say, 'It is not so; you deceive yourself.'"
From: Youth's Behaviour, or, Decency in Conversation amongst Men, composed in French by Grave Persons, for the use and benefit of their Youth. The tenth impression. London, 1672
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a.s.
Valinor
May 21 2009, 4:45am
Post #24 of 39
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it would be a nifty title, though
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Can't Post
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Good luck on the site! I hope it results in attention from agents/publishers, etc. But even if that doesn't happen, it is great to find a supportive group of fellow writers.
a.s.
"an seileachan"
"If any one had begun to rehearse a History, say not I know it well; and if he relate it not right and fully, shake not thine head, twinkle not thine eyes, and snigger not thereat; much less maist thou say, 'It is not so; you deceive yourself.'"
From: Youth's Behaviour, or, Decency in Conversation amongst Men, composed in French by Grave Persons, for the use and benefit of their Youth. The tenth impression. London, 1672
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