Bits and bobs.

I like these because they make me smile.

( Frances has gotten out of her bed again and come to her parent`s room....)
"How can the wind have a job?" asked Frances.
"Everybody has a job," says Father.
"I have to go to the office every morning at nine o`clock. That is my job.
You have to go to sleep so you can be wide awake for school tomorrow. That is your job."
Frances said, "I know, but...."
Father said, "I have not finished. If the wind does not blow the curtains, he will be out of a job. If I do not go to the office, I will be out of a job. And if you do not go to sleep now, do you know what will happen to you?"
" I will be out of a job?" said Frances.
" No," said Father.
" I will get a spanking ?" said Frances.
"Right !" said Father.
" Goodnight ! " said Frances and went back to her room.
- Russell Hoban, Bedtime for Frances

"You don`t appreciate a lot of stuff in school until you get older. Little things like being spanked every day by a middle aged woman. Stuff you pay good money for in later life"
Emo Phillips.


"Everyone is guilty at one time or another of throwing out questions that beg to be ignored, but mothers seem to have a market on the supply. "Do you want a spanking or do you want to go to bed?" " Don`t you want to save some of the pizza for your brother?" "Wasn`t there any change?"
--Erma Bombeck.

That one has particular relevance Danny although I have always been much too mean to ever do more than consider the possibility of paying for such a thing! I used to wish they (the middle aged women) didn't aim for the back of your legs so much as well. It was as if they were worried you would look back on it in later years and derive some peculiar enjoyment from being regularly punished!

Gosh....I wonder if that happens....

Wonderful quotes, Danny - thanks.
Quite unrelated, but I always wondered about the question/greeting: "How do you do?"

How do I do what?
(I think I posted that before somewhere; if so, sorry)

This might help.

'How do you do' has its essence in the early meaning of the verb 'do', which has been used since the 14th century to mean 'prosper; thrive'. Even now, gardeners sometimes refer to a plant that grows well as 'a good doer'. The association with 'do' as specifically relating to one's health is first found in print in The Paston Letters, 1463:

I wold ye shuld send me word howghe ye doo. (Febs' spell check loved that one.)

Thanks, Hotspur - good research!
I guess it's the use of the present simple tense "How do you..." that's archaic as well, because we do say "How are you doing?" readily enough ... not to mention "the boy Rooney done good ..."