I had the following text exchange with Fazil,
Me: Wow! Mashallah!! You are my very first good morning. So happy to hear from you! When I first woke up I was in horrible pain. When I went back to bed and when I finally emerged, the pain had had almost completely disappeared.
He: That’s great!
I had written to Din that that my neck pain was a test from Allah and I was passing. It seemed this was true. – my freedom from pain even if temporary is a sign that I passed the test,
He: With every hardship comes ease. You passed the test with flying colors.
Me: Agreed! What a funny saying – with flying colors. I must.look that up the origins of that phrase. Then a wonderful moment of hearing from you AND finding the scarf that Baby gave me in my purse. I thought I had lost it last night in the restaurant. Have you seen the picture of the dress she gave me?? And a cashmere scarf.
It is now later in the day. I have just awoken from a power nap, actually to an emoji from Fazil.
I had explained a joke to him that he did not understand.
He: I don’t get the joke.
I provided a detailed explanation, basing it on you had to be there scenario, explained, as I remember on a prior blog.
He: 👌🏻
Me: Yeah you!! I power napped and woke up to this.
I am now alert, power napping does that to you. My role model has been Shamir, the best of the power nappers. I had the energy and the mental alertness to research ‘passing with flying colors”. This is what I came up with.
The idiom “pass with flying colors” suggests a degree of excellence and success that goes beyond simply meeting the minimum requirements. It implies that someone has not only successfully completed a task but has done so with a high degree of competence and skill.
Then I looked to the origin of the word. “The phrase is believed to originate from the practice of ships returning from voyages with their flags (or “colors”) flying high to signify their victory or successful completion of their mission.”
Wikipedia chimes in with too much information saying:
These phrases have been used many times in literary works, even in modern-day writings.[9] “With flying colours” has many variations preceding it, such as to pass…, came out…, and came through…,[9] but all have essentially the same meaning derived from the allusion[4] to nautical triumph or victory,[10][11] honor, or public success.[12] “Go down with colours flying” and “Nail your colours to the mast” are used similarly to the nautical allusion, and are phrases to express persistence or stubbornness.[13]
I do often contemplate, muse and ponder over my thinking, and use of idioms which seem to liter this blog. It is not done purposefully, it just happens. I do not understand this practice, In real life, in conversation I never do so I do not think. Will ask those with whom I am in constant conversation to see if this is true.
I hold this truth to be self evident, that the purpose of the written word is to communicate. Therefore, the practices of a certain group of men (actually) to be suspicious, and down right irritating. Very recently read, and discussed on the blog, a treatise on Artificial Intelligence written by a leading professor. It was almost unintelligible, as he was using high brow words and complex analogies to explain concepts which were actually quite simple. Similarly, there was a theatre critic who would throw in at least huge high brow word in almost every review. I took the trouble to look up the word and there was always, and I do mean always, a simple word that could have easily been used instead. I was going to name him, but thought better of it). Changed my mind – it was Matt Wolf. I am absolutely certain he is not reading my blog, despite my offer to collaborate many years ago. Just for the fun of it I Googled him and found a review. Oh my goodness, there were multiple high brow words, this is only one paragraph:
“The play reverberates on multiple levels without ever devolving into a thinly veiled screed. Indeed, amidst a time of hardening polarities fuelled by the doctrinaire climate afoot online, Giant is quasi-miraculous in its embrace of sometimes self-contradictory points of view.”
I thought of rewriting this in understandable English but It seemed an impossible task as I did not thoroughly understand what he was talking about. Not sure he did either. Hahaha
This is what Wikipedia has to say about high brow.
“Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, “highbrow” is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The term, first recorded in 1875, draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of phrenology, which teaches that people with large foreheads are more intelligent.[1] The term is deeply connected to hierarchicalracial theories from the 19th century.
Wikipedia went on the describe another intertwined phenomena.
“Lowbrow is the opposite of highbrow, and between those brows is the middlebrow, which term describes the mediocre culture that has neither high expectations nor low expectations as culture. Usage of the term middlebrow is derogatory, as in Virginia Woolf‘s unsent letter to the New Statesman, written in the 1930s and published in The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word middlebrow first appeared in print in 1925, in Punch: “The BBC claims to have discovered a new type—’the middlebrow’. It consists of people who are hoping that some day they will get used to the stuff that they ought to like”.[7] The term had previously appeared in hyphenated form in The Nation, on 25 January 1912:[T]here is an alarmingly wide chasm, I might almost say a vacuum, between the high-brow, who considers reading either as a trade or as a form of intellectual wrestling, and the low-brow, who is merely seeking for gross thrills. It is to be hoped that culture will soon be democratized through some less conventional system of education, giving rise to a new type that might be called the middle-brow, who will consider books as a source of intellectual enjoyment.In spite of their wide-reaching differences, Virginia Woolf describes the highbrow as intimately reliant on the lowbrow. For instance, she considers Prince Hamlet to be a highbrow lacking orientation in the world once he had lost the lowbrow Ophelia with her grip on earthly realities: this, she thought, explained why in general highbrows “honour so wholeheartedly and depend so completely upon those who are called lowbrows”
Now for something different and perhaps lowbrow. A little humour, relying upon Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker again.
Here goes. He began his article by mentioning Sen, John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana saying: Is This The Most Annoying Politician in America?
“In my book Profiles in Ignorance: How America’s Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber, I argued that, over the past half-century, mass media have given rise to an Age of Ignorance, rewarding politicians who can entertain over those who can think.I divided the Age of Ignorance into three stages: Ridicule, Acceptance, and CeleDuring the Ridicule stage, ignorance was a magnet for mockery, a serious flaw that could kill a political career. Consequently, dumb politicians had to pretend to be smart.
During the Acceptance stage, ignorance mutated into something more agreeable: a sign that a politician was authentic, down-to-earth, and a “normal person.” Consequently, dumb politicians felt free to appear dumb.
Finally, during the Celebration stage—the ordeal we’re enduring right now—ignorance has become preferable to knowledge and dunces are exalted over experts. Being ill-informed is now a litmus test; consequently, smart politicians must pretend to be dumb.
The Celebration stage has produced a bulging roster of highly-educated politicians who strive to sound like morons every time they open their mouths: Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Elise Stefanik—and the singularly irritating Sen. John Neely Kennedy of Louisiana.”
On a more personal note, I just finished texting Instagram conversation with a family member, a dear cousin. The only Dryburgh family member I am still connected to – somewhat sporadically so a real treat when we do speak to one another. Perhaps I might find a photo of her during our tour od Scotland days.
Then a photograph on my newly ‘adopted’ family, the Anandanis. Tho occasion was a birthday dinner for Shamir, held at the Sood, a relatively new restaurant in Penang. It is huge, with private rooms for private party. We were a private party in a private room, eating their Michelin rated yummy food. A photograph of Moham, Shamir and me along with a wonderful branch of the family – Mohan’s grandchildren and Shamir’s nieces. It is my intention to help fund some of the girl’s university education. A photo of Shamir and myself, when the party was over. A song comes to mind.
The Party’s Over
The party’s over
It’s time to call it a day
They’ve burst your pretty balloon
And taken the moon away
It’s time to wind up
The masquerade
Just make your mind up
The piper must be paid
The party’s over
The candles flicker and dim
You danced and dreamed through the night
It seemed to be right just being with him
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
Take off your makeup, the party’s over
It’s all over, my friend
The party’s over
It’s time to call it a day
Now you must wake up, all dreams must end
Take off your makeup, the party’s over
It’s all over, my friend
Looking at the photos I can see that it looks like I had already taken off my makeup. Hahaha
