Posts Tagged ‘Quotations’

Children are much more influenced by what their parents do than what they say. Sherry Lansing is a perfect example.

When Sherry chattered about becoming an actress, like other stereotypical moms in the 1950s, Margot Heimann Duhl told her daughter to focus on becoming a housewife. But necessity had forced Margot off traditional paths. When she’d fled Nazi Germany for America at 17, she’d had to be self-reliant, learning to speak English and working as a dressmaker. And when Sherry’s father, real-estate investor David Duhl, died of a sudden heart attack when she was nine, Margot stepped up again. The grieving widow went to his office and announced she was taking over the family business. On being informed by a male office manager that she couldn’t possibly do that because she didn’t know anything about real estate, she replied, “Teach me. I can do it.”

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She starred in fewer than 25 films and died at only 36 nearly a half century ago. But Marilyn Monroe made a lasting impression …

A 2006 survey by StarPulse.com listed her as the “All-Time Style Icon of the Last Century.” In April 2010, Americans polled for Gillette named her among the world’s “Top Ten Goddesses.” The same month, British survey respondents chose her one of the “Most Seductive Women of All Time.” In July 2010, a survey for QVC found her one of the “Most Beautiful Women of the Last Century.” And in 2008 when Smithsonian magazine polled cross-country samplings of high school students and adults 45 and over, she was listed among the ten most famous Americans in history, not including presidents or first ladies.

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Appearances on the U.S. version of the TV hit Dancing With the Stars by former UFC champ and mixed martial artist Chuck Liddell and rodeo great Ty Murray have helped erase the stereotype that tough guys don’t dance. But for boys growing up in the 1940s, taking dance classes was a sure way to become the go-to target for neighborhood bullies. So Richard Beymer might have called it quits if fate hadn’t intervened with a paying job on a local L.A. television program. After that, when the bullies started their rants, he smugly told them they’d dance, too, if it meant earning $200 a week. Impressive chutzpah for a kid really making only $8 a week.

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In 1967, polygrapher Cleve Backster connected electrodes to a house plant to measure psychogalvanic reflex (PGR)—how quickly moisture increased in the plant after it was watered. During the experiment, he became curious about what else the equipment might measure. For instance, could it detect the plant’s stress levels?

He dunked a leaf in a cup of hot coffee. Nothing. He pondered what to try next. Aha! he thought. I’ll burn the leaf. The instant the thought leapt into his mind, the needle on the machine jumped—just as it would for a human experiencing sudden stress. The plant seemed to sense Backster’s diabolical plan … and it was afraid.

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I’m standing at the counter in the doctor’s office, waiting to schedule my next checkup, when a stranger approaches and makes a snarky crack because I’m wearing a long-sleeve cotton t-shirt in the summer.

Now this woman could be Tommy Boy’s lost twin—not that there’s anything wrong with resembling Chris Farley. But she has a near-platinum rounded hair bob and is wearing solid smiley-face yellow from her collar to the cuff of her Capri pants. Perhaps not the wisest wardrobe choice for a female Farley.

So this giant lemon drop has strolled up to me, completely unsolicited, and—with all the condescension of Miss Piggy at her diva best—announced that I look ridiculous for wearing long sleeves. As we say in the American South, some people just need to be slapped. But that’s an expression, not rational problem-solving advice. Suppressing the urge to comment on being momentarily blinded by her neon presence, I simply say, “I’m comfortable,” and turn to the desk clerk.  

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Ever get caught up in a situation so off-the-wall nuts that your mind discombobulates, making you incapable of uttering coherent sounds? When that happened to me recently, the first person I saw was my friend, Diane. Fortunately, with friends who understand you that well, words aren’t necessary. “I know,” she said, grabbing me for a quick hug, “Now go, go.”

That registered. Seconds later I was in the parking lot, my hands shaking so that I couldn’t find my clump of keys in a purse pocket no more than four inches wide and deep. Oblivious to the lightly falling rain, I dropped my unopened umbrella and everything else on the wet grass, clawed out my keys, then grabbed my soggy belongings and slung them across the driver’s seat at the passenger door. Finally I was off.

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Yikes! Just caught a glimpse of my reflection in the bathroom mirror. This would not be a good day to ask “Who’s the fairest of them all?” The mirror would roar with laughter … then I’d throw something at it and wind up with seven years’ bad luck.

Beauty has never been one of my preoccupations, but it sparked an interesting discussion a couple of nights ago when my mother and I drifted into conversation about my friend, Marvene. Several years ago, Marvene married a family friend I’d known since junior high—one of my brother’s college roommates. Time passed, we became close, and one day I realized: My goodness, that girl is beautiful! Now, if Marvene’s having a bad day and doesn’t want to ask the mirror who’s fairest of them all, she knows she can call me for positive reinforcement.

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Launching a Web site is kind of like juggling watermelons. You can handle two, but when you try to add the third, things get a little complicated … which is why regular readers of MoveThatMountain.com have missed seeing new content in recent weeks. After posting more than 135 articles, I needed to work through a few blog-related tasks that aren’t as comfortable for me as writing.

Now that my grip on the watermelons is more sure, readers can expect new content about five days a week. And for those juggling watermelons of their own, here are a few words of inspiration to help you through the rough, um, patches:

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After J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up debuted at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London in December 1904, English children soon began demonstrating the courage of their convictions. In the story, Peter told the Darling children that if only they believed with enough conviction, they could fly. And like the Darling children in the play, the children in the audience believed. They believed with such conviction parents soon began complaining to Barrie that their little ones were beginning to suffer injuries as they tried to take off but fell back to earth. The playwright resolved the problem by introducing another necessary ingredient to his formula for flying: fairy dust.

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In May 1995, actor Christopher Reeve was in Virginia, on horseback, approaching the third of 18 jumps in the finals of dressage event. The triple-bar was about 42 inches high, but Reeve’s horse, Eastern Express, couldn’t seem to find the proper footing for the leap. The horse stopped abruptly and Reeve pitched forward over the horse’s neck, landing on his head on the other side of the jump.

The accident left 42-year-old Reeve, best known for his big-screen portrayals of Superman, paralyzed and unable to breathe without the help of a respirator. At a tribute dinner a few months later, he described the moment, five days after the accident, when a supportive friend gave him a spark of hope:

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