July18, 2012

Dear Friends,
Periodically I go through all the piles of notes I have been making on scraps of paper, and present you with whatever thoughts and ideas seem most worth sharing.

It’s a bigger job this time than usual, because I’ve let the piles accumulate for too long (nearly two years). Anyway, here are the first ten items. Just for the fun of it, I’ll ask you which ONE of these ten (if any) you yourself like best.

ASHLEIGH BRILLIANT: MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

1. I can’t do much about tomorrow, but it’s more than I can do about yesterday.

2. There’s no point quarreling with necessity.

3. The deepest echoes in the world: What chasm has’em?

4. People with determination will find a way -­ or make a way.

5. Why must the whole body suffer for the sake of one small sick area?

6. The obscure and the notorious ­ the unsung, and the unhung.

7. What keeps many people moving is just that they don’t want to die where they are.

8. In future, the places to congregate will be wherever computers are most welcome.

9. What happens when you find your niche, but then fall out of it?

10. Chastisement in your bathrobe: a dressing-down in your dressing-gown.

All the best,
Ashleigh Brilliant

P.S. P.S. Your responses to my “Higgs Boson’s Mate” witticism fell neatly into three categories: (1) Very good! (2) Very bad! (3) I don’t get it.
For those (happily a minority) who didn’t get it, I’m sorry, but I assumed you were familiar with the nautical rankings (derived from “Boatswain”) which are usually spelled and pronounced “Bos’n” and “Bos’n’s Mate.”
So it was a pun — and (I have to admit) not a terribly apt one, since the story had no nautical connection.
7/19/2012
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Dear Friends,

Thanks for all your responses to my first 10 “selected thoughts.” Your votes were overwhelmingly (61%) for #1, which said “I can’t do much about tomorrow, but it’s more than I can do about yesterday.” You can, if you wish, vote again for your favorite (only one, please!) of the following list. But I’m also interested in your comments and reactions to any of the items.

11. What are the four most important words in the world today? I would nominate COPY, PASTE, SAVE and SEND.

12. Question: Is the proverb true, that “God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb”? Or do many shorn lambs actually die of cold?

13. My soul is not available for sale until all other assets are disposed of.

14. Good quiz question: “The Lady with the Lamp” can apply to two famous figures of the Nineteenth Century. One was Florence Nightingale. Identify the other.

15. Not only can’t we communicate with the dead ­– we also can’t communicate with anyone who’s asleep.

16. One of the world’s very short books: “Conversations in the Dental Chair.”

17. A fact is something we can all agree on — ­ that’s why there are far fewer facts than there used to be.

18. I wouldn’t so much mind coming in second, except that there were only two in the race.

19. In a dictatorship, there are always more answers than there are questions.

20. After the end of the world, there will be a long moment of silence, in memory of everybody.

All the best,
Ashleigh Brilliant

P.S. Many of you have kindly asked about my health, after the accident of 18 months ago. In general, thanks, I’ve more or less recovered .
7/29/2012

Dear Friends,

Thanks to all of you who have encouraged me to keep these coming. I still have more to send.

There was a much wider spread of your choices for #11-20 than for the first batch. The winner was #13, “My soul is not available for sale until all other assets are disposed of.”

But very closely behind were #17, “A fact is something we can all agree on — that’s why there are far fewer facts than there used to be” — and #20, “At the end of the world, there will be a long moment of silence, in memory of everybody.”

Re #14: The other famous “Lady with the Lamp” (i.e. besides Florence Nightingale), as most of you who answered got right, was the Statue of Liberty.

Just a reminder: What I am sending you are not necessarily ideas for Pot-Shots (although many could be) but simply miscellaneous notes culled from a 2-year stockpile. I make no particular claim for them, except that they are original — meaning not only not consciously copied, but also (as far as I can determine) never said before, in quite the same way, by anyone.

21. Nothing is more upright than a ninety degree angle.

22. It was not Destiny that brought us together -­ Destiny would have had more sense.

23. Certain types of skin irritation can create a secondary problem, known as “a son of an itch.”

24. MAKE TODAY COUNT — if only as one more wasted day.

25. The meaning of “everything” is: totality. Now you know the meaning of everything.

26. There ought to be a general depository for worthy projects that were never finished.

27. The topic of the sermon was “Eternity” — and we thought it would never end.

28. Can a leg ever heal so well that you forget which one you broke?.

29. Numerically my life is a fairly even match — one person against one universe.

30 Why do we keep reappearing in later versions of ourselves, when the earlier versions were sometimes much better?

All the best,
Ashleigh Brilliant

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ASHLEIGH BRILLIANT, 117 W. Valerio St. Santa Barbara CA 93101 USA. Phone (805) 682-0531 Orders:(800) 952-3879, Code #77. Creator of POT-SHOTS, syndicated author of I MAY NOT BE TOTALLY PERFECT, BUT PARTS OF ME ARE EXCELLENT. 10,000 copyrighted BRILLIANT THOUGHTS available as cards, books etc.World’s highest-paid writer (per word). Most-quoted author (per Reader’s Digest.) Free daily Pot-Shot cartoon: www.ashleighbrilliant.com CATALOGS:[h&m included]. Starter $2. Complete Printed Text version: $75. Electronic Text-Only (emailed $25, on CD $30). Electronic Illustrated Catalog/Database (CD only) $105 (includes shipping anywhere). Details: www.ashleighbrilliant.com/IllustratedCatalog.html