Mojito

Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Oft habit's devil, is angel yet in this,
He likewise gives a frock or livery,
That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence
(Hamlet)

Testimony

The word "testimony" comes from ancient Rome and is connected with the age-old custom of swearing to the truth or fasity of events or promises. Although people have sworn by their beards, hearts, lives, fortunes or family, the real meaning of "testimony" refers to an oath sworn on the testes (testicles) - obviously a serious oath.
(Native Tongues. C. Berlitz)

Non Sequitur

The expression hocus-pocus for magical incantations is thought to have been copied in the Middle Ages from the announcement Hoc est corpus (This is the Body) during the Mass.
(Native Tongues. C. Berlitz)

Especially for Lorraine

Lorraine, this painting is called "Fishing". Hope that you can read the blue text that is floating on top it says, "Sanctuary".
Taken from a photograph of a relative in Helsinki. You can click on the painting to get a larger view of it.

A Dream Within A Dream

"I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand -
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep - while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?"
(E. A. Poe)

Discontent

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York;
And all the clouds that lowered upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments,
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
(The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. Shakespeare)

Play

play*v. 1. engage in games or other activities for enjoyment rather than for a serious or practical purpose......(Oxford)

One Hundred Victories

For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. (Sun Tzu, The Art of War)

the dark thread

The glass is dark
What's it all about move the ships about
in my binoculars
like some mad admiral
Dark Dark Dark
we are all shunted into it
a concrete Crete
(Ferlinghetti)