Gung Hay Fat Choy

Chinese New Year is coming up and it's going to be Year of the Pig.... gung hay fat choy! to all my Chinese friends!

Chinese New Year, known in Chinese as the Spring Festival (Simplified Chinese: 春节; Traditional Chinese: 春節; pinyin: Chūnjié) or the Lunar New Year (Simplified Chinese: 农历新年; Traditional Chinese: 農曆新年; pinyin: Nónglì xīnnián), is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. The Chinese New Year festival begins on the first day of the first lunar month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) of the Chinese calendar, and ends on the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the month.

How about Andy?

Andy is diminutive of Andrew.
Andrew. Old French Andrieu. Latin Andrea. Greek Andreas.
French Andre, Italian Andrea and Spanish Andres.
In Finnish it is Antti (like my father).
from the Bible: one of the twelve apostles; brother of Simon Andrew. His day is November 30.

Any Emilios?

The boy's name Emil \e-mil\ is pronounced AY-mul. It is of Latin origin, and its meaning is "eager". From Aemilius. Used only since the mid 19th century. Emilio (eh-MEEL-ee-oh) is the Spanish form; Emile (ay-MEEL, EH-meel) is a French form. French author Emile Zola; actor Emilio Estevez.

Any Harrys?

Harry is a derivation of Harold.
Harold. Old English (Hereweald & Harald) Old Norse.
Harold I: ?-1040; king of England: son of Canute: called Harold Harefoot
Harold II: 1022-66; last Saxon king of England: killed in the Battle of Hastings.

Any Stan's out there?

The boy's name Stanley \s-tan-ley, st(a)-nley\ is pronounced STAN-lee. It is of Old English origin, and its meaning is "stony meadow". Place name. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick; actor Stanley Tucci

No Prose Necessary

Glory Days

"I had a friend,
was a big baseball player back in high school.
He could throw that speedball by you,
Make you look like a fool, boy.
Saw him the other night at this roadside bar.
I was walking in; he was walkin' out.
We went back inside, sat down, had a few drinks;
but all he kept talkin' about was glory days.
Well, they'll pass you by. Glory days,
In the wink of a young girl's eye.
Glory days."
(B. Springsteen)

Foolish

"Art is that thing having to do only with itself -- the product of a successful attempt to make a work of art. Unfortunately, there are no examples of art, nor good reasons to think that it will ever exist. (Everything that has been made has been made with a purpose, everything with an end that exists outside that thing, i.e., I want to sell this, or I want this to make me famous and loved, or I want this to make me whole, or worse, I want this to make others whole.) And yet we continue to write, paint, sculpt and compose. Is this foolish of us?"

(J. Safran Foer)

Burden

"Is heaviness truly deplorable and lightness splendid?
The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man's body. The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life's most intense fulfilment. The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become."
(M. Kundera)

Down The Road

"It's hard to believe that this is the place
Where we were so happy all our lives
Now so empty inside and feeling no pain
Waiting for a hammer and a big ball and chain.

They can tear it all down and build something new
But only I remember what was here
tomorrow comes easy just another day gone
How long will I have to keep returning.

Now I look back think I've known all the time
I've been finding myself for so long
All the vows that we made
Count for old bags of lumber
Disappear on the cart down the road."
(The Faces)

Redemption

"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them a can a stop a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say it's just a part of it:
We've got to fulfil de book.
Won't you help to sing
Dese songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever had:
Redemption songs
All I ever had:
Redemption songs:
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom."
(Bob Marley)

Arrowed Towers

"He took out his hand organizer and poked a note to himself about the anachronistic quality of the word skyscraper. No recent structure ought to bear this word. It belonged to the olden soul of awe, to the arrowed towers that were a narrative long before he was born."
(excerpt from Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo)