Category Archives: Mark Twain

Mar 07 2 comments
Compliments & Complications, Mark Twain

The Deep and The Shallow – Compliments and Their Complications #4

 

It’s a compliment just to be nominated for Best Napkin Drawing of  Day #4 of Compliment Week!

compliments 4

Compliments – The Love Hate Tango

I started this series because I had a conversation with a friend in which she said she didn’t know how to take compliments very well. She thought she was alone in that regard and I assured her that is not true, that a LOT if not most people, especially women, are not at all comfortable or believing of compliments given to them.  

While I started to look for quotes and ideas relating to compliments I did indeed come across many who were also not comfortable with praise and compliments.  But I also came across many who love compliments, live for them, get sustenance from them and continually hope for them.  Mark Twain was one and this quote is an example. It seems egotistical but I think he meant it tongue in cheek, a self-deprecating comment about his own ego.

The Compliment Pool

But there is another way to take this quote.  Perhaps it can be interpreted not as wanting more ego stroking, but wanting more specificity.  The woman in my drawing is saying ‘nice font’ while reading a profound book. She is staying shallow and superfluous. noticing just the surface, when there is a whole world of depth she has completely ignored.  

The Deep End

What about you? When you give a compliment, do you really say what you truly admire, or do you say something generic and forgettable?  If you want your compliments to have more power the focus in on more than ‘You are handsome’ or ‘nice work’. Dig down a bit and see if you can’t be more specific.  Why is he handsome?  How about ‘You have a great jaw line.’  Why was her work nice? Can you say ‘You did a fantastic job negotiating with that client.’ instead?

I can imagine Mark Twain meaning it that way. Perhaps he wanted a compliment that dug down a bit deeper, that reflected a deeper understanding on the part of the person giving the compliment.

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Drawing by Marty Coleman

Quote by Mark Twain, whom I compliment on his vast array of quotes about compliments.

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Compliment of the Week

Judge Nicki Minaj’s compliment to American Idol contestant Tenna Torres (wearing the outfit below) – “I like your hair, I like your boobs, too.”

Sep 13 2 comments
Mark Twain, morality, Naked vs Nude

An Indecent Post

censorship 1

Nipplegate

The New Yorker posted a funny cartoon online this week. It was taken off Facebook by its censors because it violated the terms of service. The violation was that it showed ‘nipple bulge’. In truth it showed a cartoon Adam and Eve sitting down leaning against a tree. They were naked, as you might expect. The drawing had 2 small ink dashes for Adam’s nipples. Those weren’t violations.  Then they had 2 ink dots for Eve’s nipples. Those were violations of the ban on ‘nipple bulge’ (their words, not mine).
Here are the offending and non-offending marks.

Not Offensive
Offensive

It is the height of absurdity and The New Yorker wrote their own blog post about it that I think you would get a kick out of.

NIPPLEGATE

Then FB reversed it’s decision and decided to allow the cartoon. The New Yorker however did not trust them and so posted an even more inflammatory and provocative cartoon. You can see it if you dare.

NIPPLEGATE – The Exciting Conclusion

I meanwhile, in support of The New Yorker,  have posted my own offending marks. They are behind the tree in the drawing above.

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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman

Quote by Mark Twain

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May 17 0 comments
Mark Twain, Persuasion, politics

How to Fuddle, Upset and Debauch – Persuasion series #4

I promise you won’t be debauched if you read today’s napkin on day #4 of Persuasion week. Really.

Persuasion and Oratory - Persuasion series #4

I am a sucker for political speeches. Give me a great orator at his or her best and I will easily be persuaded.  I take them at their word, I believe they are sincere in what they say.  Then the speech ends and I compare their words to reality.  If they don’t match up, forget it.  But that doesn’t spoil my joy in hearing the speech. I just put the brakes on and stop myself from being a converted cult member by thinking through the ideas, claims, and goals to see if I really agree or not.

What about you, are you a fan of great speeches, even if you don’t believe a word they are saying once the speech ends?

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Drawing by Marty Coleman

Quote by Mark Twain

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Mar 06 3 comments
History Lessons, Mark Twain

Is History is a Fluid, a Solid or a Gas? – History Lesson #2

Historically speaking, it’s day #2 of History Lesson Week at the NDD.

 

Is History is a fluid, a solid or a gas? - History Lesson #2

 

Why are histories about the same era written again and again?  Gibbon’s wrote a multi-volume history of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Why isn’t that enough, why more books on the same topic?  Why so many books about Lincoln, World War II, the American revolution, China, technology, wars? Why is there such a long history of histories?  Because our prejudices are fluid over the generations and our histories will always be updated to fit our prejudices.

What are our historical and present day prejudices?  Just ask yourself what you believe in and that will tell you.  The belief might blind you to the truth, as is the case in certain branches of Islam or Christianity where they do whatever they can to keep women down.  They go so far as to create and then perpetuate gargantuan lies under the guise of history to validate and support their prejudices against women being equal. They are driven by fear and they call it ‘truth’.

I read a synopsis of Hegel’s idea of ‘the Dialectic’ yesterday. No, I don’t really understand it, and no I haven’t ever read his actual work. (Ask my daughter Rebekah if you want to talk to someone who has actually read it and understood it).  I read it in a book called ‘Eureka! – What Archimedes Really Meant and 80 Other Key Ideas Explained.’  It essentially is this: Thesis, Antithesis and Synthesis.  We start with an idea, the opposite of the idea comes up to challenge it and eventually the two ideas combine to some degree to create a synthesis, a new idea.  That idea/thesis in turn is the starting point for a new antithesis to challenge it and on it goes.

That is how we can see our fluid history.  A way of looking at a series of events is put forth, let’s say about the American Civil War.  Someone writes a book saying it was fought over slavery.  Then someone else challenges that it was about slavery and writes that it was instead about state’s rights.  A third person writes another book that says it was about both.  That leads to yet another book that says it was about neither but instead was about cotton. And on and on it goes. The positive side to the idea of the dialectic is that it should lead to ever increasing knowledge and understanding.  In practice, while I do believe we make some progress in society and life, I also believe that fear and vested interests keep society and individuals from moving forward towards a better life for all.

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who would always choose ‘history’ on Jeopardy!

Quote by Mark Twain, who was born 4 years after Hegel died.

Dec 26 0 comments
Christmas, Mark Twain

The Christmas Next Year

christmas next year

We had a different Christmas this year for a few reasons.  None of my three biological daughters were here, I have been crazy busy getting pieces finished and ready for my upcoming ‘Velveteen Women’ exhibition (opening January 6th at Living Arts of Tulsa) and just a sort of general fatigue about the ‘work’ of decorating for Christmas.  We did decorate, but not as much as usual.  We watched a Christmas movie and TV show or two, but not the usual dozen or so.  Caitlin, my step-daughter, had mixed feelings about this. She didn’t get into it quite as much, she felt bad, ok, resigned, relieved all at various times.  Linda, my wife, felt the same way.  But Christmas morning was wonderful, Christmas brunch with the family was especially fun, as was Christmas Eve.  In the end it was different, but it was good.

Here is what I felt.  Christmas does not occur exactly the same each year even if it seems to. It has mutations to the sameness that sometimes makes it brighter, sometimes a bit more melancholy, sometimes devastatingly different, sometimes virtually the same. But it is never really the same, is it?  Christmas rhymes with Christmases past, it doesn’t repeat them.

How do you feel about Christmas (or any holiday) changing in your life from year to year? How do the changes in you make those changes happen?

Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, owner of a really small car.

Quote by Mark Twain, who is now dead.

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