Thursday, March 09, 2006

Pearls of Wisdom from Oliver Hardy!

There are some pieces of logic which are so simple, yet absolutely irrefutable.

I got one of them from, hold your breath, a Laurel and Hardy comic. Laurel and Hardy are planning to go to the circus the next day. Laurel is so excited that he cannot sleep.
He says, "Ollie, I cannot wait for tomorrow!" and he is all fidgety.
Hardy tells him, "Go to sleep, Stan. Tomorrow always comes sooner once you are asleep."

I was delighted. What wonderful reasoning! I have relied on this astute bit of acumen ever since. Whenever I am looking forward to something, and when I cannot wait for "Tomorrow" to become "Today", what do I do? Have an early dinner and go to bed. The next thing I know, I am waking up, and its "Today"!

[It works the other way too. If I do not want Today to end, or if Tomorrow is going to bring with it something very unpleasant, then I avoid going to bed Today. I put it off as much as possible in the vain hope that Today will go on forever. Now you know why I look hungover every Monday morning!]

Hardy's tip is priceless. It saves you a lot of the agony of waiting, and it saves other people the irritation of seeing you jumping around, saying, "I just can't wait for tomorrow!"

[If you could guess why I wrote about this today, please keep it to yourself!! :)]

Do you have any such pearls of wisdom, that you found in a totally unlikely place?

18 comments:

Nirwa Mehta said...

My favourites are by Calvin and Hobbes! :P

Calvin while taking exams reads the question - Explain Newton's first law of motion in your own words

Calvin - Yakka foob mob. Gruk akwuj fajkjw uweldk. Chumbel spuzz

I Love Loopholes! :P

I apply the same theory in Economics papers! :P

Keep blogging!

Nirwa

Deepak said...

If you come to a fork in the road, take it. - Yogi Berra

Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that. - Homer Simpson

Anonymous said...

i think it was Peanuts - why clean the room when it's going to get dirty again? :D

ano

Anonymous said...

If you must smoke,don't exhale !

Raj said...

Hey, even i sleep early when i am eagerly waiting for the next day!

Shruthi said...

Nirwa: Ha ha!! :)) Yes I remember that strip but by the time I read it, I was no longer a student! :O.. so got no chance to use it ;) BTW I love Calvin and Hobbes! :)

Deppe, Akshay, Ano, Nagraj : Cool! And thanks! :D

Raj: You do? It works beautifully, right? :D

Anil.kumar03@gmail.com said...

shikha :

i am not able to get any right now, off the fly, but I have noticed life does teaches us lots of things in the form of small simple examples. Its just that we have to open our mind and ears to understand it.

well written , post !!

-ATG

Shruthi said...

ATG: Yup! and I am not Shikha, btw, I am Shruthi :)

Akshay: :)

Mridula said...

For me it is mostly the other way round, I tell H I do not want to sleep because it will then be another day, particularly when our holidays are coming to an end :) Lovely post.

Anonymous said...

In Calvin & Hobbes, always. Can't think of one offhand. But there are such pearls of wisdom scattered on almost every page.

Shruthi said...

Mridula: Yes! :) I do that too, like I mentioned in the post, esp when i suspect that the next day is going to be unpleasant ;). and thanks :)

Emma: That's two for C and H! :)) Yes, u r so right!

Rajit said...

Eighty percent of success is showing up. - Woody Allen

I guess Woody Allen must have said it sarcastically, as he always does in his quotes, but this one is so true.

Anonymous said...

I know Confucius logic but i cant afford to confuse ppl here :-)

Shruthi said...

Rajit: :D Good one, had not read it before!

Anon: Let's see you try ;P

Rita said...

Wow! That is a great post.
Just wanted to add my take on it. I go to bed early whenI am upset bout something. I just hope that tye miserable feeling with go with the day! :)

Innocent Bullet said...

Well, that really caught my attention. Wisdom often lurks in unexpected places.

Thanks for dropping in at my blog. And yes, my daughter is 8 years old. :-)

Cheers

Dan

Chitra said...

Hyuck hyuck... an 'all-consuming battle' to battle Monday morning blues!! Sighhhhhh......

Shruthi said...

Rita: Thanks! :) You know, I do that too, provided I can fall asleep in that mood!

Dan: Thanks! :) And that was a really sweet story by your daughter!

Chitra: Sigh! Nothing helps, does it! :D

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