The Purdzilla Show

Photo by  NordWood Themes  on  Unsplash Nicolai Petrovich let his head droop as he contemplated the crumbling steps of the porch, where a large speckled hen strutted gravely about, firmly tapping her way on her sturdy yellow legs. A grimy cat sprawled affectedly on the railing, observing the hen with an unfriendly eye. The sun blazed down. A smell of warm rye bread was wafted out of the dark passage of the inn. Ivan Turgenev (in Fathers And Sons )

Nothing like this Monty Python anthem when the chips are down.

Photo by  Jamie MacPherson  on  Unsplash

Photo by  Émile Perron  on  Unsplash

Photo by  Andrej Lišakov  on  Unsplash My meaning simply is, that whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do well; that whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself to completely; that in great aims and in small, I have always been thoroughly in earnest...Some happy talent, and some fortunate opportunity, may form the two sides of the ladder on which some men mount, but the rounds of that ladder must be made of stuff to stand wear and tear; and there is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness. Never to put one hand to anything, on which I could throw my whole self; and never to affect depreciation of my work, whatever it was; I find, now, to have been my golden rules. David Copperfield (in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield )

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery. Mr Wilkins Micawber (in David Copperfield )