Dear Family, Friends, and Gentle Readers,
Well, some of us made it through this short work week. I hope you are doing well yourselves this Friday.
The early morning overcast skies continue. Just over the hill in the West San Fernando Valley, it's blue skies though in the 7 AM hour.
Hey, it's been a while. Are you ready for a 4-word Chinese idiom?
自相矛盾 (zi xiang mao dun)
You say this when you're commenting that a person is contradicting him-/herself.
If you take a Chinese language course, you will invariably run across a lesson about this saying, it's quite famous. Literally it's self-mutually-spear-shield, but the teaching story that goes with it decodes it:
There was a man who made and sold armaments. He was set up in the marketplace and gave his pitch. "My shields are so strong, they will repel any spear! My spears are so strong, they will pierce any shield!"
One of persons gathered to hear his spiel asked, "What happens if someone who has one of your spears attacks someone else who has one of your shields?"
The smith-seller had no answer for that. (He was at least smart of enough to NOT say, "Well, let's give it try ...")
Fun hunh?
Well, I gotta pay the rent, so I'm going to leave it there. Take care of yourselves and have a nice weekend.
Love,
Pops
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Be truthful and frank, but be polite. If you use excessive profanity, I'll assume you have some kind of character flaw like Dr. Wong. Tks!