Nothing comes from nothing. Nothing ever could.
So somewhere in my youth or childhood.
I must have done something good.
(From that completely inconsequential film, that did nothing for me but disappoint; The Sound of Music )
………….but what can I write about nothing that really actually makes sense? Considering that the world of blogging seems to be almost completely full of nothing, except perhaps hot air. And that includes my contributions hence their rarity these days, which serves to emphasise their nothingness.
And so…… to my first thought on reading what today’s LBC topic is…Let us play a game: For neither of the ideas above was my first thought.
You comment and tell me what you think my first thought was and later on I’ll post it and you can see if you are correct. I’ll allow you each two guesses.
From the Magpie's Nest 
April 29, 2011 at 8:54 pm |
Homework! The teacher has set us Homework! Whaaa!
You thought “That stupid old woman from Ireland needs a day job. She has nothing in between her ears!”
April 29, 2011 at 9:00 pm |
No!
April 29, 2011 at 10:00 pm |
Floating to UK, using my hot air balloon …
Guess at what you thought, “I have nothing to say.”
Second guess, which is highly unlikely, “I think cynics are just crushed idealists.”
April 30, 2011 at 2:16 pm |
Nothing there Conrad…
April 30, 2011 at 3:39 am |
Your first thought was the song from Sound of Music…’Nothing comes from nothing…nothing ever could”…you must have done something good…even if it was blogging!!
April 30, 2011 at 2:18 pm |
Hoh Dear…you didn’t remember that “For neither of the ideas above was my first thought.”
Sorry!
April 30, 2011 at 7:30 am |
TWO guesses. How generous, Magpie. In fairy tales one usually has three.
Let’s unravel this in order (and I am not yet using up my guesses): NOTHING popped into your mind. You just groaned.
I myself love blanks (particularly when confronted with a shooter): Space to fill. On which score teachers are to be pitied: Driven to narrow MARGINS to leave their scorn; margins being witness to a teacher’s despair; red ink decanting helpful suggestions how to fill next assignment’s void. I am sure that lack of space is why teachers’ handwriting usually small. How to cram a lot into nothing. Magpie, you have to concede that you just brought out masterstroke in me: If I had to run a school I’d chisel above the entrance exactly that: TO CRAM A LOT INTO NOTHING. Instead of some Latin drivel not even your parents can translate when they take you to the altar of knowledge.
I will now take time out and write one hundred lines of “Nothing”. Something will come to me.
Yours,
U
PS What’s the deadline?
April 30, 2011 at 2:50 pm |
I am not a fairy so this tale allows two guesses.
It was not quite a groan…..
Red ink is frowned upon as being too negative these days…what nonsense…
My favourite method of marking is the one whereby a dot is placed in the margin next the line in which a mistake occurs and the pupil/student has to work out what the error is and correct it themsleves. There is a definite hierarchy for solving the problem. It is surprising how the number of errors decreases over time as the pupils learn to check their work before handing it over. They also learn to seek and ask (within the hierarchy) for assistance…teacher being the last person to ask.
To Cram a Lot Into Nothing…have to say that is how it seems at times…still.
April 30, 2011 at 2:17 pm |
I can think of NOTHING.
April 30, 2011 at 2:52 pm |
Probably the best way to be….It’s interesting how Ursula has sent me back to Tagore’s ideas about Education….
The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence. But we find that this education of sympathy is not only systematically ignored in schools, but it is severely repressed.
penned in 1917 and it can be applied to British Education today
Damn the Politicians!