Yin and Tonic: A Taoist Quiz - Page 3

Yeah I just Googled it and found a bunch of geniuses doing ' magical passes '
The weekend workshops are $550 a pop
You too can be sucker--um sorcerer doing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18w4v...eature=related
Now I really need my escrima stick!
So, good old Carlos had 5 women living with him in a cult--they cut off all family ties and friends--and after he died they disappeared from the house and authorities fear they've committed suicide?
Well, nobody's perfect . . .

Creeps me out, too.
Yikes, indeed!

It sounds like a therapeutic circle drawing by Jung after dreaming that he sank The French fleet at Trafalgar.

I like the devious simplicity of B. However, like Hillaire I'll take the combo and vote E.
Somehow a German psychedelic electronica artist is more appealing to the imagination.

Besides, one of my best friends ended up as a psychic in Austin, Texas.
He was really a ceremonial magician who tried to conjure Apollo so he could ask the god where the legendary lost gold mines of the S.W. were located.
Alas! Apollo never showed up and he ended up in Texas helping police investigate unsolved crimes, or fleeing from his creditors and his ex-wife, or both. The story has no sequel.

*************

An easy one while we wait for ody's verdict:

The I Ching was originally consulted by using

1. Coins
2. Turtle shells.
3. Yarrow stalks
4. The entrails of sheep ( I've no idea if sheep have appendices)
5. The reflection of the moon in a lake or river, while aided by wine.

Cheers,

Mario

Maybe it's not so easy. Yarrow stalks came later . . .

(Though some would argue that animal bones are also as old as the "correct" answer
Bah! Anthropological heretics!)

************************************

" Since water still flows, though we cut it with swords
And sorrow returns, though we drown it with wine,
Since the world can in no way answer to our craving,
I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to fishing on a boat."

----Li Po

*sigh*

Mario

Correct. No tossing involved. They heated up the shells and divined the future by means of the pattern cracks would form. Hopefully it was a good omen. If not they may have consoled themselves with turtle soup.

For Hiliaire's question
I will take C "Walk-In" because C seems popular and perhaps a "walk -in "does not have enough money?
Besides it could have been the dream vision Hillaire had while incubating

(Asklepios could have shown up in a dream and said "Walk-in to a hospital, NOW! )
Mind you this is only a guess . . .

BTW I tried to mislead with:

" Since water still flows, though we cut it with swords
And sorrow returns, though we drown it with wine,
Since the world can in no way answer to our craving,
I will loosen my hair tomorrow and take to fishing on a boat."

----Li Po

Because the legend goes that the best known Chinese poet (701-762 a.d.) outside of China, died when he was drunk one night and jumped from his boat as he tried to embrace the moon's reflection on the water

( I knew all of you wanted to know that story )

Anyway, is C right?

Pericles, Prince of Tyre was:

A. A play by Shakespeare where a healer calls upon Asklepios before attempting to revive the dead.
B. An Athenian statesman and contemporary of Socrates. " Prince" was merely an honorific title given by the Tyreans in gratitude for his help.
C. A 2nd century priest and mystic (often confused with B) and follower of the gnostic, Marcion who preached in Tyre and won many converts to Christianity " Prince " referred to his renowned eloquence. Nevertheless, Marcion and his followers were declared heretics by the early Church.
D. A self-bestowed royal claim which Aleister Crowley took for reasons which are not clear. It's been suggested that as A.C. liked paradoxes ( and had a weird sense of humor) he combined the Princely aristocratic claim with the name of the most famous Democratic leader in ancient history.

Thanks ody! I was hoping someone would fall for B
Would anyone like to read my review under my nom the net the wizard of uz at Amazon?
NO?
Well, here goes anyway: http://www.amazon.com/Pericles-Princ...cm_cr-mr-title
Second from the top at present.

I was going to guess that telestrion was the plot where Boris and Natahsa get an army of mechanical mice to eat all the TV antennas in the US causing nearly everyone to abandon the country
( Announcer: Some people were even seen reading books! )
Before they're foiled by Moose and Squirrel.

As to your present question, I doubt it was Carlin as this sounds translated into English, and it seems way too encouraging for S. Beckett--unless one of his characters says it before biting the dust.

Hm . . .

On the other hand it sounds far, far too modern ' Never say die! ' for The Buddha, Lao Tse or Krishna, and would you write " None of the above " as the correct answer? I think not.

Either Carlin had a flashback to beat poetry or Beckett had a good day

Well the last time I trod the boards was in this play. Yes, I played Cerimon (Act 3 Scene 2)
" I hold it ever,
Virtue and cunning were endowments greater
Than nobleness and riches: careless heirs
May the two latter darken and expend;
But immortality attends the former.
Making a man a god . . ."

And the scene's last line " And AEsculapius guide us! " As he begins reviving the dead queen.
( I also played the Antiochus, the tyrannical incesteous king--the director felt that I could order someone's head cut off without hesitation and that the flip side of the same coin would enable me to play Cerimon the 'good wizard' magus/ healer---interesting theory for casting a role)

I haven't had an opportunity to test this in real life. but it was a good show, if I say so myself.

******************

Well, Dionysus is the god of theater so . . .

Which if the following had Dionysus as his patron god?

A. Plotinus
B. Alexander the Great
C. Aleister Crowley *here he comes again!*
D. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
E. Hermes Trismegistus
F. George Gordon, Lord Byron.
G. Francis Dashwood, 15th Baron le Despencer

A hint (which may mislead as much as help!) He was considered by many in his day to be a mystical crackpot. Some modern scholars today hold the same view.

No, he wasn't. Lord Byron was a Romantic--and considered as too idealistic and therefore useless to his political party, but he was a party animal and a Hellenophile to the extreme of dying for Greece. Still, he wasn't a mystical crackpot by a longshot.

This is a toughie, as Plotinus, as one critic wisecracked "Turned Plato into a kind of hippie mysticism. " But he wasn't the one.

***********************

Remember that nearly all kings, egomaniacs and would be world conquerors had a habit of tracing their lineage to Zeus. However, Zeus had many children, thus Julius Caesar traced his family to him via Venus. And besides being a great general he was a sober fellow and a mature statesman compared to the raging, brilliant and inebriated lunatic-- the never defeated--god-king, Alexander the Great!

Remember that gods had all sorts of attributes, Apollo not only cured plagues, he also caused them. Likewise Dionysus had an older and darker side than merely the patron of theater, wine, orgies and vegetation.

Here we go: " A Dionysus-like god was a popular cult deity among the Thracians and Paeonians, who called him Dryalus. The cult of Dionysus was also popular among the Macedonians. One of the best known, almost emblematic, mosaics from Pella shows Dionysus riding a leopard. Alexander the Great offered sacrifices to Dionysus in temples he dedicated to the god in the cities he founded during his campaign. Indeed, Alexander is alleged by a Roman historian to have sacrificed to Dionysus at the Oracle of Dionysus of the Satrians in Thrace before undertaking his campaign to conquer Persia. "

(From http://history-of-macedonia.com/word...-in-macedonia/ )

Naturally he also identified himself with Hercules, and historians still argue whether his supposed identification with Achilles was not made up after his death--but Dionysus was one of his patron gods-if not THE patron god.

Mommy (The formidable Olympias) was--um--quite fond of his rites.

The "Alexander wasn't such a nice guy camp." includes Victor Davis Hanson who in Carnage and Culture points out that after his victory at Gaugamela when he destroyed The Persian Army he introduced decimation and crucifixion against his reluctant troops (They didn't want to climb the Himalayas) had a habit of murdering close associates, sometimes while drunk, sometimes not and--declared himself a god!

Perhaps Dionysus was the bringer of divine madness?

The Spartans response to this back home was humorous and typically terse: " If Alexander wants to be a god, let him be a god. "

Hansen describes him as a mystical crackpot and compares him to, of all people, Adolf Hitler (!) Fortunately (?) for Alexander he died young in Babylon after a bout of malaria and booze, still undefeated champ---

Anyone interested in Alexander's devotion to Dionysus may Google away, or read Will Durant and company.

We know Alexander's virtues, a brilliant general, perhaps the most brilliant of all; ruthless, determined and above all, incredibly brave.
But when one declares oneself a god and starts killing one's troops in fits of pique--Well, no one said Dionysus could be kept in check.

*sigh*

There is a sequel: Centuries later Napoleon lamented that Alexander had declared himself a god--

(And no one shut him up in a madhouse--they were wise to say nothing, or seemingly nothing like The Spartans, or perhaps--They even believed him!)

---But that if he were to declare himself a god, every fishwife in France would laugh at him.

GOOD ARGUMENT! Though I doubt that The Macedonian army was jumping for joy. It was bad enough for them to prostrate themselves before Alexander and, unlike The Spartans--they were too close to him to express amusement.

I think Augustus claimed to be "Son of a God " when granduncle Julius was given semi-divine status, but though barbarous tribes may have prayed to Octavian/Augustus while he ruled, The Senate did not give him full divinity until after he kicked the bucket.

I haven't the foggiest how Tiberius handled it when he came to power.

Caligula? Yes, he couldn't wait---and despite atrocities to those near him, one must grant him credit for amusement value for future generations!
I mean the guy did make his favorite horse Consul, didn't he?

( I remember my first GF commenting that if, like Caligula, she got supreme power she'd make her cat a Senator)

Claudius followed and he didn't get divinity until after his death. It's widely believed that his wife (Nero's mom) poisoned him.

Nero quipped that " Mushrooms must indeed be the food of the gods for by eating them Claudius has become divine. "

As to Nero himself--another impatient fellow who, unlike Caligula was NOT insane---just a complete megalomaniac who wanted to be admired as THE greatest artist and athlete (poetry, acting and charioteering) in history.

He killed himself rather than avoid capture and trial, when The Senate and The Army had had enough of him,
but----the common people greatly mourned him!

The sight of an Emperor getting on his knees at the end of a play and asking the audience if they approved of his performance (a common practice in those days ) was as thrilling for them as it was disgusting for the patricians.

Well, can't win them all

******************************

OK as we ponder the religious (and perhaps political?) motives of Cleopatra's devotions---

Which of these people claimed (without the benefit of a Praetorian Guard) to be GOD?

1. Vernon Howell
2. Laszlo Toth
3. Meher Baba
4. Alan Watts
5. Arnold Potter (no relation to Harry)
6. Ahn Sang-Hong
7. Juanita GarcÃ*a Peraza
8. Jehovah Wanyonyi
9. Norman Mailer

Cheers,

Mario

Excellent! Besides If you've heard Norman Mailer being interviewed God may not be exalted enough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8m9vDRe8fw

I believe it was Woody Allen who remarked that Mailer had made a provision in his will to bequeath his ego to the Smithsonian Institute.


Who knows what was in Vernon's mind indeed?
From Wikipedia: " By this time, he had already begun to give the message of his own "Christhood", proclaiming that he was "the Son of God, the Lamb who could open the Seven Seals."

Perhaps someone should have put him in a room with all the other claimants --minus Watts-- as long as the cells were padded and Lazlo did not have a hammer,

( He was the madman who believed himself to be Christ and smashed the nose of the sculpture of Mary in Michaelangelo's 'Pieta'--The sculpture has since been fixed. I don't know about Laszlo )

Some of the other claimants are raking in the coins . . .

Quite right about Alan Watts " We are all God "---Here's a wonderfully weird and very funny bit where he's
" God for 10 minutes" answering the audience's questions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1LzVN8nqg0

I didn't peek and I have no idea but I think I heard him (or was it a commentator?) say he based it on the character of "Trelane"
The child/god of war character in The Original Series, the episode was 'The Squire of--damn, can't even remember the planet that keeps popping up before The Enterprise!
In the end Kirk and crew are rescued by Trealane's parents.

Well, it's the wrong answer since Trelane was fictional, but in the same spirit:

Who said the following? A fictional character or a real person?
It shouldn't be too hard as I've posted three choices only--just don't be thrown off if one of them is fictional--that may be the one who said it!

(No peeking in Wkipedia! Guess if you must, O Taoist sages!)

1. "If a man dwells in the past he robs the present, but if he ignores the present he may rob the future."

A. Master Po
B. Confucius
C. George Santayana

2. " You cannot become a better person through massage. "

A. Dr. Phil
B. Saffron Monsoon
C. Deepak Chopra

3. " I do not fear death. "

A. Joseph Pilates
B. Kwai Chang Caine
C. Bokonon

4. " All that we are is the result of what we have thought. "

A. Buddha
B. Norman Vincent Peeling
C. Mr. Miyagi.

5. " You ain't nobody until you do what you want! "

A. Yogi Berra
B. The Fonz
C. Sammy Davis Jr.

6. " Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life."

A. Hemingway
B. Gandalf
C. Napoleon.

7. " Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. "

A. Chuang Tzu
B. Albert Camus
C. Kao Li

8. " I have ever been afraid. "

A. Michael Jordan
B. Ghandi
C. Khan Noonien Singh

9. " Rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit. "
A. Lao Tse
B. St. Peter
C. Christian Rosenkreuz

Ody, you got two out of three! Not bad. but it wasn't Dr. Phil



kbe, you got 100% Proceed to the next level . . .


He based it on Taolady?
Say, outside the three of us and Hillaire is anyone else playing?
Perhaps they have achieved Enlightenment!
Or scored some Patou PH . . .

Pax,

Mario

Quite right! So that only loeaves my question # 7 and yours regarding the character of Q unanswered.

As to Ms. Monsoon, i doubt she'd like Deepak Chopra too much. Though her mom would sign up for classes

Saffron Monsoon is the daughter in Absolutely Fabulous.

IMHO for British TV comedies:

1. Monty Python
2. Fawlty Towers
3. Absolutely Fabulous

And I can't think of a 4th that comes close.

Here's an interview as to how the show came together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_eOeMm6hwA

Cheers,

Mario

Hey ody!

Nope it wasn't Kao Li, though I envy anyone reading "Bridge of Birds " for the first time.
The correct answer is Albert Camus!
Odd, isn't it? it sounds so " Chinese-Sage " in style.

And no, no one has answered # 8, or for that matter your question

Come on in Haunani, the water's fine!

Yes for #8. It must have been inhaling all that Pure Corinthian Leather that made him so superior . . .
No human being would say he's never been afraid.
I doubt if even a Vulcan could make that statement.
Well, I hope I don't stay up all night wondering which historical character John de Lancey used for Q in TNG !


*sigh*

Confucius say,

" Life is full of trials and tribble-ations. "

Hm... the answer to the first could be yes or no. It depends on the word "lively." If by that you mean that Holmes investigated supposedly paranormal cases then yes, he did. If he was lively in the sense of more than solving a mystery via rational means so that he could prove the existence or even the probability of the supernatural--NO. Holmes was worlds apart from his creator

Diogenes was famous for lunatic acts which he (and some admirers) considered virtuous. However he usually acted alone. Besides the symmetry of the sentence is a bit too elegant so I will (may Holmes forgive me for my next word ) guess
that it's false.