When insults had class

dutchfruitjar:

These glorious insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli:
“Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease”. “That depends, Sir,“ said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”

“He had delusions of adequacy.” – Walter Kerr

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”- Winston Churchill

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great
pleasure.” -Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” – William Faulkner
(about Ernest Hemingway).

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.” – Moses Hadas

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” – Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends..” – Oscar
Wilde

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a
friend…. if you have one.”
(George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill)
“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second  …. if there is
one.“  (Winston Churchill, in response.)

"I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.” –
Stephen Bishop

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” – John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.” –
Irvin S. Cobb

“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” –
Samuel Johnson

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.” – Paul Keating

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.” –
Charles, Count Talleyrand

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.” – Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?” -Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.” – Mae West

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.” – Oscar Wilde

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination.”
Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.” Groucho Marx

halfsyproblems:

I don’t know where people get this assumption that scientists are all cold, eloquent, upper class snobs, because I was raised by/have worked for scientists and can tell you 90% of them are disheveled, folksy, blue collar, overexcited rock goblins.

templeait:

– Bucky Barnes Is Blind –

“Hydra has this brand new device they want to test, the one that allows a blind person to see (features include: thermal imaging, infrared, x-ray, etc.), can zoom in, focus, record and transmit whatever the person wearing it sees. So, why not test it on the Asset? It’s not like it’s difficult to blind someone; he’ll become deadlier, and watching his actions and controlling him will become even easier.
What if he breaks out, though? Simple as well: plant an explosive in the device. Something tiny and unnoticeable. If compromised, the explosive will destroy the device and half of the Asset’s head. Foolproof.”

When Steve breaks Bucky’s programming in the helicarrier and it triggers the countdown, Bucky manages to hear it and tear the device off just in time before it blows up.
He can’t escape blind, though. So he’s brought into the Tower.

Source: templeait

Female staffers adopted a meeting strategy they called “amplification”: When a woman made a key point, other women would repeat it, giving credit to its author. This forced the men in the room to recognize the contribution — and denied them the chance to claim the idea as their own.

“We just started doing it, and made a purpose of doing it. It was an everyday thing,” said one former Obama aide who requested anonymity to speak frankly. Obama noticed, she and others said, and began calling more often on women and junior aides.

Here’s How Obama’s Female Staffers Made Their Voices Heard (via styro)

If you’re wondering what amplification looks like it really is as simple as listening to a person’s point and then saying “Yes I really agree with (this person’s name) that (the point they made) and I think that (build on point)”

So for example,
“Yes I agree with the female staffers that amplification is an effective process and I’ve seen great results from similar techniques used by my own colleagues”

Support, Credit, Reinforce. It’s simple and effective and it really does work.

(via thebaconsandwichofregret)

Source: New York Magazine