Book, book, play: kind of like duck, duck, goose but without the running.

It's been awhile since (I saw your face) I've blogged and almost as long since I've read others blogs. So I've just read about ten blogs and now I'm posting one of my own. In the past couple weeks I've finished reading two books and a play - Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar, and Shakespeare's Love's Labor Lost. The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu or as the translator of the copy I read believed the title is actually Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching and it is a collection of old Chinese proverbs (that one about the man with a hole in his pocket wasn't in there) that fall into the Taoist tradition. I read this after reading, and really liking, the Tao of Pooh and while there are some really great pearls of wisdom within it's pages there's also a lot of double talk, the kind you might find in self-help books written by would be sage's. In the introduction the translator says to understand the Tao Te Ching you have to know something of the time when it was written and goes on to explain that it was a time of political upheavals in China and that to find yourself on the wrong 'side' could mean literally losing your head, this is why the Tao Te Ching says to be like water always taking the lower but wearing away the harder and higher. Taoism has three gems (tenants) that are expressed in the Tao Te Ching - compassion, moderation and humility. Sounds like some pretty good gems to me.
   Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein is an overview introduction to some of the great names of philosophy and there main thoughts. According the the authors jokes and philosophy have much in common they both have a set-up and a pay off and they both try to shock us into seeing the world a little differently. The two writers use jokes to illustrate and explain some of the main thoughts and branches of philosophy. It was a really enjoyable book I wish I could remember have of what I read in it, my only complaint is that it wasn't longer. I would loved for them to have spent a little more time on each person and thought. I thought I'd share a couple of the jokes that I can remember- A man wants to get married but can't decide which of three women he's been seeing to propose to so he gives each woman a thousand dollars to see what she'll do with it. The first women goes and gets a new do, makeup, manni-petti, and new clothes and tells him it's all so she can look good for him. The second women goes out and buys lots of presents for the man and says making him happy is what makes her happy. The third women invests the money and makes big on it and tells him she's investing for their future. So which one did he marry? The one with the biggest tits of course. (I can't remember what point that was illustrating but I thought it was funny.)
      (This one isn't politically correct, sorry) Two Jewish men are walking down the street when they see a sign in front of a Catholic church that say's they'll give a thousand dollars to anyone who'll convert. One of the guys decides to go in and see what it's all about. The other guy waits on the sidewalk for a very long time, finally the guy that went in comes out. The guys on the sidewalk says, "Well? What happened?", the other guys says, "I converted." so the guys on the sidewalk says, "Did you get the money?" and the other guy says, "Is that all you people think about?" (This one was illustrating an Reductio ad absurdum.)
    One more and I promise I'm done with this book - An 85 year old man goes to his doctor and tells him his younger wife is pregnant and he's not sure how it could happen at his age. The doctor says let me tell you a little story, a man decides to go bear hunting but on the way out of the house he grabs an umbrella instead of his gun, he finds a bear, raises the umbrella and shoots, and the bear is shot and killed. What would say to that? The old man says, "I say someone else must have shot the bear." "My point exactly." says the doctor.

   And now the play Love's Labors Lost by ole Bill Shakespeare, the first of the comedies I actually enjoyed. The humor is mostly made of wit and biting sarcasm, Shakespeare would have been great at a Friar's Roast. The play center's on three men and their king vowing to study for three years forsaking all other things, including love. So of course they are visited by a princess and her ladies in waiting and all fall madly in love. At first I thought the women were being royal (pardon me here) bitches but then you learn they thought the men wooed them in jest and both parties verbally dismantle the folks who try to put on a show for them. Eventually all is resolved and the women promise to wait for the men if they make there vows true (but only for a year, not three.)