Wednesday, November 28, 2007

fortitude (with bonus rebus)


Wow. Caro at Third Time Lucky (who has some extraordinarily cute belly pics posted), Kristen at The Sticky Bean Preconception Jornal (who recently got some very good news), Lori at Weebles Wobble (who's posted a lovely family portrait for Wordless Wednesday), and Sunny at My Journey Towards My Little Miracle (who seems to still be on her cruise to Belize and other exotic ports of call) have all generously awarded me the flame of fortitude.

I hereby pass it along to the following bloggers, all of whom epitomize grace under soul-crushing quantities of pressure: Maddie's Mom at Madison, My Angel, Meg at The Para Graph, LAS at This Too Shall Pass, and Ms. Which at Which Box. If you're not familiar with their blogs, you really should click over and take a look.

I leave you with this rebus, which is what comes irresistably to mind whenever I hear the word fortitude (make of that what you will):


Should fate decree that U R -ed

Don't disconsol-8

But your ills with 4--tude

& they won't -m so



Edited to add: If you love these kind of puzzles, you'll find lots more here. And to forestall the inevitable question about the etymology of rebus (why, yes, Magpie, I'm looking at you), I'll just tell you now that it comes from the Latin "rebus," (the ablative plural of "res," meaning thing), by way of the French "rébus," and originally referred to satirical pieces composed by clerks at seventeenth-century carnivals in Picardy, using pictures to represent words.

15 comments:

meg said...

Wow, cool. I don't know if I've got any grace, but yes to the soul-crushing quantities of pressure!

Which Box said...

Yes, wow, thanks. I'm not sure sobbing a bucket of tears leaves room for any grace. I guess just standing up under all this pressure is enough for today. Thank you. I am humbled.

Julia said...

Um... missing the last picture. Got the rest of the rebus. But without the last part I think I am missing a key ingredient.

Congrats on the quadruple crown. :)

niobe said...

Julia: Here's a hint: the rhyme scheme is ABAB.

EmmaL said...

Oh my gosh, thank you! Grace under pressue - I am striving for that (though did you see how I almost cracked last week?). I at least believe that the path that I am on will lead me to handle whatever happens to me with more grace than I otherwise would have. In all of the insanity, and pain and turmoil - that's all I really hope for I guess, a little bit of grace. Thank you!

Christine said...

i do love puzzles like these. . .

Lori Lavender Luz said...

Great. Just great.

At least I *think* that's what it is.

You've got not just "fortitude," but "FOURtitude."

Caro said...

Yay for new blogs to read and love the puzzle.

Tash said...

Huh, here I thought the last line might be "and they won't seem so much like your life is circling the drain," but that really doesn't fit with the rhyme scheme.

Off to check out more blogs (because I didn't have enough already!).

Casey said...

I've smokey-ed my ills with a lot of things, but never 4-tea-tude. I should give it a try.

Sunny said...

Teeheehee I am back just slow to blog. Lots on my mind.

You deserve this reward. YOU ROCK!

Sarah said...

you totally deserve the flame, congrats.

Aurelia said...

You definitely have fortitude my dear. Completely absolutely.

painted maypole said...

i love that i learn so much on your blog.

you should definately be rated at post grad level, or whatever they callit on that little blog test thingy that figures out your blog reading level.

Maddie's Mom said...

Thank you so much. I didn't know I had any grace under pressure, but it's good to know that others can see things I can't.