Last night at 11 Supratim caught me on the wrong foot.
Sharp at midnight I discovered that a physicist almost as famous as Supratim did it almost half a century ago to another physicist almost as famous as me {;-}
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Supratim:
Dear Sir:
....Of all the kanjooses you described in your delightful Rainy Day Post, the one with the greatest potential to spread good cheer and have long term impact is the Praise Kanjoos.
But alas that potential is never realized because of his kanjoosi.....
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gps:
Dear Supratim:
.......There is no doubt that your writing is superfluent. In particular the mail I cited in my blog flows like liquid Helium welling up.
Yes, flattery costs no money...but most people are more kanjoos with it than with their money. If you make it a practice, you soon realize that you have to constantly look for others' good points to flatter them about...this leads in time to a healthy mindset (see no evil!)................
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Supratim:
Dear Sir:
.............This may sound like splitting hairs but I would make a distinction between flattery and praise. Flattery has an insincere quality and sometimes even a "quid pro quo" aspect associated with it. Praise on the other hand is an expression of a genuine appreciation of another's work and perhaps like the quality of mercy "blesseth him that gives and him that takes"............................
gps:
Dear Supratim:
...............The one who is flattered thinks that he is being praised and vice versa....as you say, it is a matter of viewpoint and temperament.............
The principle is the same...try and find out what is praiseworthy in others..
But you are right....I was only joking!
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Feynman:
Dear Dr XYZ:
Thank you very much for your kind and flattering note of congratulations. I am enclosing a photograph for you......
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Feynman:
Dear Dr XYZ:
I am sorry to have hurt you by my careless misusage of language. I did not mean to imply that your letter was insincere in any way. The word "flattering" was wrongly used, as I have just looked it up in the dictionary and found it has negative connotations, which I certainly did not mean. I should have used some word like 'complimentary" instead....
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http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Flattery
flat·ter·y
n. pl. flat·ter·ies
1. The act or practice of flattering.
2. Excessive or insincere praise.
Flattery
1. As a wolf is like a dog, so is a flatterer like a friend —Thomas Fuller
2.Bang compliments backwards and forwards, like two asses scrubbing one another —Jonathan Swift
3. Bask in it [flattery] like a sunflower —Tennessee Williams
4. A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil —Victor Hugo
5. Compliments are like perfume, to be inhaled, not swallowed —Charles Clark Munn
6. Fawn like dogs —Percy Bysshe Shelley
7. Flattered me like a dog —William Shakespeare
8. Shakespeare’s simile from King Lear continues with, “And told me I had white hairs in my beard ‘ere the black ones were there.”
9. Flatterers, like cats, lick and then scratch —German proverb
10. Flatterers look like friends, as wolves like dogs —George Chapman
11. Flattering as a testimonial dinner —Anon
12. Flattery is like a cigarette; it is all right if you don’t inhale —Adlai Stevenson
13. Flattery … is like a qualmish liqueur in the midst of a bottle of wine —Benjamin Disraeli
14. Flattery is like champagne, it soon gets into the head —William Brown
15. Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed —Josh Billings Paraphrased from Billings’
16. phonetic dialect which reads: “Flattery is like Kolone water, tew be smelt of, not swallowed.”
17. Flattery is like friendship in show, but not in fruit —Socrates
18. Flattery is like wine, which exhilarates a man for a moment, but usually ends up going to his head and making him act foolish —Helen Rowland
19. (Twilight was) kind as candlelight to a bad face lift —Paige Mitchell
20. An overdose of praise is like ten lumps of sugar in coffee; only a very few people can swallow it —Emily Post
21. Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity —Samuel Johnson
22. Some folks pay a compliment like they went down in their pocket for it —Kin Hubbard
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