Have you ever felt (medically or ... some other way) sick and tried to find all the symptoms online? Desperately searching to find what's wrong with you and to catch the disease by its name and to seek for the ultimate cure on the net? If you did, don't worry, you are not alone. Internet is the smartest thing ever invented so its only logical to check your smartphone every time you need and everything will be fine.
Or it seems... Well...
Sometimes what you find online is too vague or written with too scholar words.. Other times it looks like you have symptoms of multiple diseases. Sometimes the cure you found online can only be bought on the other side of the planet. And in most cases not in regular or even legal pharmacies... What to do? Well, don't worry, there is a way out. Do what you did before the internet. Make the appointment with your doctor and if he or she is your good friend you will get out with the ultimate cure for every single disease out there.
Yep, there is one. Here is the recipe:
"1lb beefsteak, with 1pt bitter beer every 6 hours. 1 ten-mile walk every morning. 1 bed at 11 sharp every night. And don't stuff your head with things you don't understand."
... and try to laugh on as many occasion as possible. The laughter is the best medication of all times. The other day after I read one of the thriller books with great adventurous plot and good characters behind very well written script, I thought I need to get break with "serious" stuff and the time came for something lighter and funnier. Therefore I decided to stop by to the nearest book shop to search their comedy section. Imagine my disappointment after I found out there is no such shelf, even though this was one of the biggest bookstores in the town.... I didn't know what to do.. If only I could remember to whom I gave that book about those men in a boat I had and read decade or so ago. It was the last comedy book I read and believe me that I'm not exaggerating that I never had more laughter tears on my face with reading any book before. On couple of occasions it went that far away so I needed to stop reading in order to go and wash my red face made out of loud laughter! Well, as it happens, and almost immediately after I gave up searching for funny novels online and went to our small library downstairs to get another thriller, I saw it hiding between two James Paterson's Alex Cross books. It was never left the shelf in the first place! You can only imagine my happiness. I grabbed it the same moment, cleaned the dust away and started reading for the second time and, judging after the acquired date inscribed inside, with more than 12 years between first encounter of the 19th century classic, written by Jerome K. Jerome and more than promising title "Three men in a boat. To say nothing about the Dog".
And yes, the all-diseases-cure recipe I mentioned above is one of the quotes from this very book and along with all the funny moments inside I recommend it for the same purpose. This book will trigger the cure for any troubles you possibly have and believe me, if you are really a fan of true English humor like I am, you will be surprised that you can laugh that hard. Not to mention all the chuckles that are coming out from almost all sentences. Yesterday, while reading a chapter with uncle Podger hanging a picture frame on the wall, I wasn't aware of all the sounds I emitted in the air and in one moment, Viktor, my son, sneaked behind me, glimpsed the book on my lap, then looked me with his most sympathetic expression and said: "What is wrong with you?".
It is really one extraordinary book and one of those that will last forever and be enjoyed by all generations. Whether or not this is really the funniest book ever written, depends on your hedonistic inner being and it is of course highly subjective matter but nevertheless and over the period of one century by now, it is indeed located highly on numerous top lists of the genre. Well, whatever book it's on the very top being the funniest one ever written, I know for sure which one would score second place. No doubt this place is reserved for legendary "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and equally legendary quote about number 42, that was calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years to be "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything". To me, there is no better science fiction parody ever written and following the Marvin, the Paranoid Android for the first time, sometimes approaches dangerous level of continuous laughter that can't be stopped easily. Don't panic. Nobody died from laughter ... well ... except for that one guy who died laughing by watching a donkey eating figs. True story. Google it.
Finally and almost completely unrelated to the topic, I think it is a good place to share some thoughts about relation of Cyrillic vs Latin alphabets that are widely in use in nowadays western civilization. Contrary to the most other nations, Serbians have this privilege of using both letters. Indeed, in the very first grade of the primary school, we learn to read and write in Cyrillic and in the second one in Latin alphabet. It's hard to tell which one is used most often. Officially, the alphabet number one is Cyrillic but Latin is catching up especially in recent decades within the worldwide globalization and technical education with more usage of modern technologies, especially internet.
Keeping that in mind and especially when it comes to paper printing books, magazines and newspapers, Cyrillic is loosing battle rapidly. Thanks to non-proportional Latin letters, such us "i, l or j" that needs little space on the paper, the same text occupies less paper space than if printed in Cyrillic. Therefore, it is hard to find books in Cyrillic today even though, directly inherited from Greek alphabet, Cyrillic letters are fully proportional and don't require fancy fonts in order for any publication to be eye catching and even the reading, from my subjective point of view, is more pleasurable than reading the same text in Latin. That was why, when the other day I opened the "Three men in a boat" and saw it was printed in Cyrillic, I was twice excited to read it again. Check the difference in above image with small Latin snippet in English from the Jerome's book and it's Cyrillic translation.
I know reading a book has a special magic but English humor is almost as good in motion pictures as well. If you liked "Only Fools and Horses" and "Monty Python's Flying Circus" before I am sure you will feel the same with "Three Men in a Boat".
* Three Men in a Boat Comic Book
http://pt.slideshare.net/campfiregn/the-three-men-in-a-boat-preview
http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2013/06/three-men-in-boat-part-1.html
**The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
http://www.northernsoul.me.uk/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy/
***Cyrillic vs Latin Alphabet
http://www.belgradian.com/useful-information/cyrillic-vs.-latin-alphabet/
Or it seems... Well...
Sometimes what you find online is too vague or written with too scholar words.. Other times it looks like you have symptoms of multiple diseases. Sometimes the cure you found online can only be bought on the other side of the planet. And in most cases not in regular or even legal pharmacies... What to do? Well, don't worry, there is a way out. Do what you did before the internet. Make the appointment with your doctor and if he or she is your good friend you will get out with the ultimate cure for every single disease out there.
The three men in a boat preview*
Yep, there is one. Here is the recipe:
"1lb beefsteak, with 1pt bitter beer every 6 hours. 1 ten-mile walk every morning. 1 bed at 11 sharp every night. And don't stuff your head with things you don't understand."
... and try to laugh on as many occasion as possible. The laughter is the best medication of all times. The other day after I read one of the thriller books with great adventurous plot and good characters behind very well written script, I thought I need to get break with "serious" stuff and the time came for something lighter and funnier. Therefore I decided to stop by to the nearest book shop to search their comedy section. Imagine my disappointment after I found out there is no such shelf, even though this was one of the biggest bookstores in the town.... I didn't know what to do.. If only I could remember to whom I gave that book about those men in a boat I had and read decade or so ago. It was the last comedy book I read and believe me that I'm not exaggerating that I never had more laughter tears on my face with reading any book before. On couple of occasions it went that far away so I needed to stop reading in order to go and wash my red face made out of loud laughter! Well, as it happens, and almost immediately after I gave up searching for funny novels online and went to our small library downstairs to get another thriller, I saw it hiding between two James Paterson's Alex Cross books. It was never left the shelf in the first place! You can only imagine my happiness. I grabbed it the same moment, cleaned the dust away and started reading for the second time and, judging after the acquired date inscribed inside, with more than 12 years between first encounter of the 19th century classic, written by Jerome K. Jerome and more than promising title "Three men in a boat. To say nothing about the Dog".
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy**
And yes, the all-diseases-cure recipe I mentioned above is one of the quotes from this very book and along with all the funny moments inside I recommend it for the same purpose. This book will trigger the cure for any troubles you possibly have and believe me, if you are really a fan of true English humor like I am, you will be surprised that you can laugh that hard. Not to mention all the chuckles that are coming out from almost all sentences. Yesterday, while reading a chapter with uncle Podger hanging a picture frame on the wall, I wasn't aware of all the sounds I emitted in the air and in one moment, Viktor, my son, sneaked behind me, glimpsed the book on my lap, then looked me with his most sympathetic expression and said: "What is wrong with you?".
It is really one extraordinary book and one of those that will last forever and be enjoyed by all generations. Whether or not this is really the funniest book ever written, depends on your hedonistic inner being and it is of course highly subjective matter but nevertheless and over the period of one century by now, it is indeed located highly on numerous top lists of the genre. Well, whatever book it's on the very top being the funniest one ever written, I know for sure which one would score second place. No doubt this place is reserved for legendary "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams and equally legendary quote about number 42, that was calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years to be "The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything". To me, there is no better science fiction parody ever written and following the Marvin, the Paranoid Android for the first time, sometimes approaches dangerous level of continuous laughter that can't be stopped easily. Don't panic. Nobody died from laughter ... well ... except for that one guy who died laughing by watching a donkey eating figs. True story. Google it.
Cyrillic vs Latin***
Finally and almost completely unrelated to the topic, I think it is a good place to share some thoughts about relation of Cyrillic vs Latin alphabets that are widely in use in nowadays western civilization. Contrary to the most other nations, Serbians have this privilege of using both letters. Indeed, in the very first grade of the primary school, we learn to read and write in Cyrillic and in the second one in Latin alphabet. It's hard to tell which one is used most often. Officially, the alphabet number one is Cyrillic but Latin is catching up especially in recent decades within the worldwide globalization and technical education with more usage of modern technologies, especially internet.
Keeping that in mind and especially when it comes to paper printing books, magazines and newspapers, Cyrillic is loosing battle rapidly. Thanks to non-proportional Latin letters, such us "i, l or j" that needs little space on the paper, the same text occupies less paper space than if printed in Cyrillic. Therefore, it is hard to find books in Cyrillic today even though, directly inherited from Greek alphabet, Cyrillic letters are fully proportional and don't require fancy fonts in order for any publication to be eye catching and even the reading, from my subjective point of view, is more pleasurable than reading the same text in Latin. That was why, when the other day I opened the "Three men in a boat" and saw it was printed in Cyrillic, I was twice excited to read it again. Check the difference in above image with small Latin snippet in English from the Jerome's book and it's Cyrillic translation.
I know reading a book has a special magic but English humor is almost as good in motion pictures as well. If you liked "Only Fools and Horses" and "Monty Python's Flying Circus" before I am sure you will feel the same with "Three Men in a Boat".
* Three Men in a Boat Comic Book
http://pt.slideshare.net/campfiregn/the-three-men-in-a-boat-preview
http://bearalley.blogspot.com/2013/06/three-men-in-boat-part-1.html
**The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy
http://www.northernsoul.me.uk/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy/
***Cyrillic vs Latin Alphabet
http://www.belgradian.com/useful-information/cyrillic-vs.-latin-alphabet/