New Seekers
Super Stars
(SUPER 049)
Guy Mitchell
Cliff Richard
It's Cliff Richard
Show No. 2
(CD cover).
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Singing The Blues
In February Lyn faces what she has described as "the most awful day of my life." (Daily Mail, 6th December 1995, page 22). After five years of tax wrangles, Lyn finds herself owing £26,000 in tax. Her accountant advises her that she now has no alternative but to declare herself bankrupt. In 1998 Lyn told the Weekly News how she came to the decision:
"Somebody came to the door and Ryan grabbed hold of my hand and said, "Taxman, mummy."
Then he led me into the kitchen, so that we couldn't be seen. I looked down at Ryan and wondered what I was doing to him. That's when I decided to take the accountant's advice."
(Weekly News, 22nd August 1998, page 16)
Speaking about it in a radio interview, Lyn said:
"It was the worst day of my life. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. My father took me to the Court House in Slough and I stood there and it was as if it was all happening round me ... I thought my life was finished."
When Lyn returns home her mum is waiting.
"After the Court hearing, I went home. My mum was in the kitchen. She held out her arms and I just went to pieces."
(Weekly News, 22nd August 1998, page 13)
Having reached the lowest point of her career, the only way is up! On the very day of her Court appearance she receives a phonecall from Bob Potter, Manager of the Lakeside Country Club, who offers her four weeks work.
"When I walked on stage the first time I actually got a standing ovation ... I just stood there and cried. I honestly thought I was never going to work again."
With the support of her family and her manager, Malcolm Feld, Lyn puts her career back on the right track.
Meanwhile, a New Seekers' compilation, SuperStars (SUPER 049), is released on CD. Although it appears at first glance to be the group's original hits performed by the hit-making '70s line-up (Lyn Paul is pictured on the front sleeve), the small print tells another story:
"Some tracks of this compilation might not be the original hit recordings, but anyhow recorded by the original artists."
A CD with an identical track listing and the same warning had been released on the GOLD label the previous year. None of the tracks on either CD are the original hit recordings.
Although these New Seekers' CDs are a disappointment for Lyn Paul fans, the release of a Cliff Richard CD is music to the ears. On 31st August 1974 Lyn had appeared on the It's Cliff Richard Show (BBC 1). Twenty years later a recording taken from the master tapes is issued on CD, featuring Lyn singing Who's Sorry Now, You Made The Pants Too Long, Lipstick On Your Collar and Personality.
In September Lyn spends two weeks touring the UK with the ever-popular Guy Mitchell, best-known for his 1956 number 1 Singing The Blues. The tour is mainly of England (including a return visit to the Lakeside Country Club) with an additional date in Scotland (Glasgow) and another in Wales (Rhyl).
- 15th September, Civic Hall, Winsford
- 16th September, New Pavilion Theatre, Rhyl
- 17th September, Floral Pavilion Theatre, New Brighton
- 18th September, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
- 19th September, Empire Theatre, Sunderland
- 22nd September, Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells
- 23rd September, Brentwood Centre, Brentwood
- 24th September, Lakeside Country Club, Camberley
- 25th September, Lewisham Theatre, London
- 26th September, Central Hall, Chatham
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At Christmas Lyn stars in Dick Whittington at the Princess Theatre in Torquay. To get over the problem of being away from home, Lyn brings the family with her:
"My little boy Ryan and husband Alan are the loves of my life - we've simply moved down for six weeks with the Christmas tree, the TV and video, the lot." (Herald Express, 20th December 1994, page 4)
Allen Saddler's review in The Guardian singles Lyn out for special praise:
"Lyn Paul plays Dick Whittington with dash and spirit. She looks good and moves well and her singing is much better than in the average panto."
(The Guardian, 22nd December 1994)
Sandra Loy's review in the local Herald Express is even more enthusiastic: "the breath of fresh air for which we've been waiting ... the best principal boy Torbay has seen for many a year."
Other notable names in the cast are Paul Shane (known chiefly for his role as Ted Bovis in the TV comedy Hi-de-Hi) and veteran pantomime dame Wyn Calvin.
Dick Whittington leaflet.
Incidentally ...
In April 1994 the Manchester band Oasis confirms its arrival on the UK music scene with a début hit single Supersonic. The record makes a fleeting appearance in the charts, peaking at number 31. A second single, Shakermaker, makes more of an impression, storming into the chart at number 11 on 2nd July. To some ears it sounds very like the New Seekers' number 1 hit I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing, so much so that the song later lands the band in Court.
Judith Durham and the Seekers make a brief return to the UK album charts with a compilation entitled A Carnival Of Hits (EMI). The album, which includes both solo and group material, enters the chart on 23rd April and peaks at number 7.
 
| In the News - 1994 |
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| Jan |
On 14th January the Duchess of Kent is received into the Catholic Church in a private service conducted by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Basil Hume. She is the first member of the British Royal Family to convert to Catholicism for more than 300 years.
Harry Nilsson, best-known for his hits Everybody's Talkin' and Without You, dies on 15th January.
Los Angeles is hit by a big earthquake on 17th January.
Football Manager Sir Matt Busby dies on 20th January.
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| Feb |
On 5th February 68 people are killed in a mortar-bomb attack on a crowded market in Sarajevo.
The Conservative MP for Eastleigh, Stephen Milligan, inadvertently kills himself during an auto-erotic sex act. He is found dead at his home in west London on 7th February by his secretary, Vera Taggart.
On 21st February UK MPs vote to lower the age of consent for gay men from 21 to 18. Edwina Currie's proposal to lower the age of consent to 16 is rejected by 307 votes to 280.
On 24th February, following a new tip-off about the disappearance of sixteen-year-old Heather West in 1987, police begin digging up the back garden of her parents' home in Gloucester.
On 25th February an Israeli gunman, Baruch Goldstein, massacres 29 Palestinians worshiping at a mosque in Hebron.
Eric Clapton performs at London's Royal Albert Hall for the 100th time on 28th February.
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| Mar |
Having already been charged with the murder of his daughter Heather, Fred West is charged with two further murders on 1st March.
On 4th March four Arabs are jailed for the bombing of the World Trade Centre in February 1993.
On 9th, 11th and 13th March the IRA launches a series of mortar attacks on Heathrow airport.
On Saturday, 12th March the Church of England ordains women priests for the first time. Angela Berners-Wilson is the first of 32 women to be ordained at a ceremony at Bristol Cathedral.
Dan Hartman, who had a hit in 1978 with Instant Replay, dies on 22nd March.
The BBC re-launches Radio 5 as Radio Five Live.
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| Apr |
The dead body of Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the grunge band Nirvana, is discovered at his home in Seattle on Friday, 8th April. In a suicide note he stated: "I don't have the passion anymore, and so remember, it's better to burn out than to fade away."
Violence breaks out in Burundi and Rwanda between Hutus and Tutsis. The Presidents of both countries, Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda and Cyprian Ntayamira of Burundi, are killed in a plane crash on 6th April, leading to further violence, especially in Rwanda. On 14th April 20,000 Tutsis are massacred in Kibeho.
Ice skater John Curry dies on 15th April.
Richard Nixon dies on 22nd April following a stroke attack four days earlier.
On 25th April Rosemary West is charged with murder.
On 26th April elections are held in South Africa in which, for the first time, citizens of all races are allowed to vote.
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| May |
Civil war breaks out in Yemen on 5th May.
The Channel Tunnel linking the UK and France is formally opened by the Queen and by the French President François Mitterrand on 6th May.
Nelson Mandela is inaugurated as President of South Africa on 10th May.
The leader of the UK Labour Party, John Smith, dies on Thursday, 12th May, aged 55, after suffering two heart attacks. Gordon Brown agrees not to oppose Tony Blair's bid to succeed him.
On 25th May the Camelot consortium wins the contract to run the UK's first national lottery starting in November.
Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley get married on 26th May.
The dissident writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returns to his native Russia on Friday, 27th May, after 20 years of exile in the United States. After arriving in Magadan, he embarks on a two-month train journey across the country to Moscow.
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| Jun |
25 senior police, army and MI5 officers are killed in a helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre on 2nd June.
On 6th June remembrance ceremonies are held in Normandy to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
On 17th June O.J. Simpson is charged with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole and Ronald Goldman.
French troops intervene in the Rwandan crisis on 23rd June.
Prince Charles admits to adultery in a TV interview with Jonathan Dimbleby on 29th June.
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| Jul |
After 27 years in exile, Yasser Arafat makes a triumphant return to Gaza on Friday, 1st July. Four days later he visits the West Bank.
The leader of the People's Democratic Republic of Korea, Kim Il-sung, dies on 8th July. He is replaced by his son Kim Jong-il.
A celebration is held in Westminster Abbey on 20th July to mark the return of South Africa to the Commonwealth.
On Thursday, 21st July Tony Blair is elected leader of the UK Labour Party, taking 57% of the vote in the leadership election. He becomes the youngest Labour leader since the Second World War.
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock is appointed as an EU Commissioner on 29th July.
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| Aug |
Norwich Central Library is destroyed by fire on 1st August. Thousands of historic documents are lost in the blaze.
In a pioneering operation on 26th August a man in the UK is given the world's first battery-operated heart.
The Sunday Trading Act comes into effect on Sunday, 28th August, allowing shops in the UK to open legally on a Sunday for the first time.
On 31st August the IRA announce a cease-fire in Northern Ireland.
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| Sep |
Entertainer and television presenter Roy Castle dies from cancer on 2nd September, aged 62.
The Parti Quebecois wins an overall majority in the elections for Quebec's National Assembly. The election result means that there will be a referendum to decide whether or not the French-speaking province should separate from the rest of Canada.
Jessica Tandy, star of the films Driving Miss Daisy and Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Café, dies on 11th September, aged 85.
On 14th September US singer Steve Earle is sentenced to a year in prison for possession of crack cocaine.
852 people are killed on Wednesday, 28th September when a car and passenger ferry, MS Estonia, sinks in the Baltic Sea on its journey from Tallinn to Stockholm.
The Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, flies to Ireland on 30th September for a meeting with the Irish Prime Minister but is said to be too tired, and then too ill, to see him. The taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, who is left waiting on the tarmac, meets the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Oleg Soskovets, instead.
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| Oct |
On 5th October an apparent mass suicide by members of the Order of the Solar Temple sect is discovered when 48 dead bodies are found at two locations in Switzerland. The cult leaders, Dr. Luc Jouret and Joseph di Mambro, are among the dead.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded jointly to Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East.
On 19th October 22 people are killed and 46 injured by a suicide bomb attack on a bus in Tel Aviv.
Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty on 26th October.
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| Nov |
Sweden votes to join the European Union. Norway votes to stay out.
The BBC plays host to the UK's first national lottery draw on 19th November. The show is presented by Noel Edmonds, Anthea Turner and Gordon Kennedy.
Passengers and crew are ordered to abandon ship when fire breaks out aboard the Achille Lauro cruise liner on 30th November. Two people die and eight are injured.
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| Dec |
The Russian army invades Chechnya on Sunday, 11th December in order to restore "constitutional order".
A four-month cease-fire comes into force in Bosnia on 23rd December.
On 30th December a pro-life activist armed with a gun, John Salvi, kills two women and injures at least five others when he opens fire at two neighbouring abortion clinics in Boston.
On New Year's Eve 3.5 million people crowd on to Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro for a concert by Rod Stewart.
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| In the Charts |
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| UK Chart Debuts |
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- Boyzone
- Sheryl Crow
- Green Day
- Oasis
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| UK Best-selling Singles |
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- Ace Of Base
Don't Turn Around
- Ace Of Base
The Sign
- All-4-One
I Swear
- Tori Amos
Cornflake Girl
- Aswad
Shine
- Pato Banton
Baby Come Back
- BC-52's
(Meet) The Flinstones
(from the film 'The Flinstones')
- Blur
Girls and Boys
- Blur
Parklife
- Tony Braxton
Breathe Again
- Mariah Carey
Without You
- Corona
The Rhythm Of The Night
- Cranberries
Dreams
- Crash Test Dummies
Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm
(from the film 'Dumb And Dumber')
- Sheryl Crow
All I Wanna Do
- D:Ream
Things Can Only Get Better
- Celine Dion
The Power Of Love
- Celine Dion
Think Twice
- East 17
Stay Another Day
- Grid
Swamp Thing
- Sophie B. Hawkins
Right Beside You
- Cyndi Lauper
Hey Now (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)
- Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories
Stay (I Missed You)
- Manchester United Football Club
Come On You Reds
- Jimmy Nail
Crocodile Shoes
- Youssou N'Dour
featuring Neneh Cherry
7 Seconds
- Oasis
Shakermaker
- Pretenders
I'll Stand By You
- Prince
The Most Beautiful Girl In The World
- Reel 2 Reel featuring the Mad Stuntman
I Like To Move It
- Bruce Springsteen
Streets Of Philadelphia
- Stiltskin
Inside
- 20 Fingers
featuring Gillette
Short Dick Man
- 2wo Third3
I Want The World
- Wet Wet Wet
Love Is All Around
- Whigfield
Saturday Night
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One Hit Wonders |
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Hit Albums |
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- Tori Amos
Under The Pink
- Beautiful South
Carry On Up The Charts - The Best Of The Beautiful South
- Blur
Parklife
- Garth Brooks
In Pieces
- J.J. Cale
Closer To You
- Mary Chapin Carpenter
Stones In The Road
- Eric Clapton
From The Cradle
- Cranberries
No Need To Argue
- Celine Dion
The Colour Of My Love
- Erasure
I Say I Say I Say
- Everything But The Girl
Amplified Heart
- Green Day
Dookie
- Nanci Griffith
Flyer
- Emmylou Harris
Cowgirl's Prayer
- The Mavericks
What A Crying Shame
- Morrissey
Vauxhall And I
- Olivia Newton-John
Gaia
- Oasis
Definitely Maybe
- Sin ad O'Connor
Universal Mother
- Pink Floyd
The Division Bell
- Prince
Come
- The Prodigy
Music For The Jilted Generation
- Bonnie Raitt
Longing In Their Hearts
- Eddi Reader
Eddi Reader
- R.E.M.
Monster
- Rolling Stones
Voodoo Lounge
- The Seekers
A Carnival Of Hits
- Luther Vandross
Songs
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| At the Movies |
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- The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert
- Bullets Over Broadway (Woody Allen)
- Cool Runnings
- The Flinstones
- Forrest Gump
- Four Weddings and A Funeral
- Free Willy
- The Lion King
- Manhattan Murder Mystery
(Woody Allen)
- The Mask
- Mrs. Doubtfire
- Philadelphia
- Pulp Fiction
- Schindler's List
- Shadowlands
- True Lies
- Wayne's World 2
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| On Television |
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- Absolutely Fabulous
(Series 2)
- Animal Hospital
- Birds Of A Feather
(Series 6)
- The Brittas Empire
(Series 4 and 5)
- Crocodile Shoes
- Don't Forget Your Toothbrush
- Ellen
(USA and UK)
- ER
- The Five Mrs. Buchanans
(USA)
- Friends
(USA)
- Harry Enfield and Chums
- Just William
- Knowing Me, Knowing You ... With Alan Partridge
- Men Behaving Badly
(Series 3)
- Murder Most Horrid
(Series 2)
- The National Lottery Live
- Pat and Margaret
(Victoria Wood)
- Pets Win Prizes
- Room 101
- Spitting Image
(Series 19 and 20)
- University Challenge
(Jeremy Paxman)
- The Vicar of Dibley
(Series 1)
- Waiting for God
(Series 5)
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| Sporting Heroes |
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BBC Sport
BBC
Sports Personality
of the Year:
Damon Hill
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Darts: Dennis Priestly beats Phil Taylor in the final of the PDC World Championship.
Football: Manchester United win the FA Carling Premier League Championship and the FA Cup.
Brazil win the World Cup.
Bobby Charlton is knighted.
Boxing: Lennox Lewis wins the WBA World Heavyweight Championship.
Rugby: Wales win the Five Nations Championship.
Motor Racing: Ayrton Senna, three times the Formula 1 world champion, dies in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix on Sunday, 1st May.
Cricket: Brian Lara scores 375 runs against England at the Recreation Ground in Antigua, breaking the world record previously held by Sir Garfield Sobers.
Horse Racing: Willie Carson wins the Derby, aged 51.
Tennis: at Wimbledon Conchita Martinez denies tennis legend Martina Navratilova a tenth women's singles title by winning the final in three sets (6-4 3-6 6-3). Navratilova retires in November, having won a record 167 singles and 165 doubles titles in her career.
Pete Sampras defeats Goran Ivanisevic in the men's singles final (7-6, 7-6, 6-0).
At the US Open Arantxa Sanchez Vicario beats Steffi Graf in the women's singles final; Andre Agassi beats Michael Stich in the men's final.
Golf: Nick Price establishes himself as the best player in the world with wins at the US PGA Championship and at the British Open Championship at Turnberry.
Ernie Els wins the US Open, beating Colin Montgomerie in a play-off for the title.
Snooker: Stephen Hendry wins the UK Championship for the third time, beating Ken Doherty 10:5 in the final.
Athletics: the British athlete Diane Modahl, former Commonwealth gold-medallist in the 800m, is found guilty of taking a performance enhancing drug and banned from competing for four years.
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| Page-turners |
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Man Booker Prize
Winner:
James Kelman
How Late It Was, How Late
Romesh Gunesekera
Reef
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Paradise
Alan Hollinghurst
The Folding Star
George Mackay Brown
Beside The Ocean Of Time
Jill Paton Walsh
Knowledge Of Angels
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Who said that?
Accountant
A man hired to explain that you didn't make the money you did.
Maxim Drabon
There's no business like show business, but there are several businesses like accounting.
David Letterman
Money
Money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it.
Jane Austen, 'Sense and Sensibility'
Money, it turned out was exactly like sex. You thought of nothing else if you didn't have it, and thought of other things if you did.
James Baldwin, 'Nobody Knows My Name'
We all need money, but there are degrees of desperation.
Anthony Burgess
We had some money put aside for a rainy day, but we didn't know it was going to get this wet.
Jane Connell, 'Mame'
Never ask of money spent
Where the spender thinks it went.
Nobody was ever meant
To remember or invent
What he did with every cent.
Robert Frost
Money talks, they say. All it ever said to me was 'Goodbye'.
Cary Grant (Ernie Mott), 'None But The Lonely Heart'
It is good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it's good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven't lost the things that money can't buy.
George Horace Lorimer
The safest way to double your money is to food it over once and put it in your pocket.
Frank McKinney Hubbard
The most beautiful words in the English language are 'check enclosed'.
Dorothy Parker
Money can't buy happiness. It can however rent it.
Gregory Singleton
Pennies do not come from Heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.
Margaret Thatcher
I've been rich and I've been poor; rich is better.
Sophie Tucker
The lack of money is the root of all evil.
Mark Twain
Adversity
The wheel of fortune turns round incessantly, and who can say to himself, I shall to-day be uppermost.
Confucius
All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me ... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.
Walt Disney
What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.
Thaddeus Golas
The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.
Richard Nixon
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
Dolly Parton
The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.
Ivy Baker Priest
You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Challenges
There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.
W. C. Fields
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Joshua J. Marine
Friend
Someone who never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.
Arnold H. Glasgow
One who overlooks your failures and tolerates your successes.
Doug Larson
One who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
Walter Winchell
Patience and Perseverance
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men of talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
Marie Curie
Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.
Benjamin Disraeli
I will persist until I succeed. Always will I take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.... I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.
Og Mandino
Starting Over
There is nothing like employment, active indispensable employment, for relieving sorrow.
Jane Austen, 'Mansfield Park'
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius
Pick yourself up,
Dust yourself off,
Start all over again.
Dorothy Fields, 'Pick Yourself Up'
Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
When the going gets tough, the tough get going.
Maxim adopted by Joseph P. Kennedy
Survival
The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It's to survive as yourself, undiminished.
Elia Kazan
The Worst
The worst is not,
So long as we can say,
'This is the worst.'
William Shakespeare, 'King Lear' (Act IV, Scene I)
Forty-five
At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'Bernice Bobs her Hair'
Middle Age
The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you'll grow out of it.
Doris Day
Slough
Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!
John Betjeman
Torquay
Well ... may I ask what you were hoping to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeeste sweeping majestically ...
Basil Fawlty (John Cleese), 'Fawlty Towers'
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