VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[imaginator]

"19 Tips For Cheering Yourself Up."

columnist gretchen rubin loves to collect lists of "tips", and recently found a goodie in an old biography, the smith of smiths by hesketh pearson. it claims to be the biography of english writer sydney smith. but as i read it (in the 'life' section of huffingtonpost.com), i became convinced it was really our own philip banks.

you may be surprised, as i was, at the actual year they were written (which i've attached after the list). most of them hold up remarkably well.

1st. Live as well as you dare.
2nd. Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75 or 80 degrees.
3rd. Amusing books.
4th. Short views of human life--not further than dinner or tea.
5th. Be as busy as you can.
6th. See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7th. And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8th. Make no secret of low spirits to you friends, but talk of them freely--they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9th. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
10th. Compare your lot with that of other people.
11th. Don't expect too much from human life--a sorry business at the best.
12th. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy, sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion, not ending in active benevolence.
13th. Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree.
14th Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15th. Make the room where you commonly sit gay and pleasant.
16th. Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17th. Don't be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18th. Keep good blazing fires.
19th. Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.

*(quoted from a letter to a friend in the year 1820.)

am now convinced more than ever that mr. banks' mic booth is a big blue police box that sits in the corner of his wee huttie.
_________________
rowell gormon
www.voices2go.com
"Mr. Warm & Friendly Voice...with Character!"
Rowell Gormon's Clogged Blog - http://voices2go.com/blog

[Philip Banks]

Inspired piece of writing. I once read something on the side of a packing crate, it said "This way up" and I decided to henceforth head in the direction indicated