Friendship .. Quotations about Friendship

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be. ~Douglas Pagels

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things. ~Author Unknown

A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world. ~Leo Buscaglia

Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty. ~Sicilian Proverb

The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend. ~Aristotle

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. ~Albert Schweitzer

A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad. ~Arnold H. Glasgow

The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Notebook, 1927

A good friend is cheaper than therapy. ~Author Unknown

If a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it. ~Edgar Watson Howe

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend. ~Henry David Thoreau

A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down. ~Arnold Glasow

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
~William Shakespeare

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. ~Elisabeth Foley

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. ~William Blake

A friend is the only person you will let into the house when you are Turning Out Drawers. ~Pam Brown

One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human. ~George Santayana

A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails. ~Donna Roberts

If I had to sum up Friendship in one word, it would be Comfort. ~Terri Guillemets

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair. ~Samuel Johnson

True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable. ~Dave Tyson Gentry

You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job. ~Laurence J. Peter

Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer. ~Author Unknown

A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out. ~Grace Pulpit

One doesn't know, till one is a bit at odds with the world, how much one's friends who believe in one rather generously, mean to one. ~D.H. Lawrence

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. ~C.S. Lewis

Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship. ~Dorothy Parker

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends. ~Virginia Woolf

There are big ships and small ships. But the best ship of all is friendship. ~Author Unknown

The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've had. ~Author Unknown

The language of friendship is not words but meanings. ~Henry David Thoreau

A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked. ~Author Unknown

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels. ~Author Unknown

It's important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to the friendship that we are not. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. ~Marlene Dietrich

She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind. ~Toni Morrison, Beloved

Cherish the friend who tells you a harsh truth, wanting ten times more to tell you a loving lie. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Friends can be said to "fall in like" with as profound a thud as romantic partners fall in love. ~Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend. ~Plautus

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give. ~George MacDonald

A real friend is someone who would feel loss if you jumped on a train, or in front of one. ~Author Unknown

Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts. ~Margaret Lee Runbeck, Answer Without Ceasing

Love is like the wild-rose briar;
Friendship is like the holly-tree.
The holly is dark when the rose briar blooms,
But which will bloom most constantly?
~Emily Brontë

Our most difficult task as a friend is to offer understanding when we don't understand. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

The friend within the man is that part of him which belongs to you and opens to you a door which never, perhaps, is opened to another. Such a friend is true, and all he says is true; and he loves you even if he hates you in other mansions of his heart. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Wisdom of the Sands, translated from French by Stuart Gilbert

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory will swell when again touched as surely they will be by the better angels of our nature. ~Abraham Lincoln

Yes we are [friends] and I do like to pass the day with you in serious and inconsequential chatter. I wouldn't mind washing up beside you, dusting beside you, reading the back half of the paper while you read the front. We are friends and I would miss you, do miss you and think of you very often. I don't want to lose this happy space where I have found someone who is smart and easy and doesn't bother to check her diary when we arrange to meet. ~Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body, 1992

It takes a long time to grow an old friend. ~John Leonard

He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

True friends stab you in the front. ~Oscar Wilde

Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. ~Rod McKuen, Looking for a Friend (Thank you, Carolyn.)

It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help. ~Epicurus

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. ~Henri Nouwen

Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most. ~American Proverb

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship. ~William Blake

The tender friendships one gives up, on parting, leave their bite on the heart, but also a curious feeling of a treasure somewhere buried. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Southern Mail, 1929, translated from French by Curtis Cate

A true friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart. ~Attributed to Heather Pryor

Friendship is a sheltering tree. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

We are keenly aware of the faults of our friends, but if they like us enough it doesn't matter. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends. ~Shirley Maclaine

What do we ask of friendship except to be taken for what we pretend to be - and without having to pretend. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Friendship is Love, without his wings. ~Lord Byron, L'Amitié est l'Amour sans Ailes

But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort - the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. ~Dinah Craik, A Life for a Life, 1859

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably. ~William Penn

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine. ~Thomas Jefferson

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. ~Lois Wyse

The best time to make friends is before you need them. ~Ethel Barrymore

I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing. ~Katherine Mansfield

A friend can tell you things you don't want to tell yourself. ~Frances Ward Weller

There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound. ~Diana Cortes

If you're alone, I'll be your shadow. If you want to cry, I'll be your shoulder. If you want a hug, I'll be your pillow. If you need to be happy, I'll be your smile. But anytime you need a friend, I'll just be me. ~Author Unknown

A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should. ~Author Unknown

The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away. ~Barbara Kingsolver

Probably no man ever had a friend that he did not dislike a little. ~E.W. Howe

There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul. ~Edith Wharton

I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

'Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his. ~Benjamin Franklin

The best rule of friendship is to keep your heart a little softer than your head. ~Author Unknown

If it's very painful for you to criticize your friends - you're safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that's the time to hold your tongue. ~Alice Duer Miller

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive. ~Anäis Nin

Friends are relatives you make for yourself. ~Eustache Deschamps

Many a person has held close, throughout their entire lives, two friends that always remained strange to one another, because one of them attracted by virtue of similarity, the other by difference. ~Emil Ludwig

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Journals, 1843

Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Mighty proud I am that I am able to have a spare bed for my friends. ~Samuel Pepys

A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hold a true friend with both your hands. ~Nigerian Proverb

Yes'm, old friends is always best, 'less you can catch a new one that's fit to make an old one out of. ~Sarah Orne Jewett


I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world. ~Blaise Pascal

Friendship is Love with jewels on, but without either flowers or veil. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

Say what you want about aging, it's still the only way to have old friends. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them. ~Francesco Guicciardini

The best way to mend a broken heart is time and girlfriends. ~Gwyneth Paltrow

Friendship is one mind in two bodies. ~Mencius

Friendship needs no words - it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness. ~Dag Hammarskjold

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. ~Aristotle

I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world. ~Thomas A. Edison

Men kick friendship around like a football, but it doesn't seem to crack. Women treat it like glass and it goes to pieces. ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. ~Plutarch

The essence of true friendship is to make allowance for another's little lapses. ~David Storey

Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone - but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming. ~William Hazlitt

In my friend, I find a second self. ~Isabel Norton

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

How To Work A Room

How To Work A Room

 

 

On a couple of occasions lately, I found myself in places where I felt I had to do some serious networking. One was my 30th college reunion, the other a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. Though I'm not a shy person, I felt stymied. I had trouble starting conversations, and then, once I did, figuring out how long to linger before moving on. If only I knew how to work a room.

In hopes of doing a better job next time, I've interviewed four professionals who have focused on the subject. One of them, Ali Binazir, a hypnotherapist and author in Santa Monica, Calif., has put together an eight-step plan. A Harvard graduate with a medical degree from University of California at San Diego, Binazir has worked as a McKinsey & Co. consultant to biotech and pharmaceutical companies and has spent time studying Eastern philosophy. He wrote of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible.

 

I find some of Binazir's advice a little off the wall--he recommends walking up to potted plants and introducing yourself--but I figured that perhaps if I could put his steps into practice, I'd improve my networking skills.

One of his suggestions seems easy to follow and especially useful: Arrive early. That way, you take on what he calls "host physiology." If you're one of the first in the room, you can adopt the mindset of someone who is there to meet and greet, as opposed to walking into a room of 200 people who are already talking to one another.

Binazir also recommends that you wear something that can make for a conversation starter, such as an unusual brooch or lapel pin. His own signature: a jaunty white hat. And he suggests you always be prepared with some conversation starters drawn from news headlines, like, right now, Mark Hurd's resignation as Hewlett-Packard's ( HPQ - news - people ) chief executive. He exhorts you to get into what he calls "a powerful state" before walking into an event, by engaging in five minutes of meditation or closing your eyes and taking 10 deep breaths.

Next, one of his oddest suggestions: Make friends with your environment. Go up to an object in the room, like a plant or an armchair, and introduce yourself. "It creates a shift in your mind, and the whole environment goes from feeling foreign or hostile and becomes yours," he says. He also recommends positioning yourself so that you're framed by a doorway, in order to look more inviting to others.

Warm up by using your prepared conversation starters with the next person you see. Binazir likes to begin on the periphery of a crowd and work his way in. You can also stand by the bar, or, if you're female, near the rest room, where there's often a line. He also likes what he calls a "two-hit technique," where he starts a conversation, excuses himself, and then returns later to the same person. "If you see someone multiple times you feel as if you know them," he explains.

   

To establish rapport, mirror the other person in word and gesture. He also recommends what he calls the "million-dollar handshake." Imagine that the next person you'll meet is your best friend from elementary school, whom you haven't seen in decades. Shake the person's hand as though he were that person. Cover both hands with your free hand, and count off three seconds before releasing.

Don't wait until the end of a conversation to exchange contact information, he advises. He carries a digital camera to events and snaps pictures of people he wants to remember. When he follows up with an e-mail, he attaches photos.

It's tough for me to swallow all of Binazir's ideas. I've never meditated, I'm not interested in conversing with a piece of furniture, and I don't know any party tricks. I find it enough work to strike up an engaging conversation without trying to calculate the moment to snap a photograph. Besides, I'd feel embarrassed doing so.

Other networking professionals I interviewed disagree with several of Binazir's tactics. Don Crowther, an online marketing consultant at 101PublicRelations.com, says you should wait until a conversation's close before exchanging contact information. Marcie Schorr Hirsch, a career coach and consultant with Hirsch/Hills Consulting, says it's unrealistic to be so strategic about working a room. "Networking is a non-linear function," she insists.

Nicholas Boothman, the author of How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less, says it's better to start in the middle of a room rather than skimming the periphery. But Boothman also maintains that working a room is a fallacy anyway. "It's nonsense," he says. "People who work a room are off-putting to other people." At large social or business events, your goal should be to make connections with two or three people, he says. "That can be much more valuable than flitting around like a social butterfly."

In that case, maybe I'm not so bad at this networking thing after all.

Awesome Random Facts - Part 1

Awesome Random Facts - Part 1

By May Rostom

 

There are facts we need to know, facts that everyone knows, and facts that we’re totally un-aware of simply because we didn’t look them up. Well, this week’s facts include random pieces of information that cannot be ignored.

. The more a person struggles and pushes to try to get out of quicksand the faster they’ll sink. Staying still and calm will actually make the body float in the quicksand as it is less dense than the quicksand is.

. In 1631, two London bible printers accidentally left the word "not" out of the seventh commandment, which then read, "Thou shalt commit adultery." This legendary book is now known as the "Wicked Bible.”

. Marilyn Monroe had six toes.
 The name Jeep came from the abbreviation G.P which is used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle.

 In Albania, nodding your head means "no" and shaking it means "yes."
 Ringo Starr (drummer for The Beatles) appeared in a Japanese advertisement for apple sauce. Ironically, Ringo means "apple” in Japanese.

  When Kleenex was first introduced 1924 to the market in, it was marketed as a makeup or cold cream remover.

  The accent that Mike Myers uses for the character Shrek came from the accent that his mother used when she told him bedtime stories when he was a child.

  Charlie Chaplin once lost a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
 The YKK engraved on the zipper of your jeans stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer.

“It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that no one has heard before”

Diaries of An Artist

Diaries of An Artist

My name is May El Hossamy, I’m an artist and photographer. I've been working on the Souq El Goma (Friday Market) photography project for 2 years now.

I often went to the Souq, walking past very random collections of items for sale. There was always something about souq el goma that was bringing me back again and again. Visually there was something very attractive about this place. The variety of products, people, and the smells was striking. It was always hard to comeback.

Having a big camera in the middle of this atmosphere isn't the easiest thing. Some people didn't want to be photographed; they thought I was a journalist documenting the wrong things happening in the market. Some other people needed just a word to feel comfortable. Some other people wanted to be photographed. So I had to use instinct to feel who will react how. Who needs to be asked for a photo and who didn't. The experience was worth the hard time I was having sometimes there. There were food, objects, furniture, animals, electronic machines, clothes and so many little pieces of broken dolls, phones and anything you'd imagine and not imagine. From the first time I visited this place I knew I was going to come back, but I never knew that it would be prolonged over two years.

A month ago, the market caught fire. It is a tragedy as the area under Kobry El Tonsy where the souq lies has a long history, and many people lived and worked there. Many antiques were destroyed by the fire and a great deal of people lost their homes and livelihood.

I went after everything has burnt, to take photos. People mistook me for a journalist like they always did, only this time they wanted to talk to me, this time they needed to be seen and heard. They needed to talk about their loss, lack of governmental support, and how the authorities ordered them to leave this area and go to Khamastashar Mayo, a city next to Helwan. I was there to listen, and I suddenly found myself no longer taking photos, but making a film.
 

This body of work is made up of three parts. Photography, showing the market before and after the fire; a video, of 12 minutes documenting my relationship with the souk, and showing the people talking about the tragedy they are living in since the market went on fire, and since the authorities ordered them to leave this area and go to city of Khamastashar Mayo. The exhibition is accompanied by an installation made out of burnt objects collected from the remains of the souq.

 

The exhibition is till the 19th of September, it's opened every day from 10 to 10 and, Thursdays are off. Friday from 4 to 10.

Address

Darb 1718 Kasr El Sham3 Street

Al Fakhareen – Old Cairo

Behind the Hanging Church and Amr Mosque

Tel.:  +2 23 610 511

Awesome Random Facts - Part 2

Awesome Random Facts - Part 2

By May Rostom

Here are a few more facts that might inspire you, amaze you, or simply put a smile on your face. Don’t forget to spill out this week’s facts to all your friends and family (that’s what I do anyway).

.The spray WD-40 got its name because there were forty attempts needed before the creation of the "WaterDisplacing" substance.

.A leech has 32 brains.
.A clown fish and oyster can both change their gender.

Sylvester Stallone once worked as an usher in NYC at Walter Reade Theater while writing screenplays. The star also swept out Bronx Zoo lion cages.

.Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, is neither signed nor dated.

A musical piece called 4 minutes 33 seconds, has no sound at all. It was ' written ' by the American composer John Cage in 1954. A pianist sits at the piano and plays nothing for exactly 4 minutes and 33 seconds.

.In the early 1960's, Porsche commercially manufactured farm tractors.

The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on backwards.

.During the whole of his life, Thomas Edison received only three months of formal schooling, and was dismissed from school as being retarded.

.The name of the character that is behind bars in the Monopoly board game is Jake the Jailbird.

God’s Little Creatures

God’s Little Creatures

By May Rostom

We all hate the little imposters that infest our homes especially during the summer. Whether you despise flies, roaches, or even ants I'm sure you’ll find this week’s facts a little bit amusing.

  A butterfly can see the colors red, green, and yellow.

  The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

  Scientists have actually performed brain surgery on cockroaches.

  Some worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food!

  Ants don't sleep.

 Only female mosquitoes bite humans. Male mosquitoes live on natural liquids from plants and other resources.

  The spider used in the 2002 movie Spider-Man was a Steatoda spider, not a black widow. The spider was given anesthesia, and was then painted blue and red.

  A cockroach can hold its breath for up to 40 minutes.

  Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight.

  Flies vomit on food before eating it. They can only consume liquids so their vomit is a tool to liquefy their food.

And as Bill Vaughan once said “We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.”

Chuck Norris Facts

Chuck Norris Facts

By May Rostom

Back in 2005, an internet phenomenon begun where the American television host Conan O’Brien inspired a fad on listing a few Chuck Norris jokes. Now, five years later the internet is full of extremely funny, multi-cultured, and even translated Chuck Norris facts (i.e. jokes). All the jokes about the Walker, Texas Ranger are absurd hyperbolic claims about Norris’ attitude, masculinity, toughness, and sophistication. Here are my all time favorite jokes; if you know better ones feel free to comment (that’s what Chuck would do).

  1When Chuck Norris falls in water, Chuck Norris doesn't get wet. Water gets Chuck Norris.
2. Chuck Norris’ house has no doors, only walls that he walks through.
3. Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
4. Chuck Norris doesn’t shave; he kicks himself in the face. The only thing that can cut Chuck Norris is Chuck Norris.

5Chuck Norris grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage.
6. Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
7. Chuck Norris invented the Caesarean section when he roundhouse-kicked his way out of his mother's womb.

  8Chuck Norris doesn't bowl strikes, he just knocks down one pin and the other nine faint.
9. It takes Chuck Norris 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
10. Chuck Norris once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.
11. Chuck Norris does not need to break an egg to make an omelet.
12. Chuck Norris once kicked a horse in the chin. Its descendants are known today as Giraffes.

 13When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
14. Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

  15Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.
16. Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.
17.  There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.
18. When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up; he's pushing the Earth down.

  19Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch. HE decides what time it is.
20. Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.
21. Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost.
22. Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding
23. There used to be a street named after Chuck Norris, but it was changed because nobody crosses Chuck Norris and lives.

  24Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas.
25. Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because Chuck Norris only recognizes the element of surprise.

 26Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack. His heart isn't nearly foolish enough to attack him

  27If you spell Chuck Norris in Scrabble, you win. Forever.
28. Google won't search for Chuck Norris because it knows you don't find Chuck Norris, he finds you.

  29Chuck Norris doesn't mow his lawn, he stares at it and dares it to grow.
30. When Chuck Norris looks at himself at a mirror, there is no reflection. There can only be one Chuck Norris.

The “Dan” theory

The “Dan” theory

By: May Rostom

Right, so here I am with a bowl of ice cream at 3 AM getting prepared to tell you the weirdest thing I've heard so far. A couple of days ago I ran into an old friend of mine. Dan is in his 20’s, has a girlfriend (a really pretty one too), he’s the real life Ben Stiller (which in my opinion is a good thing), funny, stylish and outgoing.

So, Dan tries to catch up and asks me what I've been up to, hence I gave him a brief about everything, knowing that the guy is probably un-interested and is just asking out of politeness. Not wanting to skimp on any of the details, I added the phrase “I got engaged”!

Every time I tell someone this extremely short phrase, I expect fireworks and bright colored lights, and usually that’s what I get, but with Dan, things were different. “You got engaged? Awww ma’alesh!” were his exact words (which basically translates into “OUCH”), it’s like I told him my puppy just died! I couldn’t help but reply “ma’alesh? That’s weird” and at that moment I did feel fireworks, just not the ones that light up the sky, but more like the ones that blow up in your face. At that point Dan realized the mistake he made and knew that he took me by surprise so he told me he’d explain.

It all started with a “congratulations” of course, but being the direct person I usually am, I said “really? Congrats or ma’alesh?” so he was like, “May, let me introduce you to the Dan theory”.

Basically, the Dan theory revolves around the fact that most guys don’t want to date a girl who was previously engaged (that’s why he feels sorry for me because simply if anything goes wrong with my engagement, I’ll die alone!) Shocked? Wait till you hear the rest of it. “What’s wrong with being engaged Danny? At least my parents know and I have a ring to show for it” was all I could come up with at the time. 

Dan started arguing the fact that since the girl’s parents know about the guy, it gives the girl the right to hold her fiancés hand, hug him whenever she feels like it, throws kisses at him in public and be more outgoing than she’d normally be (which of course is just pure crap!). That’s why the Dan theory suggests that guys can date girls who have dated before but should never date a previously engaged girl! Puzzled? Hang on!

“Dan, don’t you think that’s a bit weird? Dating is like being engaged only worse because you’re definitely hiding something from your parents and it’s frowned upon in most cultures, plus when you know you can’t have something, it makes you want it more”.

Dan agreed to what I said which kind of relieved me but only for a minute because he then said that when a girl dates there’s a chance that she’d control her relationship with the guy and simply put limits for the both of them not to cross but if she were engaged, she doesn’t have to put limits because her parents already know she's with someone and for some reason our middle eastern culture is ok with it. All I could come up with at that time was a chuckle, a nod and a simple “ma’alesh this theory ever existed”.

That brief but enlightening conversation kept me awake all night wondering, is it just Dan or every Man? I went online to look for other men that had the same concept (on blogs and various websites); of course all I could find was irrelevant advice on how not to date while being engaged (DUH!) which made me happy to be honest that it might be just Dan after all.

I started asking my guy friends about what they thought of the Dan theory and the responses I got were actually eye-openers. Some guys preferred the previously engaged girl because that’ll make her weak and vulnerable to any man (control freak!), others preferred her because she would have relationship experience which would make dealing with her much easier (i.e.: less fights and more cuddles) , a lot of guys wouldn’t answer the question because they said it would depend on the girls morals and her relationship with her ex-fiancé, some guys wanted to stay clear of the engaged one because she’d want to get re-engaged soon plus they were ok with girls who have had previous boyfriends because “who doesn’t have one these days”, and finally there’s Jimmy , the one guy who picked the previously engaged girl because this shows her qualities of seriousness and commitment in a relationship (thumbs up Jim).

Then it hit me, not all girls are alike, not all men are either, and certainly not all relationships work out, so if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be and if not I'm sure God has better plans the Dan’s, so love to love and be loved all you want because in the end emotions are what make us the people we are! To all the Dans out there that kept me up all night, remember what they say “The open-minded see the truth in different things; the narrow-minded see only the differences.” (IN YOUR FACE!)

WORDS WORDS WORDS Facts

WORDS WORDS WORDS Facts

By May Rostom

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes, the mattress tightened therefore making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase "goodnight, sleep tight."

  A baby kangaroo is called a joey
 Attics were invented in Attica.
 “Rhythm” is the longest English word without a vowel.
 In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word

  Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions.
 It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the "honeymoon".

  A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; a group of geese in the air is a skein.
 Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive and Clinophobia is the fear of beds.
 The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable

  No word in the English language rhymes with “month, orange, silver and purple”.
 Oscar Wilde and his friends came up the with the word "dude." It came from the words "duds" and "attitude."

  The little circles of paper that are cut out after a paper has been punched by a hole-puncher are called "chad."
 Limelight was how the stage was before electricity was invented. Basically, illumination was produced by heating blocks of lime until they glowed.
 A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second

The wise Shakespeare once said “When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain”