Happy Birthday, Bernie!

"Some look at things that are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were and ask why not?" (George Bernard Shaw)

For those of you unawares (and I'm assuming that's everyone)today is the 150th anniversary of playwright, wit, utopian socialist, nobel-laureate and all-around genius George Bernard Shaw's birth.

Being an English BA-holder and one-time Dubliner, I felt it was right to pay a brief tribute to the Irishman who brought the snide remark and bon mot to a new level.

I love witty writers and GBS is one of my favourites. If I could (will?--here's hoping!)leave a written legacy, I would want my words to be as insightful, sparklingly intelligent and bitingly ironic as his.

Slainte, GB.

K
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George Bernard Shaw once found himself at a dinner party, seated beside an attractive woman. "Madam," he asked, "would you go to bed with me for a thousand pounds?" The woman blushed and rather indignantly shook her head.
"For ten thousand pounds?" he asked. "No. I would not." "Then how about fifty thousand pounds?" he contined.

The colossal sum gave the woman pause, and after further reflection, she coyly replied: "Perhaps." "And if I were to offer you five pounds?" Shaw asked.

"Mr. Shaw!" the woman exclaimed. "What do you take me for!?"

"We have already established what you are," Shaw calmly replied. "Now we are merely haggling over the price."