Welcome to Wise Hat!
Esoteric, eclectic, electric, eccentric - these are just some of the words that appear on this page. Here are some more:
Can you spare some change?
I'm not thinking about money.
There's an old story about a king (for some reason it's always a king) that was prone to excess. When he was feeling on top of the world his largesse knew no bounds. He showered his favourites with goodies and ran up huge deficits in the process. He was just killing the kingdom with kindness. But then, when he was down, his fear and loathing ran rampant. Yesterday's favourite was the day's danger and the prisons would be filled to overflowing. Even with the inmates working for no wages it cost a fortune. Bankruptcy and ruin were but a breath away. The kingdom was desperate for respite.
So the king commanded his advisers to find some third way to help him keep the middle ground. And being a king, and this being a story, he commanded them on pain of death.
Now, it's said that fear of death focuses the mind wonderfully. But not by this author. Fear feeds fear and fear of death feeds death. The king had all but run out of advisers when his mood changed and he came up with the idea of offering half his kingdom and the hand of his daughter in marriage to the one who found a solution. Not fancying any of the advisors his daughter was quick to offer a suggestion. She presented the king with a ring upon which were inscribed four simple words.
Now those of you who know your stories and those of you with good eyesight may well think you know what the words were. You may think that the king was touched by his daughter's wisdom and learnt to live without excess. After all, the story supposes, the king was just a man and as such just needed a reminder to be good.
Not on your life, and not on mine.
The real problem was less the king than the notion of kingship. Of course, a tyrant is worse than a non tyrant but what people in their right minds or their left ones would give one man so much power? Why would they submit to such a structure? Why accept something so baseless and unjust?
Fear, greed, disdain, ego - more words that appear on this page, but hopefully are not manifest elsewhere in this site.
This introduction seems to be going on a bit. There's a switch somewhere near the top of the page that will hide it. The same switch is on most pages. There's a certain element of randomness running through the site and the switch can be used to hide it. The randomness contributes to a further sprinkling of juxtaposition.
Anything that helps us to think and to feel is surely a good thing. This site is about change. Best get on with it.
Word Doodle
November 2004
Happy New Year!
For a few days only see my New Year Card for 2013
Capital gains - democracy wanes
Time to bottle up the top
Time to reverse the flow
Life isn't fair because we make it so
Resolution : distribution
Get a taste for change
Give your mortal coil a shake
Happy year of the snake
Dice Stack
A simple activity to practice numbers Read more...
The Dragon's Hoard
In Western tradition dragon's keep vast secret stores of treasure. This board game combines practising asking for permission with vocabulary review. Currently pdf files are available for download. Read more...
Link of the Moment:
Correct the following:
Everything comes to he who wails
The end justifies the nails
Necessity is the mother of death
Many a false word is spoken in jest
Those who live by the sword die by the gun
All that glitters is not fun
Man does not live by money alone
You can't squeeze blood from a throne
The king is dead, long live the people
Hierarchy is the root of all evil
Look before you splat
Curiosity cured the cat.
This page updated by Chris (Hunt), 1st January 2013
