Alexander Pope (1688-1744) plots his revenge on critics

Mike's Pith & Wind - Can I quote you?
‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ is a well enough known quotation, but I’m guessing that most people don’t know its origin or its author, or that in fact it’s a popular misquotation. I dimly remember studying the ‘poem’ from which it’s drawn as a callow school boy at Christ’s. Entitled An Essay on Criticism it’s more of a dissertation really and I don’t remember anything of what I was told about Alexander Pope’s motivation in writing it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he hadn’t been stung by some ill-informed criticism of his work by somebody he despised, or perhaps worse, pitied.
The actual line is: ‘A little Learning is a dang'rous thing‘and you can mull over what difference that makes while you’re mowing the lawns one day and you’ll probably be none the wiser - except that it’s ironic that that particular line (line 217 by the way, and you’re still only half way through) has been misquoted.
Incidentally, I would thoroughly recommend An Essay on Criticism to be read by yer typical Gen X or Y’er, brought up on a solid diet of uncritical parental support and headed to the top of whatever field within four years before moving on, but you know they wouldn’t get past the first couple of verses without a line of coke and a blow job.
Perhaps I can do them a favour and sum up what I think it’s about by way of the following story. (To be honest I couldn’t be bothered reading the whole thing this time round either). Some years ago I got friendly with a bank teller girl who worked at the Bank of Melbourne. (That’s before it was subsumed by Westpac.. read more

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Dick's Toolbox - Democracy, Oi, Oi, Oi!
Whilst we may lament much about both state and federal governments in Australia, their imperfections pale beside the majority of other governments around the world. Dissidents are not jailed, tortured, or shot. Politicians of all persuasions, credibility and intelligence get to tell their story without fear of disappearing in the middle of the night. Voting is carried out in a scrupulously honest and transparent manner - except within outlying branches of the Labor Party approaching a by-election - where it may not occur at all. The voting franchise is largely universal for all citizens over the age of eighteen independent of race, creed, sex or religion. Even donkeys get to vote.
Tanks and soldiers do not appear outside either Federal Parliament in Canberra or the Victorian State assemblies in Spring Street. We have no Senior Prelates, Mullahs or priests dictating the form of our daily lives. We do.. read more