Humorous Wedding Speech Delivered by the Best Man -- Wedding Toasts Ro

Humorous Wedding Speech Delivered by the Best Man Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. First of all, I’d like congratulate the groom (bridegroom) on a very enjoyable speech - which has raised the expectation of my speech to a level that I cannot possibly hope to fulfill now. Thanks for that! Now I know I’m expected to say this but it really is an honor being John’s best man. He’s a very popular person with many close friends, so when he asked me to do this job I was extremely pleased and very proud – and I hope he remembers that sentimental moment just as well as I do. We’d been having a few drinks in Bournemouth one Saturday night, when John stumbled over towards me, belched a couple of times, put his arm around my shoulder and said, ‘Jason, I’m getting married in May as you know, and I suppose I’ve got to ruin someone’s day, so I’d like it to be yours.’ My mind immediately turned to the speech. So in preparation, and yes this was prepared, I asked John and Sabrina for a complete list of everyone present, broken down by age and sex. But, looking round, I can’t see anyone who isn’t. (Laughter) What an excellent venue this is though, and seeing these two families together is an interesting experience. I can certainly see where Sabrina got her brains and good looks from, and John his limitless capacity to eat and drink. John is able to mix beers, wines and spirits with considerable ease and c... ...too Sabrina.’ For it’s no lie to suggest that John recollections are often triggered by memories of food. If you ask him a question, like ‘remember that day we played golf in the thunder?’ he’ll come back with ‘oh, that day we got ham, egg and chips in the club house.’ To bring things to a conclusion, I'd like to thank you all for your attention. And if anyone hasn’t yet bought John and Sabrina a wedding present, I hear that they need a new shower rail for the bathroom. The last one, according to John, 'just fell off' – like they do. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a toast to the happy couple, John and Sabrina. I know you're going to be great together - God bless you and good luck to you both.

A World Lit Only by Fire

A World Lit Only By Fire, a magnificent book written by William Manchester transform the way people saw the medieval and the renaissance times. He portraits a very vivid image of that time opening our eyes to what really happen to the people who lived that era. The book is divided into three parts: The Medieval Mind, The Shattering and the last part, One Man Alone. The first part of the book introduce us to a new perspective and understanding of what the author believe, thanks to his investigations, form and mold the medieval mind.The society of this time was one of indifference toward others, corruption, violence, and cruelty. Men of the church were blind by the power the Holy See gave them, and by the name of that same church, the one that was supposed to protect the interest of all the faithful Christian, was the one that cause thousands of innocent deaths. When you read things like this you think that it can’t get worse, but when you keep reading you realize that not even the sins where taken seriously and that corruption was worse than we thought but, the worst part of the situation were the diseases.Education was so ignored by the people that at some point as the people infected with the diseases try to reach for a doctor or a person that can cure them they find themselves without a good treatment just because the ignorance led them to became an illiterate society with a seriously lack of ethics, moral but more important, the base of success, the education.At the end of this part Manchester set very clearly that this society was so insignificant, they were like stock in time, fighting the impossible, the change, a revolution toward a new time fill with amazing thinkers and discoveries but with the same or worse characteristic that define this era, corruption and injustice. This new beginning is the Renaissance. With the re birth of an era the author begins the second part of the book The Shattering.Manchester goes more deeply in the corruption of t he church and the new intellectuals that emerged to expose to the world their ideas of what in their perspective was for example the way to obtain salvation. For example we have Erasmus and Martin Luther, two extraordinary humanists that fought basically against â€Å"The Invincible† the Catholic Church. Both of them spread their ideas of salvation and faith but at the same time they reveal the mistakes and corruption committed by church officials.The Church of that time was sick with the power it have. Especially, the one sick with this power was the head master, The Pope. He was the first to commit mortal sins like murders and incest. Thanks to all the corruption and indifference from the church, the faith of the fellows toward them began to decrease rapidly causing the church to lose a lot of the power they loved so much. The renaissance was an era of change, fighting, and unexpected discoveries made by extraordinary people.This lead us to the final part of the book, One M an Alone, basically concentrated in the trajectory, discoveries, and life of Ferdinand Magellan. He and his voyages will change completely and irrevocably the world as they know it. William Manchester as hi let us know in the note at the beginning of the book almost all of his sources are secondary. Most of these sources are documents and studies about the medieval and renaissance time, but he also uses some primary sources like Life on a Medieval Barony by William Stearns Davis.He pictures the medieval community and experiences very clearly. Another source Manchester uses is works from Dr. Timothy Joyner and James Boyden, both work help the author complete this book with real facts from historians who studied very deeply the medieval and renaissance era. In my honest opinion this is not the type of reading I actually expect to be reading in school. I was expecting something more monotonous, but never expect to find this reading so interesting.Maybe is the fact that most of the them es treated in the book are not new to me. Being this my first time reading from William Manchester I can really say I love his works but I can really tell that if all his books are like this one I will certainly enjoy them. A World Lit Only By Fire has opened the eyes of every single person that read it to the reality of that time it actually make me feel like I was living in that monstrous time but it was a really great experience.However this book is not for everybody the people how read it have to be open mind to the past and most important they have to know how interpret the point of view and critics of the author. Finally William Manchester is a great writer; he knows how to balance between his critics, point of view, and the reality of the facts. Reading this brightening book was worth my summer time and I hope that the books I will be assigned to read in the future are as good as this one.

Amusing Ourselves For Death By Neil Postman - 1475 Words

In the second part of Neil Postman’s book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, the author examines the medium of education in order to exhibit how it has affected and fashioned modern public discourse. Postman uses a two-part argument on the topic of the influence that television has over education. In order to properly demonstrate the authors view and evidence on this subject of discourse, as well as my own, I will explore how television presents education as well as how exactly television has managed to alter education when it is faced outside of television. Postman believes that when the discourse of education is presented on television, its only purpose is to entertain. Education on television is believed to teach youth in a way that they will embrace with open arms due to their prior understanding to television. To further expand on his own viewpoint, Postman makes the claim that television is a curriculum. The author defines a curriculum to be â€Å"a specifically constructed i nformation system whose purpose is to influence, teach, train or cultivate the mind and character of youth† (146). The author makes the claim that rather than achieving its aim to teach and train youth in a more colorful fashion, it instead only draws the young viewer to love the images that are being shown through a screen. The author proposes that television has three separate commandments that make up the values of education. Postman introduces the first commandment, thou shalt have no prerequisites,Show MoreRelatedAmusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman1180 Words   |  5 Pages Neil Postman writes, Amusing Ourselves to Death to address a television-based epistemology pollutes public communication and its surrounding landscape, not that it pollutes everything. The book was produced in 1984 in a time where television was an emerging epidemic and other forms of communication that today have taken flight, didn’t exist. It is directed to people who have let televisi on drag them away from their Focus and attention to comprehend as they have lost the ability to bring forth yourRead MoreAmusing Ourselves For Death By Neil Postman850 Words   |  4 Pagesscreen, so much so that it has shaped our modern form of discourse. In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman discusses the way that television has shaped the American culture. He makes the argument that television has now crept its way into the education system, therefore enforcing the idea that teaching and learning must now be made entertaining. Postman titles the tenth chapter of his book â€Å"Teaching as an Amusing Activity† to introduce his views on the impact television has made on educationRead MoreAnalysis Of Amusing Ourselves To Death By Neil Postman812 Words   |  4 PagesAmusing Ourselves to Death, written by Neil Postman analyzes the true meaning of entertainment and explores how it affects our lives today. â€Å"Entertainment is the action of providing or being provided with amusement or enjoyment,† (dictionary.com). According to Postman television has had an extremely negative effect on the â€Å"public discourse of contemporary America.† Postman compares his book to Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World, which communicates that people are too amused and are becoming weak andRead MoreChapters 1 and 2 Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman Essay1006 Words   |  5 PagesSummary Essay of Amusing Ourselves to Death This is a breakdown of Neil Postmans Amusing ourselves to death(1985), which must be written to explain the effects that high volume of emails, text messages, video games, and internet television has on the human race and the way we think. In the first chapter of the book The Medium is the Metaphor Postman (1985) begins his argument that he presents through out the book. Postman (1985) explains how knowledge is no longer gained from print, butRead MoreAmusing Ourselves For Death : Public Discourse On The Age Of Show Business, By Neil Postman1495 Words   |  6 PagesIn Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Neil Postman familiarizes his readers to his main objective for his argument right away. His strategies to convince his readers of his claim are extraordinarily well and get across to the readers easily. Postman proposes that the public, without recognizing it, is losing its â€Å"autonomy, maturity, and history†. His thesis is that tele vision is changing the way people interact by putting all public rhetoric into on-screen entertainmentRead MoreLogos Ethos Pathos1236 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ In Neil Postman’s novel, Amusing Ourselves to Death, he argues that rationality in America has become dictated by television. Through the use of ethos, pathos, and logos, Postman demonstrates that his claim is valid and reliable. These are three forms of persuasion that are used to influence others to agree with a particular point of view. Ethos, or ethical appeal, is used to build an author’s image. Ethos establishes a sense of credibility and good character for the author (Henning). Pathos, orRead More Postmans Amusing Ourselves to Death Essay678 Words   |  3 PagesPostmans Amusing Ourselves to Death I have just read Postmans Amusing Ourselves to Death. Postman states that the age of typography has been replaced by the age of television. This has changed the way we look at the world and the way we think, which in turn has almost made us less intelligent. Postman speaks his opinions freely, and really gives the reader a new perspective on media, and the effect it has on society. To often we think nothing of what we see and read in the media, but afterRead More Media Corporations Profiting from Violence Essay1425 Words   |  6 Pagesground. A few moments later, the television helicopter landed and began interviewing eyewitnesses. One middle-aged woman looked straight into the camera and deadpanned, Things like this just dont happen in America.    In Amusing Ourselves To Death, Neil Postman states that ...The clearest way to see through a culture is to attend to its tools of conversation. If that is true, then the tool of conversation in America is television. There are more television sets in American homes than thereRead MoreAnalysis Of Neil Postmans Amusing Ourselves To Death959 Words   |  4 Pages In Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death (1985), Postman argues that the information shared with the American populace is shaped by the forms of media that are used. By giving a history of the changing types of American media and the effect that each has on the information given, Postman supports his claim. Postman’s purpose is to prove that media changes the information given to the public in order to call awareness to the validity of our news. Postman writes to an audience who is educatedRead More Truth Exposed in Amusing Ourselves to Death Essay1506 Words   |  7 PagesExposed in Amusing Ourselves t o Death    Neil Postman is deeply worried about what technology can do to a culture or, more importantly, what technology can undo in a culture.   In the case of television, Postman believes that, by happily surrendering ourselves to it, Americans are losing the ability to conduct and participate in meaningful, rational public discourse and public affairs.   Or, to put it another way, TV is undoing public discourse and, as the title of his book Amusing Ourselves to Death