"First Requisites: I. Belief in yourself. 2. Pride in your work. 3. Useful hands, clear eyes, and good breath."
Taken from Ali Baba's Roycroft Dictionary.
Coming soon, the Ali Baba Block Party to benefit the restoration of the Roycroft Campus Power House. The party, sponsored by the Roycroft Inn, will be held on Friday the 14th of September, 2007. Check the Roycroft Inn website for more details.
"ALBANY: 1) A place beyond which Henry Hudson could not go. 2) The lobby of the White House. 3) Famous in history by the biennial meetings of the Blackmailer's Club. 4) Any place wherein a capitol is burned at a pre-established psychological moment. (There is a famous proverb which says, "Those who are in Albany escaped Sing Sing, and those who are in Sing Sing were on their way to Albany.")
Taken from The Roycroft Dictionary, Concocted on Rainy Days for the Divertisement of the Gloomsters.
"Immortality: 1) A reward given to infidels and atheists by a somewhat humorous God, for not groveling before Him and annoying Him with importunities 2) A system of punishment for suicides which makes suicide impossible, thereby putting one over on the ingrate who was tired of the gift of life by compelling him to live forever, willy-nilly. 3) A valueless thing, because unlimited in quantity, which those hotly intent upon achieving will forfeit through the law which provides that that for which we clutch we lose. 4) A condition sought by political officeholders where the incumbent never either dies or resigns. 5) A state of being encouraged by annuitants, and those who live in the Garden of Allah-Money. 6) A flimflam offer by a theologian of inchoate title to improved real estate in the Sky for real estate rentals and cash on Earth. 7) A doctrine that the rich teach the poor for good and sufficient reasons. 8) Divine Compensation for the starving. 9) A superfluous addition to life; to go on living after one desires and hopes to remain dead."
Taken from The Roycroft Dictionary, Concocted on Rainy Days for the Divertisement of the Gloomsters
Bad luck on Friday the 13th is only a superstition which Elbert Hubbard defined as follows:
" Superstition: 1) Scrambled science flavored with fear. 2) Ossified metaphor."
This appears in The Roycroft Dictionary, concocted on Rainy Days for the Divertisement of the Gloomsters. Ali Baba is given credit for the volume but Hubbard surely had a hand in it.
"Agriculturalist: One who makes his money in town and blows it in the country."
Taken from Ali Baba's Roycroft Dictionary.
These signs of spring await the visitor to the Roycroft Campus Corporation's Copper Shop, Gift and Gallery Shop. Can (re)construction be far behind?
Roycroft Campus Gift Shop and Gallery Open daily 10 am- 5 pm daily
"Prosecutor: 1) One who abets a crime after it has or has not been committed. 2) An oratorical censor that precedes the coming of the hangman. 3) A pumice-stone that gives to the Statue of Justice a cleanly, Christian look. 4) A nose that can sniff the gallows, long before the wood is cut for it in the forest."
Taken from the Roycroft Dictionary, Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days
"Abnormal: To have intelligence, character or genius; to be less stupid than one's neighbor; to be better than the worst; to be one's self. E.g., the writer of these lines".
From the Roycroft Dictionary, Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days
Ali Baba, Elbert Hubbard's handyman, was known for some of Hubbard's more colorful creations. For example, the Roycroft Dictionary by Ali Baba and the Bunch, the source of all the Roycroft Dictionary entries on this blog.
Who was this man? Anson Alonzo Blackman was born in 1839, worked for a breeder of race horses until he came to work for Hubbard in 1884. He cared for Hubbard's horses, gardens and even his children from time to time. Hubbard claimed the nickname, Ali Baba, came from Elbert's son Bert, who as a child, could not pronounce the name 'Blackman'. Thus Ali Baba got his name.
Ali Baba was often featured in caricatures by W.W. Denslow, one of the famous Roycroft Artists. If Hubbard wanted it said, but not be quoted, Ali Baba said it for him. The house where Anson Blackman and his wife lived is just down the street from the Roycroft Inn. Plan to stroll down historic Oakwood Avenue in East Aurora and see where some of the famous folks of that day lived.
Stop by the Copper Shop and see what's happening there. Shop's open 10-5 every day!
We're calling your attention to the release of the publication THE FRA
Those who are attending the Arts & Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC are among the first to view the third annual edition of the modern The FRA. This latest issue will soon be in the mail to members of the Roycroft Campus Corporation (RCC). If you have failed to become a member now is a good time to become a supporter of the restoration project of the early 20th century Roycroft Campus. Becoming a member is easy. Check the RCC website at www.roycroftcampuscorporation.com
Noting in The Roycroft Dictionary, concocted by Ali Baba, I call your attention to this definition:
"Attention: Concentration of the mind on whatever will ultimately put something in the pocket; hence, in law and politics, the frame-up."
Repartee: Any remark which is so clever that it makes the listener wish he had said it himself.
Definition taken from The Roycroft Dictionary Concocted by Ali Baba and the Bunch on Rainy Days Done Into a Printed book by the Roycrofters at Their Shop for the Divertisement of the Gloomsters MCMXIV
