THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - VICISSITUDES

My Uncle Eddie was a rather unsympathetic character except for his own personal woes, which, according to him, were many.  Whenever anyone complained to him, his stock response was, "That's the vicissitudes of life." What he meant was, "This is about you, and I don't want to hear any more."

Since I've been accused of being overly concerned about correct grammar usage, I do realize that Uncle Eddie's statement is not grammatically correct.  The statement is a quote, an exact quote - I know because I heard the words often.

Perhaps I should have titled the post "Uncle Eddie's Thought For the Day", but the thought is mine, though the words belong to Eddie.  Eddie was a character in more ways than I can count.

UPDATE: Len wanted to know a bit more about Uncle Eddie, the character.

I remember Eddie calling his wife and my aunt, "Evaaa, bring me a glass of water," as he sat in his chair. She would. Eddie was puny and had asthma, but we were never quite sure how sick he was - surely not too sick to get a glass of water. Eva coddled him, and maybe she was right to do so.

Eddie's major claim to fame was that he once played with the New Orleans Pelicans minor league baseball team back in the day before a man had to be a hulk to play baseball.  Also, he proudly carried the name of an old New Orleans French family.

Before she met Eddie, Aunt Eva dated a Baptist gentleman for 20 years, but they never married because Dukey (real name John Blank) would not agree to raise their children Roman Catholic. When it was nearly past time for them to have children, Eva was suddenly swept off her feet by Eddie, and they eloped. Eddie was divorced, and, of course, there could be no church wedding, but suddenly that was not so very important to Eva. We never could figure out what was so attractive about Eddie to cause her to do such a thing.  Perhaps she was intrigued by taking on the old French family name, for there was not a whole lot else about Eddie that the rest of the family considered impressive.  He may have been a bit of a wit, but I can't remember any specific witticisms.