Happiness is the rye, and the straw thereof

In champion countrie a pleasure they take

To mow up their haume, for to brew and to bake:

The haume is the straw of the wheat or the rie

Which once being reaped, they mow by and by. 

-- Thomas Tusser

Happiness is the vivid imagination of Shakespeare

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I told John of Gaunt he beat his own name; for you might have truss'd him and all his apparel into an eel-skin: the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a court.

-- William Shakespeare, Henry IV Part 2, III.2

Happiness is the sweet oblivion of country life

Oh, could I see my country-seat!

There leaning near a gentle brook,

Sleep, or peruse some ancient book;

And there in sweet oblivion drown

Those cares that haunt the court and town.

 

-- Jonathan Swift

Happiness is Reformation Day, October 31st every year since 1517

 Perhaps you've heard of it?

 

Happiness is Don Ho singing his 1966 hit "Tiny Bubbles"

 

Happiness is savory with sweet

On smoaking lard they dine;

A sav'ry bit that serv'd to relish wine. 

-- John Dryden

Happiness is The Five Reasons Why Men Drink

 

 

If on my theme I rightly think,

There are five reasons why men drink:—

Good wine; a friend; because I'm dry;

Or lest I should be by and by;

Or — any other reason why.

 

-- Henry Aldrich (1647-1710)

Happiness is the one thousand year old oak tree

The King Oak of Denmark may date as early as the first century AD

 

 

 

The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,

Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees;

Three centuries he grows, and three he stays

Supreme in state; and in three more decays.

 

-- John Dryden

Happiness is the champion of Genovese pesto, Roberto Panizza

 

Happiness is Tim Hawkins doing inappropriate songs for when she's walkin' down the aisle

 

Happiness is grill smoke

If from adown the hopeful chops

The fat upon a cinder drops,

To stinking smoke it turns the flame.

 

-- Jonathan Swift

Happiness is nutbrown ale

Young and old come forth to play,

Till the live-long daylight fail,

Then to the spicy nutbrown ale.

-- John Milton

Happiness is learning your water heater isn't leaking and putting all that water on the basement floor

 

Happiness is my Norwegian Forest Cat all vaxxed up and raring to go

 

Happiness is 1937's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"

 

Happiness is a pleasant, productive Saturday

✓ The humidity dropped into the 40s and the temperature into the 50s.

✓ The windows were opened and the oven cleaned.

✓ The wheel bearing job on the old car was finished.

 

✓ Weeds on the sidewalk were torched.

 

✓ Groceries were sorted and frozen.

 

✓ Pizzas were made from scratch, as usual.

 

✓ Jeeves and Wooster provided the entertainment with a cottage set ablaze.

 

✓ The internet and the phone came back.

 

✓ Power was restored after four days without.

 

✓ And the generators finally fell silent.

 

 

Happiness is discovering it's not the COVID, just the English food

 

Happiness is seeing The Four Lads perform their 1953 hit "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" live in 2014

Featuring left to right Frank Busseri, Harry Duvall, John Hasselback, and Don Farrar.

Only Frankie, who died in 2019, was an original member of the group.

 

 

Happiness is an Amadeus (1984) joke

 

Tihs ym tae.

Happiness is I Wanna Be Sedated, Ramones 1978, especially these days