Needs Must and the Devil

Needs Must. We all say it or think it, don't we? I just thought it a few minutes ago upon considering that I might have to do something that not only would be forced to do something that I would hope to avoid and that, in doing it, I would likely need to make the second best choice because that is what would work best overall.

Don't ask.

However, it was only recently that I came across the original full phrase in a novel: "Needs must when the devil drives." Google AI explains it thusly: "You have no choice but to do something difficult or unpleasant because your current situation forces you to do it."

I see the full saying as just a little bit more nuanced than the "Needs must" that we all commonly say.

Further information that, apparently, was posted on Tumblr. I do not know how to get to the original post to cite it correctly, but it seems that gloriascott93 reposted from cupidford.

The phrase is old. In earlier texts it is almost always given in its fuller form - needs must when the devil drives. that is, if the devil is driving you, you have no choice. This dates back to Middle English texts, for example Assembly of Gods, circa 1500: “He must nedys go that the deuell dryues.”

Shakespeare used the phrase several times; for example, in All’s Well That Ends Well, 1601:

Countess: Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry.
Clown: My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.

The phrase became pared down to needs must during the 20th century and, even in that short form, it is rather archaic-sounding and is fading from popular use. This despite a high-profile appearance on TV in Blackadder II, 1985: “Needs must when the devil vomits into your kettle.”

 

A Classic Beauty

I am not a car guy, perhaps because I have never been able to afford a hot ride. Who knows? I purchase practical cars that are close to what my budget will tolerate although they are always too expensive. Then, I try to get the most out of them, the present car being a 2010 model that we purchased used in 2014.

Budgetary issues aside, I don't think I ever would have been a car guy, but if I were, I'd be drawn to two classic models: the '57 Chev and the '65 Mustang.

Yesterday, we spotted a 57 Chevy in the grocery store parking lot. While I do not prefer the colour, I shot the car regardless: one photo from the front and one from the back. When I got home, I was inspired to extract them from the busy distractions around them and put the two extracted photos into one frame. I asked AI for a deserted urban parking lot, and it decided to give me a parking garage, but at least it was deserted as requested.

You may have noticed that I have been invoking AI more than usual this month, and I have run out of credits until almost the end of the month. This is very sad news. I could purchase more, but I would have to purchase more than I require, and they would be erased at the end of the months, which is extra sad news.

Candle and Benches

I posted this candle last week but decided yesterday that it needed both a flame and a message. I played with it a bit in the morning before walkie and shopping.

On our walk, I photographed a red bench ↓ with the subsequent bend in the adjacent path. Sue was looking for bends that day, so I looked too.

At home, I discovered that a tighter crop works better for me. I don't know why I didn't see it on site, but I did have the bend in the path in mind, and I can have a pretty one-track mind. Also, I am more patient in the editing phase than I am with the camera.

As you can see by the colour and the maple leaf, it is a very Canadian bench.

I found another bench in the same park. In processing, the subtle beginning tinges of autumn were more visible than in person. Somehow the editing overdid the colour, but it suits me and the season too, I think.

Five Tidbits

Blogger is being weird. Back in the mists of time, I guess I asked for comments to be forwarded to my email. They never were, not more than maybe 3x for the occasional random comment in all of the years. Now, while nothing else seems to be working properly, I finding forwarded comments in my mailbox. Go figure. Note: I wrote that yesterday, and I think the emails ave stopped again already so soon this morning.

For those having trouble getting into Feedly (as an alternative to Blogger's blogroll), I forget the specific signup procedure because it has been so long since I had to do that, but I know that the process isn't onerous. I think what you have to do from there, is to find the url of the site that you wish to follow, and paste it into the search box (magnifying glass). From there I believe that you can follow the site in perpetuity if you so choose. I know it seems like a bit of a procedure, but once it is established, it should work for you for a long time.

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We went back to the door in the fence because Sue required cobblestones for a prompt. There are no cobblestones that we could think of in this town, but then, I remembered the little path to the door in the fence. Sue got her photo, and I took another shot because I wanted to get even lower than last time. I don't know why; it is just how I wanted to photograph this object.

With my phone at ground level and me not, I couldn’t see what see the screen, so before I got that ↑ photo I got this ↓ unexpected, funny shot.

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I really don’t mean to @ you with every bicycle ride, but we got to the end of our little section of the trail this time, so I captured Sue with the signage when we stopped to turn.

In case you can’t read it the small section up top says Trans Canada Trail. 

Only 6k but two consecutive days leave the old legs a bit rubbery. I’ll take some solace in the fact that it is not the easiest riding because it is a rough path, not asphalt. Of course, that wouldn’t have bothered me once upon a time. 

One more thing: wild asters were glowing by the watery section when we stopped for a little break. 

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Sue shot a selfie, or I guess you could call it more of a self-portrait because she set the camera up and wasn't holding it in typical selfie fashion.

I liked it as was, but I softened the background and lightened the facial shadows, just a touch.

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Do you remember the baby that the flamingo lily was birthing. It is now about one-third thee size of the only other flower om the plant. This plant moves so slowly. It has taken more than a month for the flower to progress from being almost unnoticeable to one-third its eventual size. This is truly remarkable to me.

Turquoise at Cavanaugh Construction

For Sue's turquoise challenge last week, we headed a little way out of town to photograph the trucks at Cavanaugh Construction. It was a challenge indeed.

As you can see, Sue tried her best, but on a bright, contrasty day, I don't think she liked and used any of her many photos for her project.

My photos were also blah, but I did edit one to my satisfaction by removing many distractions, replacing the sky, and editing at will.

On the way out, I stopped to photograph the old bulldozer at the entrance. This also required much editing. I removed many background distractions but was still dissatisfied, so I asked AI to make it a rainy day with lightning.

In the end, I have two images which please me well enough, but it was tough to get to that point, and I deleted many other photos in the process.

Trying the Trail Again

Note: There is a PSA about blogrolls at the end of the post.

We are not exactly burning up the trails, but we did go for another cycle yesterday (Sunday).

We didn’t ride with that ↑ bike, but I thought this is as good a place as any to drop in a photo of this bicycle that we see as an ornamentation downtown.

On our own more prosaic devices, we opted to head for the trail, you know the one where the insects feasted on Sue last time. Our luck held as the cold nights have either ended their season or at least they hadn't warmed up yet on this morning.

As I have mentioned before, we both seem to maintain our balance fairly well, but when Sue wanted to stop to get shots of oncoming cyclists, I was glad to stop wile they passed because I do feel a little unsure and wobbly when they whiz by on that fairly narrow trail.

We made other stops: one where we ride by a swampy area and another by the farm field where we turned around. We could have gone a little farther, but my ancient legs were hinting that I should exercise prudence.

Since our return trip would take us by Dark & Deadly, we decided to park our bikes and go in for  a coffee. We didn't have our bike lock, but we sat right by the window to keep an eye on things, and you might see the handlebars very faintly behind Sue. The Score (as in toffee) coffee was quite wonderful. I sometimes try the flavours there, and I have found that I like Score. I like the real chocolate bar too, but that is a whole uhter thang.

There is usually a new monster in there, or at least one that is freshly dressed, so I took a few photos, but I think I might save them. October and Halloween are coming after all.

However, this ↓ is our summary. Such summaries were not a thing 20 years ago when we cycled much more often and much farther too. We rode only 6.35km, but I think that is the most yet. We stopped a lot for pictures, so I don't know how accurate the average speed is. I had a moderate heart rate of 102 while pedalling.

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PSA

Before Blogger had proper blogrolls I found a reader program called Feedly at feedly.com. It has been working for me while Blogger has, apparently (from what I read on various blogs), been fumbling its blogrolls. Of course Feedly will want you to upgrade to get more features, but the unpaid version works well for me and has for many, many years. I can access it through my browser on the computer or via an app on the phone or tablet. You have to get the url of the blog you want to follow and then paste it into the Feedly search function, and then you should be good to go. I am sure that Blogger will correct the blogroll problem in due course, but you might like Feedly better regardless.

Here's a sample screenshot.

Photogenic Nick

When I at coffee with the boys, I sometimes take candids of Nick. I find that he is an interesting subject, maybe it is the hair.

From my birthday lunch

This week, I took my mini tripod-like device to show the boys at coffee, and I clicked a few photos from my watch.

I took that photo using an Apple portrait mode and did very little post-editing, but I was stuck with the reflections on his glasses. Although, Lightroom has an algorithm to deal with reflections, it really only applies to big windows as far as I can tell. Removing reflections manually is beyond my skillset, and even if I could, I wasn't about to invest a huge amount of time in a candid photo.

In the event, I asked AI to remove the reflections, but it just changed the glasses and did other alterations with his eyes. It did a good enough job, but the point is that it didn't just replace the glasses themselves but rebuilt that part of Nick's face. I don't think one would ever know, however; it is still unmistakably Nick.

With or without, he is kinda a cool-looking dude.