Managing with Good Humor
Mrs. Bliss’s Husband
- When Daniel and Abby Bliss first arrived in Syria, they stayed with Mr. Calhoun. Mrs. Bliss immediately drew the curiosity of local women, who examined her hair and attire. When she greeted them in Arabic but admitted she was still learning the language, they laughed and exclaimed, “She tells us in Arabic she does not know Arabic!”
- In a letter dated December 15, 1873, Daniel Bliss affectionately wrote to his wife: “My own precious and popular wife… You seem to have so many callers and visitors—I should think you were the Governor’s wife. Of course, your house is known as Mrs. Bliss’s house, and the children as Mrs. Bliss’s children—and oh, I shall be Mrs. Bliss’s husband.”
Seelye and the Missing Pen
- A humorous story circulated among students about Professor Rev. Laurens Seelye’s insistence on neatness. He once refused a student’s paper because it was not written in ink. When the student explained he did not own a fountain pen, Seelye demanded, “How many times have I told you to bring one along? Where is your darned pen?” The student answered that he lost it. Seelye asked him to buy another one, but when the student admitted he could not afford one, Seelye, famous for his sharp wit, dryly replied, “Then steal one!”
Van Dyck’s Wit
- One day, students were debating whether the Earth rotates or is still, a question they felt might conflict with their religious beliefs. One student decided to ask Dr. Van Dyck for clarification. He went to the doctor’s house while Van Dyck was asleep and insisted that the servant wakes him. When the student asked whether the Earth rotates or is still, Van Dyck, clearly annoyed, asked the student’s age. Upon hearing that he was forty, the doctor dryly replied, “The Earth used to turn, but it stopped forty years ago,” leaving the student amused, embarrassed, and puzzled.
- On another occasion, Van Dyck asked his servant to complete several chores. Frustrated, the servant muttered, “I cannot do all of this—it is too much I cannot prepare tables and mables, dishes and mishes, chairs and fairs!” Van Dyck calmly said, “I will lighten your load. You take care of the tables, chairs, and dishes, and I will handle the rest.”
- A story narrated by one of the first SPC graduates, Naoum Moghabghab, about Van Dyck’s humor. A daily aide, fearful of losing his job, practiced saying “Good morning, sir” in English with the help of some students. Not knowing English at all he kept repeating it, by the time he saw Van Dyck the next morning, the term came out as “kidmani sar,” meaning “walk in front of me” in Arabic. Van Dyck joked, “Laysh khilfani kan?!” (“Why—I used to walk behind you!”), and both laughed.
- When students asked Van Dyck why girls love lemons, he wittily replied, “Because they are sweet—so they become lemonade.”
Post’s Humorous Wisdom
- At a dinner in one of the locals’ houses, Post was repeatedly urged to eat more, accompanied by the phrases “mishani, kirmali, w el akel ʿa kad el mahabbeh” (“for my sake, out of kindness, and the food is as abundant as the affection”). By the end, he was overfull. Before leaving, he asked for water for his horse, and observing his horse drinking only as much as needed, Post remarked, “My horse is wiser than I am—it drank only what it needed and refused to hurt itself.”
- When Post built his house, much of the campus was still inhabited by jackals, snakes, and rats. He gave a shoemaker a rifle to deal with snakes. For the rats, he devised a clever trick: he asked his servant to catch a rat and placed a small onion inside the back of the living rat and released it. The rat, irritated, attacked others in its burrow. The next day, dozens of rats had been killed by their angry companion.
Ras Beirut’s Lupin Craze
A popular story told of Dr. Graham purchasing lupin beans from a street vendor. Seeing him do so, the families of Ras Beirut assumed the beans held special qualities or benefits. Convinced they must be valuable, they all hurried to the same vendor, eager to imitate Dr. Graham’s choice.