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- 2863
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- @Fiery energy lanced out, but the beams struck an intangible wall between
- the Gubru and the rapidly turning Earth ship. "Water!", it shrieked as it
- read the spectral report. "A barrier of water vapor! A civilized race
- could not have found such a trick in the Library! A civilized race could
- not have stooped so low! A civilized race would not have..." It screamed
- as the Gubru ship hit a cloud of drifting snowflakes.
- -- Startide Rising, by David Brin
- @It is either through the influence of narcotic potions, of which all
- primitive peoples and races speak in hymns, or through the powerful
- approach of spring, penetrating with joy all of nature, that those
- Dionysian stirrings arise, which in their intensification lead the
- individual to forget himself completely.... Not only does the bond between
- man and man come to be forged once again by the magic of the Dionysian
- rite, but alienated, hostile, or subjugated nature again celebrates her
- reconciliation with her prodigal son, man.
- -- Fred Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
- @On Krat's main screen appeared the holo image of a man, and several
- dolphins. From the man's shape, Krat could tell it was a female, probably
- their leader. "...stupid creatures unworthy of the name `sophonts'.
- Foolish, pre-sentient upspring of errant masters. We slip away from all
- your armed might, laughing at your clumsiness! We slip away as we always
- will, you pathetic creatures. And now that we have a real head start,
- you'll never catch us! What better proof that the Progenitors favor not
- you, but us! What better proof..." The taunt went on. Krat listened,
- enraged, yet at the same time savoring the artistry of it. These men are
- better than I'd thought. Their insults are wordy and overblown, but they
- have talent. They deserve honorable, slow deaths.
- -- David Brin, Startide Rising
- @There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what
- the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be
- replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another
- theory which states that this has already happened.
- @!xob XINEX siht edisni kcuts m'I ,pleH
- @"'Martyrdom' is the only way a person can become famous without ability"
- -- George Bernard Shaw
- @"...all the good computer designs are bootlegged; the formally planned
- products, if they are built at all, are dogs!"
- -- David E. Lundstrom, "A Few Good Men From Univac", MIT Press, 1987
- @"...if the church put in half the time on covetousness that it does on lust,
- this would be a better world."
- -- Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"
- @"...proper attention to Earthly needs of the poor, the depressed and the
- down trodden, would naturally evolve from dynamic, articulate, spirited
- awareness of the great goals for Man and the society he conspired to
- erect."
- -- David Baker, paraphrasing Harold Urey, in "The History of Manned Space
- Flight"
- @"A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money"
- -- Everett Dirksen
- @"A little caution outflanks a large cavalry"
- -- Bismarck
- @"Acting is an art which consists of keeping the audience from coughing."
- @"Ada is the work of an architect, not a computer scientist."
- -- Jean Icbiah, inventor of Ada, weenie
- @"Ahead warp factor 1"
- -- Captain Kirk
- @"All my friends and I are crazy. That's the only thing that keeps us sane."
- @"All my life I wanted to be someone; I guess I should have been more specific."
- -- Jane Wagner
- @"All these black people are screwing up my democracy."
- -- Ian Smith
- @"An American is a man with two arms and four wheels."
- -- A Chinese child
- @"An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself"
- - Albert Camus
- @"And they told us, what they wanted... Was a sound that could kill someone,
- from a distance."
- -- Kate Bush
- @"Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise man to be able to sell
- it."
- @"Any medium powerful enough to extend man's reach is powerful enough to
- topple his world. To get the medium's magic to work for one's aims rather
- than against them is to attain literacy."
- -- Alan Kay, "Computer Software", Scientific American, September 1984
- @"Assuming that either the left wing or the right wing gained control of
- the country, it would probably fly around in circles"
- -- Pat Paulsen
- @"Athens built the Acropolis. Corinth was a commercial city, interested in
- purely materialistic things. Today we admire Athens, visit it, preserve the
- old temples, yet we hardly ever set foot in Corinth."
- -- Dr. Harold Urey, Nobel Laureate in chemistry
- @"Bond reflected that good Americans were fine people and that most of them
- seemed to come from Texas."
- -- Ian Fleming, "Casino Royale"
- @"But I don't like Spam!!!!"
- @"By long-standing tradition, I take this opportunity to savage other
- designers in the thin disguise of good, clean fun."
- -- P. J. Plauger, from his April Fool's column in April 88's "Computer
- Language"
- @"Can you program?" "Well, I'm literate, if that's what you mean!"
- @"Catch a wave and you're sitting on top of the world."
- -- The Beach Boys
- @"Civilization is a movement, not a condition; it is a voyage, not a harbor."
- -- Toynbee
- @"Come on over here, baby, I want to do a thing with you."
- -- A Cop, arresting a non-groovy person after the revolution, Firesign
- Theater
- @"Computer literacy is a contact with the activity of computing deep enough
- to make the computational equivalent of reading and writing fluent and
- enjoyable. As in all the arts, a romance with the material must be well
- under way. If we value the lifelong learning of arts and letters as a
- springboard for personal and societal growth, should any less effort be
- spent to make computing a part of our lives?"
- -- Alan Kay, "Computer Software", Scientific American, September 1984
- @"Confound these ancestors... They've stolen our best ideas!"
- -- Ben Jonson
- @"Contrariwise", continued Tweedledee, "If it was so, it might be; and if it
- were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic."
- -- Lewis Carroll
- @"Creation science" has not entered the curriculum for a reason so simple
- and so basic that we often forget to mention it: because it is false, and
- because good teachers understand exactly why it is false. What could be
- more destructive of that most fragile yet most precious commodity in our
- entire intellectual heritage, good teaching, than a bill forcing honorable
- teachers to sully their sacred trust by granting equal treatment to a
- doctrine not only known to be false, but calculated to undermine any
- general understanding of science as an enterprise?
- -- Stephen Jay Gould, "The Skeptical Inquirer", Vol. 12, page 186
- @"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking
- what no one else has thought."
- -- Albert Szent-Gyorgi
- @"Don't tell me what you dreamed last night for I've been reading Freud."
- @"Don't try to outweird me, three-eyes. I get stranger things than you free
- with my breakfast cereal."
- -- Zaphod Beeblebrox in "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
- @"Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing."
- @"During almost fifteen centuries the legal establishment of Christianity
- has been upon trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all
- places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the
- laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution."
- -- James Madison
- @"Every Solidarity center had piles and piles of paper... Everyone was eating
- paper and a policeman was at the door. Now all you have to do is bend a disk."
- -- an anonymous member of the outlawed Polish trade union, Solidarity,
- commenting on the benefits of using computers in support of their movement
- @"Every creature has within him the wild, uncontrollable urge to PUNT."
- @"Falling in love makes smoking pot all day look like the ultimate in
- restraint."
- -- Dave Sim, author of Cerebrus.
- @"Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it,
- she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels"
- -- Goya
- @"GOTO statement considered harmful"
- -- E. W. Dijkstra, title to a letter in CACM 11, 3 (March, 1968)
- @"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh."
- -- Voltaire
- @"God runs electromagnetics by wave theory on Monday, Wednesday, and
- Friday, and the Devil runs them by quantum theory on Tuesday, Thursday, and
- Saturday."
- -- William Bragg
- @"He is considered the most graceful speaker who can say nothing in the most
- words."
- @"He was so crooked you could use him to pull corks with..."
- @"He was so narrow minded he could see through a keyhole with both eyes..."
- @"Honest Officer, had I known my health stood in jeopardy I would never had
- lit one."
- -- Maxim of the Hells Angels
- @"I am your density."
- -- George McFly in "Back to the Future"
- @"I don't have any solution but I certainly admire the problem."
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @"I go on working for the same reason a hen goes on laying eggs."
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @"I hate the itching. But I don't mind the swelling."
- -- new buzz phrase, like "Where's the Beef?", that David Letterman's
- trying to get everyone to start saying
- @"I like a man who grins when he fights."
- -- Winston Churchill
- @"I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience.
- And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has
- the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.
- -- Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12,
- Fall 1987
- @"I may kid around about drugs, but really, I take them seriously."
- -- Doctor Graper
- @"I may not be totally perfect, but parts of me are excellent."
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @"I say we take off; nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
- -- Corporal Hicks, in "Aliens"
- @"I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell's ass."
- -- Senator Barry Goldwater, when asked what he thought of Jerry Falwell's
- suggestion that all good Christians should be against Sandra Day O'Connor's
- nomination to the Supreme Court
- @"I think he said 'Blessed are the cheesemakers.'" "Nonsense, he was
- obviously referring to all manufacturers of dairy products."
- -- two people in the crowd in "The Life of Brian"
- @"I think trash is the most important manifestation of culture we have in my
- lifetime."
- -- Johnny Legend
- @"I'm a mean green mother from outer space"
- -- Audrey II, The Little Shop of Horrors
- @"I'm growing older, but not up."
- -- Jimmy Buffett
- @"I've seen many politicians paralyzed in the legs as myself, but I've seen
- more of them who were paralyzed in the head"
- -- George Wallace
- @"IBM uses what I like to call the 'hole-in-the-ground technique' to
- destroy the competition... IBM digs a big hole in the ground and covers it
- with leaves. It then puts a big pot of gold nearby. Then it gives the
- call, 'Hey, look at all this gold, get over here fast.' As soon as the
- competitor approaches the pot, he falls into the pit"
- -- John C. Dvorak
- @"If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."
- -- Albert Einstein
- @"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
- -- Bert Lantz
- @"If you want to eat hippopotamus, you've got to pay the freight."
- -- some IBM guy
- @"If you'll excuse me a minute, I'm going to have a cup of coffee."
- -- Broadcast from Apollo 11's LEM, "Eagle", to Johnson Space Center, Houston
- July 20, 1969, 7:27 P.M.
- @"In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty."
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @"In the face of entropy and nothingness, you kind of have to pretend it's not
- there if you want to keep writing good code."
- -- Karl
- @"It is bad luck to be superstitious."
- -- Andrew W. Mathis
- @"It takes all sorts of in and outdoor schooling to get adapted to my kind of
- fooling"
- -- R. Frost
- @"It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline.
- Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top."
- -- Hunter S. Thompson
- @"It's like deja vu all over again."
- -- Yogi Berra
- @"Jesus may love you, but I think you're garbage wrapped in skin."
- -- Michael O'Donohugh
- @"Just Say No."
- -- Nancy Reagan
-
- "No."
- -- Ronald Reagan
- @"Largely because it is so tangible and exciting a program and as such will
- serve to keep alive the interest and enthusiasm of the whole spectrum of
- society... It is justified because... the program can give a sense of
- shared adventure and achievement to the society at large."
- -- Dr. Colin S. Pittendrigh, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"
- @"Live or die, I'll make a million."
- -- Reebus Kneebus, before his jump to the center of the earth, Firesign
- Theater
- @"MAC user's dynamic debugging list evaluator? Never heard of that."
- @"Make no little plans. They have no Magic to stir Men's blood."
- -- D. B. Hudson
- @"Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most times he will pick
- himself up and carry on..."
- -- Winston Churchill
- @"Mate, this parrot wouldn't VOOM if you put four million volts through it!"
- @"Mind your own business, Spock. I'm sick of your halfbreed interference."
- @"Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations"
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @"Morality is one thing. Ratings are everything."
- -- A Network 23 executive on "Max Headroom"
- @"...Watson, come here, I want you."
- -- Alexander Graham Bell
- @"My own life has been spent chronicling the rise and fall of human
- systems, and I am convinced that we are terribly vulnerable.... We should
- be reluctant to turn back upon the frontier of this epoch. Space is
- indifferent to what we do; it has no feeling, no design, no interest in
- whether or not we grapple with it. But we cannot be indifferent to space,
- because the grand, slow march of intelligence has brought us, in our
- generation, to a point from which we can explore and understand and utilize
- it. To turn back now would be to deny our history, our capabilities."
- -- James A. Michener
- @"No matter where you go, there you are..."
- -- Buckaroo Banzai
- @"No, it's 'Blessed are the meek.' I think that's nice, 'cause really they
- have a hell of a time."
- -- someone in the crowd in "The Life of Brian"
- @"Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst."
- -- Thomas Paine
- @"Oh dear, I think you'll find reality's on the blink again."
- -- Marvin The Paranoid Android
- @"Oh, Aunty Em, it's so good to be home!"
- @"Once he had one leg in the White House and the nation trembled under his
- roars. Now he is a tin pot pope in the Coca-Cola belt and a brother to the
- forlorn pastors who belabor halfwits in galvanized iron tabernacles behind
- the railroad yards."
- -- H. L. Mencken, writing of William Jennings Bryan, counsel for the
- supporters of Tennessee's anti-evolution law at the Scopes "Monkey Trial" in
- 1925.
- @"Our journey toward the stars has progressed swiftly. In 1926 Robert H.
- Goddard launched the first liquid-propelled rocket, achieving an altitude
- of 41 feet. In 1962 John Glenn orbited the earth. In 1969, only 66 years
- after Orville Wright flew two feet off the ground for 12 seconds, Neil
- Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and I rocketed to the moon in Apollo 11."
- -- Michael Collins Former astronaut and past Director of the National Air and
- Space Museum
- @"Our journeys to the stars will be made on spaceships created by
- determined, hard working scientists and engineers applying the principles
- of science, not aboard flying saucers piloted by little gray aliens from
- some other dimension."
- -- Robert A. Baker, "The Aliens Among Us: Hypnotic Regression Revisited",
- The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII, No. 2
- @"Pioneering basically amounts to finding new and more horrible ways to die"
- -- John W. Campbell
- @"Probably the best operating system in the world is the [operating system]
- made for the PDP-11 by Bell Laboratories."
- -- Ted Nelson, October 1977
- @"Regardless of the legal speed limit, your Buick must be operated at speeds
- faster than 85 MPH (140 kph)."
- -- presumable misprint from the 1987 Buick Grand National owners manual.
- @"Remember, Information is not knowledge; Knowledge is not Wisdom; Wisdom
- is not truth; Truth is not beauty; Beauty is not love; Love is not music;
- Music is the best."
- -- Frank Zappa
- @"Revolution is the opiate of the intellectuals"
- -- "Oh, Lucky Man"
- @"Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty
- without any proof"
- -- Ashley Montague
- @"Send lawyers, guns and money..."
- -- Lyrics from a Warren Zevon song
- @"Show business is just like high school, except you get paid."
- -- Martin Mull
- @"Six years for possession of a cigarette?... I got six months for
- possession of a deadly weapon!"
- -- cartoon by S. Harris
- @"So why don't you make like a tree, and get outta here."
- -- Biff in "Back to the Future"
- @"Software suppliers are trying to make their software packages more
- 'user-friendly'... Their best approach, so far, has been to take all the
- old brochures, and stamp the words, 'user-friendly' on the cover."
- -- Bill Gates, Pres., Microsoft, Inc.
- @"Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall
- instead of using it"
- -- Gordon R. Dickson
- @"That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest"
- -- Thoreau (Sysop's note: and if so, what are we doing here?)
- @"That must be wonderful! I don't understand it at all."
- @"The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands
- bold, persistent experimentation."
- -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- @"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the
- Christian Religion"
- -- George Washington
- @"The greatest warriors are the ones who fight for peace."
- -- Holly Near
- @"The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a necessity."
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @"The personal computer market is about the same size as the total potato
- chip market. Next year it will be about half the size of the pet food
- market and is fast approaching the total worldwide sales of pantyhose"
- -- James Finke, Pres., Commodore Int'l Ltd. (1982)
- @"There are a lot of lies going around... and half of them are true."
- -- Winston Churchill
- @"There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them"
- -- Heisenberg
- @"There is no choice before us. Either we must succeed in providing the
- rational coordination of impulses and guts, or for centuries civilization
- will sink into a mere welter of minor excitements. We must provide a Great
- Age or see the collapse of the upward striving of the human race"
- -- Alfred North Whitehead
- @"There is no statute of limitations on stupidity."
- -- Randomly produced by a computer program called Markov3.
- @"There is nothing so deadly as not to hold up to people the opportunity to do
- great and wonderful things, if we wish to stimulate them in an active way."
- -- Dr. Harold Urey, Nobel Laureate in chemistry
- @"There was nothing I hated more than to see a filthy old drunkie, a howling
- away at the sons of his father and going blurp blurp in between as if it were
- a filthy old orchestra in his stinking rotten guts. I could never stand to
- see anyone like that, especially when they were old like this one was."
- -- Alex in "Clockwork Orange"
- @"They took some of the Van Goghs, most of the jewels, and all of the Chivas!"
- @"This isn't brain surgery; it's just television."
- -- David Letterman
- @"Those who believe in astrology are living in houses with foundations of
- Silly Putty."
- -- Dennis Rawlins, astronomer
- @"To err is human, to compute divine. Trust your computer but not its
- programmer"
- -- Morris Kingston
- @"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore!"
- @"Unibus timeout fatal trap program lost sorry"
- -- An error message printed by DEC's RSTS operating system for the PDP-11
- @"Virtual" means never knowing where your next byte is coming from.
- @"We can't schedule an orgy, it might be construed as fighting"
- -- Stanley Sutton
- @"We must all hang together, or we will surely all hang separately"
- -- Benjamin Franklin
- @"Well, well, well! Well if it isn't fat stinking billy goat Billy Boy in
- poison! How art thou, thou globby bottle of cheap stinking chip oil? Come
- and get one in the yarbles, if ya have any yarble, ya eunuch jelly thou!"
- -- Alex in "Clockwork Orange"
- @"Well, you see, it's such a transitional creature. It's a piss-poor reptile
- and not very much of a bird."
- -- Melvin Konner, from "The Tangled Wing", quoting a zoologist who has
- studied the archeopteryz and found it "very much like people"
- @"What do you call a boomerang that doesn't work? A stick!"
- -- Bill Kirchenbaum, comedian
- @"What does it take for Americans to do great things; to go to the moon, to
- win wars, to dig canals linking oceans, to build railroads across a
- continent? In independent thought about this question, Neil Armstrong and
- I concluded that it takes a coincidence of four conditions, or in Neil's
- view, the simultaneous peaking of four of the many cycles of American life.
- First, a base of technology must exist from which to do the thing to be
- done. Second, a period of national uneasiness about America's place in the
- scheme of human activities must exist. Third, some catalytic event must
- occur that focuses the national attention upon the direction to proceed.
- Finally, an articulate and wise leader must sense these first three
- conditions and put forth with words and action the great thing to be
- accomplished. The motivation of young Americans to do what needs to be
- done flows from such a coincidence of conditions... The Thomas Jeffersons,
- The Teddy Roosevelts, The John Kennedys appear. We must begin to create
- the tools of leadership which they, and their young frontiersmen, will
- require to lead us onward and upward."
- -- Dr. Harrison H. Schmidt, Sen., New Mexico
- @"When you are in it up to your ears, keep your mouth shut."
- @"Whenever 'A' attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon 'B', 'A'
- is most likely a scoundrel"
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @"Where a new invention promises to be useful, it ought to be tried"
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @"Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?", he asked.
- "Begin at the beginning", the King said, gravely,
- "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."
- -- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
- @"You don't have to explain something you never said"
- -- Calvin Coolidge
- @"You doubted Me," God tells the Lawgiver [Moses], "But I forgave you that
- doubt. You doubted your own self and failed to believe in your own powers
- as a leader, and I forgave you that also. But you lost faith in these
- people and doubted the divine possibilities of Human Nature. THIS loss of
- faith makes it impossible for you to enter the Promised Land."
- -- The Midrash
- @"You know why there are so few sophisticated computer terrorists in the
- United States? Because your hackers have so much mobility into the
- establishment. Here, there is no such mobility. If you have the slightest
- bit of intellectual integrity you cannot support the government...
- That's why the best computer minds belong to the opposition."
- -- an anonymous member of the outlawed Polish trade union, Solidarity
- @"You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery,
- are now extinct."
- -- M. Somerset Maugham
- @"Your attitude determines your attitude."
- -- Zig Ziglar, self-improvement doofus
- @'Home, Sweet Home' must surely have been written by a bachelor.
- @(To Walter Cronkite): "Well Walter, I believe that the Good Lord gave us a
- finite number of heartbeats and I'm damned if I'm going to use up mine running
- up and down a street"
- -- Neil Armstrong
- @* UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories.
- @...And no philosophy, sadly, has all the answers. No matter how assured we
- may be about certain aspects of our belief, there are always painful
- inconsistencies, exceptions, and contradictions. This is true in religion as
- it is in politics, and is self-evident to all except fanatics and the naive.
- As for the fanatics, whose number is legion in our own time, we might be
- advised to leave them to heaven. They will not, unfortunately, do us the same
- courtesy. They attack us and each other, and whatever their protestations to
- peaceful intent, the bloody record of history makes clear that they are easily
- disposed to resort to the sword. My own belief in God, then, is just that, a
- matter of belief, not knowledge. My respect for Jesus Christ arises from the
- fact that He seems to have been the most virtuous inhabitant of Planet Earth.
- But even well-educated Christians are frustrated in their thirst for certainty
- about the beloved figure of Jesus because of the undeniable ambiguity of the
- scriptural record. Such ambiguity is not apparent to children or fanatics,
- but every recognized Bible scholar is perfectly aware of it. Some Christians,
- alas, resort to formal lying to obscure such reality.
- -- Steve Allen, comedian, from an essay in the book "The Courage of
- Conviction", edited by Philip Berman
- @...Another writer again agreed with all my generalities, but said that as
- an inveterate skeptic I have closed my mind to the truth. Most notably I
- have ignored the evidence for an Earth that is six thousand years old.
- Well, I haven't ignored it; I considered the purported evidence and *then*
- rejected it. There is a difference, and this is a difference, we might
- say, between prejudice and postjudice. Prejudice is making a judgment
- before you have looked at the facts. Postjudice is making a judgment
- afterwards. Prejudice is terrible, in the sense that you commit injustices
- and you make serious mistakes. Postjudice is not terrible. You can't be
- perfect of course; you may make mistakes also. But it is permissible to
- make a judgment after you have examined the evidence. In some circles it
- is even encouraged.
- -- Carl Sagan, The Burden of Skepticism, Skeptical Enquirer, Vol. 12, pg. 46
- @...Fortunately, the responsibility for providing evidence is on the part of
- the person making the claim, not the critic. It is not the responsibility
- of UFO skeptics to prove that a UFO has never existed, nor is it the
- responsibility of paranormal-health-claims skeptics to prove that crystals
- or colored lights never healed anyone. The skeptic's role is to point out
- claims that are not adequately supported by acceptable evidence and to
- provide plausible alternative explanations that are more in keeping with
- the accepted body of scientific evidence.
- -- Thomas L. Creed, The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, pg. 215
- @...I would go so far as to suggest that, were it not for our ego and
- concern to be different, the African apes would be included in our family,
- the Hominidae.
- -- Richard Leakey
- @...It is sad to find him belaboring the science community for its united
- opposition to ignorant creationists who want teachers and textbooks to give
- equal time to crank arguments that have advanced not a step beyond the
- flyblown rhetoric of Bishop Wilberforce and William Jennings Bryan.
- -- Martin Gardner, "Irving Kristol and the Facts of Life", The Skeptical
- Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 128-131
- @...The book is worth attention for only two reasons: (1) it attacks
- attempts to expose sham paranormal studies; and (2) it is very well and
- plausibly written and so rather harder to dismiss or refute by simple
- jeering.
- -- Harry Eagar, reviewing "Beyond the Quantum" by Michael Talbot, The Skeptical
- Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 200-201
- @...computer hardware progress is so fast. No other technology since
- civilization began has seen six orders of magnitude in
- performance-pricegain in 30 years.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @...difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects
- perform the office of a common censor morum over each other. Is uniformity
- attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the
- introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned;
- yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
- -- Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia"
- @...it still remains true that as a set of cognitive beliefs about the
- existence of God in any recognizable sense continuous with the great
- systems of the past, religious doctrines constitute a speculative
- hypothesis of an extremely low order of probability.
- -- Sidney Hook
- @...the increased productivity fostered by a friendly environment and
- quality tools is essential to meet ever increasing demands for software.
- -- M. D. McIlroy, E. N. Pinson and B. A. Tague
- @...there can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of
- action is the practice of truth.
- -- George Jacob Holyoake
- @...this is an awesome sight. The entire rebel resistance buried under six
- million hardbound copies of "The Naked Lunch."
- -- The Firesign Theater
- @...though his invention worked superbly, his theory was a crock of sewage
- from beginning to end.
- -- Vernor Vinge, "The Peace War"
- @...we must counterpose the overwhelming judgment provided by consistent
- observations and inferences by the thousands. The earth is billions of
- years old and its living creatures are linked by ties of evolutionary
- descent. Scientists stand accused of promoting dogma by so stating, but do
- we brand people illiberal when they proclaim that the earth is neither flat
- nor at the center of the universe? Science *has* taught us somethings with
- confidence! Evolution on an ancient earth is as well established as our
- planet's shape and position. Our continuing struggle to understand how
- evolution happens (the "theory of evolution") does not cast our
- documentation of its occurrence, the "fact of evolution", into doubt.
- -- Stephen Jay Gould, "The Verdict on Creationism", The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol
- XII No. 2
- @...when fits of creativity run strong, more than one programmer or writer
- has been known to abandon the desktop for the more spacious floor.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @/usr/news/gotcha
- @1 bulls, 3 cows.
- @...0 times 0.1 is hardly ever 1.0.
- @11-XAV eht edisni deppart ma I !pleH
- @186,000 Miles per Second. It's not just a good idea. IT'S THE LAW.
- @: is not an identifier
- @A Puritan is someone who is deathly afraid that someone somewhere is
- having fun.
- @A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.
- @A clash of doctrine is not a disaster, it is an opportunity.
- @A clean, neat, and orderly work place is a sure sign of a sick mind.
- @A closed mouth gathers no foot.
- @A conservative is one who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.
- @A day for firm decisions!!!!! Or is it?
- @A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that
- you will look forward to the trip.
- @A fanatic is a person who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
- -- Winston Churchill
- @A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- -- Samuel Johnson
- @A generation which ignores history has no past, and no future.
- @A gift of flower will soon be made to you.
- @A gleekzorp without a tornpee is like a quop without a fertsneet (sort of).
- @A good memory does not equal pale ink.
- @A good workman is known by his tools.
- @A hammer sometimes misses its mark, a bouquet never
- @A handful of friends is worth more than a wagon of gold.
- @A hermit is a deserter from the army of humanity
- @A hollow voice says, "Plugh".
- @A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance from Jack.
- @A king's castle is his home.
- @A lack of leadership is no substitute for inaction.
- @A liberal is someone too poor to be a capitalist and too rich to be a
- communist.
- @A lie in time saves nine.
- @A little retrospection shows that although many fine, useful software
- system shave been designed by committees and built as part of multipart
- projects, those software systems that have excited passionate fans are
- those that are the products of one or a few designing minds, great
- designers. Consider Unix, APL, Pascal, Modula, the Smalltalk interface,
- even Fortran; and contrast them with Cobol, PL/I, Algol, MVS/370, and
- MS-DOS.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @A lost ounce of gold may be found, a lost moment of time never.
- @A man forgives only when he is in the wrong.
- @A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.
- @A man who fishes for marlin in ponds will put his money in Etruscan bonds.
- @A man who turns green has eschewed protein.
- @A morsel of genuine history is a thing so rare as to be always valuable.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @A motion to adjourn is always in order.
- @A penny saved is ridiculous.
- @A person with one watch knows what time it is;
- a person with two watches is never sure.
- -- Proverb
- @A physicist is an atoms way of knowing about atoms.
- -- George Wald
- @A plucked goose doesn't lay golden eggs.
- @A present, over which you will shed tears of joy.
- @A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.
- @A quarrel is quickly settled when deserted by one party;
- there is no battle unless there be two.
- -- Seneca
- @A reverence for life does not require one to respect nature's obvious
- mistakes.
- @A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.
- -- Ramsey Clark
- @A seminar on Time Travel will be held two weeks ago.
- @A soft drink turneth away company.
- @A stitch in time saves nine.
- @A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a Unicorn.
- @A visit to a fresh place will bring strange work.
- @A visit to a strange place will bring fresh work.
- @A vivid and creative mind characterizes you.
- @A wise man can see more from a mountain top
- than a fool can from the bottom of a well.
- @A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
- @About all some men accomplish in life is to send a son to Harvard.
- @About the only thing on a farm that has an easy time is the dog.
- @Above all things, reverence yourself.
- @Academy: A modern school where football is taught.
- @Accident: A condition in which presence of mind is good,
- but absence of body is better.
- @According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally
- worthless.
- @Accordion: A bagpipe with pleats.
- @Accuracy: The vice of being right
- @Actors will happen in the best-regulated families.
- @Adapt. Enjoy. Survive.
- @Adde parvum parvo magnus acervus erit.
- [Add little to little and there will be a big pile.]
- -- OVID
- @Admiration: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.
- @Adult: One old enough to know better.
- @After Goliath's defeat, giants ceased to command respect.
- -- Freeman Dyson
- @After a number of decimal places, nobody gives a damn.
- @After all is said and done, a lot more has been said than done.
- @Afternoon: That part of the day we spend worrying about how we wasted the
- morning.
- @Alexander Graham Bell is alive and well in New York, and still waiting for a
- dial tone.
- @Alimony and bribes will engage a large share of your wealth.
- @All I kin say is when you finds yo'self wanderin' in a peach orchard, ya
- don't go lookin' for rutabagas.
- -- Kingfish
- @All great ideas are controversial, or have been at one time.
- @All in all it's just another brick in the wall...
- @All programmers are optimists. Perhaps this modern sorcery especially
- attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy godmothers. Perhaps
- the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually
- focus on the end goal. Perhaps it is merely that computers are young,
- programmers are younger, and the young are always optimists. But however
- the selection process works, the result is indisputable: "This time it will
- surely run," or "I just found the last bug."
- -- Frederick Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man Month
- @All that glitters has a high refractive index.
- @Already the spirit of our schooling is permeated with the feeling that
- every subject, every topic, every fact, every professed truth must be
- submitted to a certain publicity and impartiality. All proffered samples
- of learning must go to the same assay-room and be subjected to common
- tests. It is the essence of all dogmatic faiths to hold that any such
- "show-down" is sacrilegious and perverse. The characteristic of religion,
- from their point of view, is that it is intellectually secret, not public;
- peculiarly revealed, not generally known; authoritatively declared, not
- communicated and tested in ordinary ways... It is pertinent to point out
- that, as long as religion is conceived as it is now by the great majority
- of professed religionists, there is something self-contradictory in
- speaking of education in religion in the same sense in which we speak of
- education in topics where the method of free inquiry has made its way. The
- "religious" would be the last to be willing that either the history of the
- content of religion should be taught in this spirit; while those to whom
- the scientific standpoint is not merely a technical device, but is the
- embodiment of the integrity of mind, must protest against its being taught
- in any other spirit.
- -- John Dewey (1859-1953), American philosopher, from "Democracy in the
- Schools", 1908
- @Always store beer in a dark place.
- @Always yield to temptation, for it may not pass your way again.
- @Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
- -- Charlie McCarthy
- @America has been discovered before, but it has always been hushed up.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without
- civilization in between.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @America's best buy for a nickel is a telephone call to the right man.
- @America, how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood?
- -- Allen Ginsberg
- @Among the lucky, you are the chosen one.
- @An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.
- @An idle mind is worth two in the bush.
- @An object never serves the same function as its image - or its name.
- -- Rene Magritte
- @And I alone am returned to wag the tail.
- @And do you not think that each of you women is an Eve? The judgement of God
- upon your sex endures today; and with it invariably endures your position of
- criminal at the bar of justice.
- -- Tertullian, second-century Christian writer, misogynist
- @And the crowd was stilled. One elderly man, wondering at the sudden silence,
- turned to the Child and asked him to repeat what he had said. Wide-eyed, the
- Child raised his voice and said once again, "Why, the Emperor has no clothes!
- He is naked!"
- -- "The Emperor's New Clothes"
- @And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that
- cometh out of man, in their sight... Then he [the Lord!] said unto me, Lo, I
- have given thee cow's dung for man's dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread
- therewith.
- -- [Ezek. 4:12-15 (KJV)]
- @Angular momentum makes the world go round.
- @Another good night not to sleep in a eucalyptus tree.
- @Antonym: The opposite of the word you're trying to think of.
- @Any given program, when running correctly, is obsolete.
- @Any smoothly functioning technology will have the appearance of magic.
- -- Arthur C. Clarke
- @Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.
- -- Andy Finkel, computer guy
- @Anybody can win, unless there happens to be a second entry.
- @Anyone can hate. It costs to love.
- -- John Williamson
- @Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think,
- recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one
- particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.
- -- Eleanor Roosevelt
- @Anything anybody can say about America is true.
- -- Emmett Grogan
- @Artistic ventures highlighted. Rob a museum.
- @As I argued in "Beloved Son", a book about my son Brian and the subject of
- religious communes and cults, one result of proper early instruction in the
- methods of rational thought will be to make sudden mindless conversions to
- anything less likely. Brian now realizes this and has, after eleven years,
- left the sect he was associated with. The problem is that once the
- untrained mind has made a formal commitment to a religious philosophy, and
- it does not matter whether that philosophy is generally reasonable and
- high-minded or utterly bizarre and irrational, the powers of reason are
- surprisingly ineffective in changing the believer's mind.
- -- Steve Allen, comedian, from an essay in the book "The Courage of Conviction",
- edited by Philip Berman
- @As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain;
- and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
- -- Einstein
- @As goatherd learns his trade by goat, so writer learns his trade by wrote.
- @As long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong?
- @As of next week, passwords will be entered in Morse code.
- @As the system comes up, the component builders will from time to time
- appear, bearing hot new versions of their pieces, faster, smaller, more
- complete, or putatively less buggy. The replacement of a working component
- by a new version requires the same systematic testing procedure that adding
- a new component does, although it should require less time, for more
- complete and efficient test cases will usually be available.
- -- Frederick Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man Month"
- @As the trials of life continue to take their toll, remember that there is
- always a future in Computer Maintenance.
- @As to Jesus of Nazareth... I think the system of Morals and his Religion,
- as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but
- I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have, with
- most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity.
- -- Benjamin Franklin
- @Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, If God won't have you, the devil must.
- @At first sight, the idea of any rules or principles being superimposed on
- the creative mind seems more likely to hinder than to help, but this is
- quite untrue in practice. Disciplined thinking focuses inspiration rather
- than blinkers it.
- -- G. L. Glegg, The Design of Design
- @At the heart of science is an essential tension between two seemingly
- contradictory attitudes, an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or
- counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of
- all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep
- nonsense. Of course, scientists make mistakes in trying to understand the
- world, but there is a built-in error-correcting mechanism: The collective
- enterprise of creative thinking and skeptical thinking together keeps the
- field on track.
- -- Carl Sagan, "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection," Parade, February 1, 1987
- @Auribus teneo lupum. (I hold a wolf by the ears.)
- @Avert misunderstanding by calm, poise, and balance.
- @Avoid GOTOs completely if you can keep the program readable.
- @Avoid September.
- @Avoid temporary variables.
- @Avoid the Fortran arithmetic IF.
- @Avoid unnecessary branches.
- @Baby...
- -- The Late Elvis Presley.
- @Badges? We don't need no stinking badges.
- @Bank error in your favor. Collect $200.
- @Barometer: An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we
- are having.
- @Be careful when a loop exits to the same place from side and bottom.
- @Be careful! Is it classified?
- @Be security conscious. National defense is at stake.
- @Be self-reliant and your success is assured.
- @Beauty and harmony are as necessary to you as the very breath of life.
- @Beauty is only skin deep, but Ugly goes straight to the bone.
- @Beauty seldom recommends one woman to another.
- @Been Transferred Lately?
- @Behind all the political rhetoric being hurled at us from abroad, we are
- bringing home one unassailable fact, [terrorism is] a crime by any
- civilized standard, committed against innocent people, away from the scene
- of political conflict, and must be dealt with as a crime... In our
- recognition of the nature of terrorism as a crime lies our best hope of
- dealing with it... Let us use the tools that we have. Let us invoke the
- cooperation we have the right to expect around the world, and with that
- cooperation let us shrink the dark and dank areas of sanctuary until these
- cowardly marauders are held to answer as criminals in an open and public
- trial for the crimes they have committed, and receive the punishment they
- so richly deserve.
- -- William H. Webster, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 15 Oct 1985
- @Behind every argument is someone's ignorance.
- @Being schizophrenic is better than living alone.
- @Better living a beggar than buried an emperor.
- @Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all
- doubt.
- @Better to use medicines at the outset than at the last moment.
- @Beware of a dark-haired man with a loud tie.
- @Beware of a tall dark man with a spoon up his nose.
- @Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
- @Beware of friends who are false and deceitful.
- @Beware of low-flying butterflies.
- @Beware the granfalloon.
- @Beware the new TTY code!
- @Biggest security gap - an open mouth.
- @Bingo, gas station, hamburger with a side order of airplane noise, and
- you'll be Gary, Indiana.
- -- Jessie in the movie "Greaser's Palace"
- @Birth, copulation and death. That's all the facts when you come to brass
- tacks; Birth, copulation and death.
- -- T. S. Elliot, Sweeney Agonistes (1932)
- @Blessed are they that run around in circles, for they shall be known as
- wheels.
- @Boy: A noise with dirt on it.
- @Bradley's Bromide: If computers get too powerful, we can organize them
- into a committee... that will do them in.
- @Brain fried - Core dumped
- @Brain: The apparatus with which we think that we think.
- @Burnt Sienna. That's the best thing that ever happened to Crayolas.
- -- Ken Weaver
- @Business will be either better or worse.
- -- Calvin Coolidge
- @But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to
- thee, to speak these words? Hath he not sent me to the men which sit on
- the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with
- you?
- -- [2 Kings 18:27 (KJV)]
- @Buy low, sell high.
- @By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely
- overwhelm me.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
- @By following the good, you learn to be good.
- @By one count there are some 700 scientists with respectable academic
- credentials (out of a total of 480,000 U.S. earth and life scientists) who
- give credence to creation-science, the general theory that complex life
- forms did not evolve but appeared "abruptly".
- -- Newsweek, June 29, 1987, pg. 23
- @Cabbage: A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a
- man's head.
- @California is a fine place to live - if you happen to be an orange.
- -- Fred Allen
- @Can anyone remember when the times were not hard, and money not scarce?
- @Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.
- @Cannot fork - try again.
- @Cannot open /usr/games/lib/fortunes.
- @Caution: breathing may be hazardous to your health.
- @Celebrate Hannibal Day this year. Take an elephant to lunch.
- @Center meeting at 4 pm in 2C-543.
- @Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you; if you don't bet,
- you can't win.
- @Change your thoughts and you change your world.
- @Charity: a thing that begins at home and usually stays there.
- @Chicken Little was right.
- @Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every
- effort to teach them good manners.
- @Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them.
- Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word
- what you shouldn't have said.
- @Chinese saying: "He who speak with forked tongue, not need chopsticks."
- @Choose variable names that won't be confused.
- @Civilization Law #1: Civilization advances by extending the number of
- important operations one can do without thinking about them.
- @Classified material requires proper storage.
- @Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
- -- Mark Twain
- @Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum
- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am."
- -- Ambrose Bierce
- @Collaboration: A literary partnership based on the false assumption that
- the other fellow can spell.
- @College isn't the place to go for ideas.
- -- Hellen Keller
- @Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
- @Communists do it without class.
- @Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.
- @Concentrate on security.
- @Conceptual integrity in turn dictates that the design must proceed from one
- mind, or from a very small number of agreeing resonant minds.
- -- Frederick Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man Month"
- @Condense soup, not books!
- @Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking.
- @Continental Life. Why do you ask?
- @Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of
- genius.
- @Conversation: A vocal competition in which the one who is catching his
- breath is called the listener.
- @Could be you're crossing the fine line
- A silly driver kind of... off the wall
- You keep it cool when it's t-t-tight...
- Eyes wide open when you start to fall.
- -- The Cars
- @Courage is grace under pressure.
- @Courage is your greatest present need.
- @Coward: One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.
- @Crazee Edeee, his prices are INSANE!!!
- @Creditors have much better memories than debtors.
- @Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why.
- @Cynic: One who looks through rose-colored glasses with a jaundiced eye.
- @DAMN IT, I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE!
- @Dawn: The time when men of reason go to bed.
- @Day of inquiry. You will be subpoenaed.
- @Death: to stop sinning suddenly.
- @Decaffeinated coffee? Just Say No.
- @Deliberate provocation of mystical experience, particularly by LSD and
- related hallucinogens, in contrast to spontaneous visionary experiences,
- entails dangers that must not be underestimated. Practitioners must take
- into account the peculiar effects of these substances, namely their ability
- to influence our consciousness, the innermost essence of our being. The
- history of LSD to date amply demonstrates the catastrophic consequences
- that can ensue when its profound effect is misjudged and the substance is
- mistaken for a pleasure drug. Special internal and external advance
- preparations are required; with them, an LSD experiment can become a
- meaningful experience.
- -- Dr. Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD
- @Deliberation: The act of examining one's bread to determine which side it is
- buttered on.
- @Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder aloud
- what the country could do under first-class management.
- -- Senator Soaper
- @Department meeting in 3 minutes.
- @Deprive a mirror of its silver and even the Czar won't see his face.
- @Did you know that clones never use mirrors?
- @Did you know that no one ever reads these things?
- @Digital computers are themselves more complex than most things people
- build: They have very large numbers of states. This makes conceiving,
- describing, and testing them hard. Software systems have
- orders-of-magnitude more states than computers do.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock.
- @Disclose classified information only when a NEED TO KNOW exists.
- @Disk crisis, please clean up!
- @Disk crunch, please clean up.
- @Do not allow this language (Ada) in its present state to be used in
- applications where reliability is critical, i.e., nuclear power stations,
- cruise missiles, early warning systems, anti-ballistic missile defense
- systems. The next rocket to go astray as a result of a programming
- language error may not be an exploratory space rocket on a harmless trip to
- Venus: It may be a nuclear warhead exploding over one of our cities. An
- unreliable programming language generating unreliable programs constitutes
- a far greater risk to our environment and to our society than unsafe cars,
- toxic pesticides, or accidents at nuclear power stations.
- -- C. A. R. Hoare
- @Do not clog intellect's sluices with bits of knowledge of questionable uses.
- @Do not drink coffee in early A.M. It will keep you awake until noon.
- @Do not merely believe in miracles, rely on them.
- @Do not read this fortune under penalty of law. Violators will be
- prosecuted. (Penal Code sec. 2.3.2 (II.a.))
- @Do not sleep in a eucalyptus tree tonight.
- @Do not take life too seriously; you will never get out of it alive.
- @Do not underestimate the power of the Force.
- @Do not under estimate the value of print statements for debugging. Don't
- have aesthetic convulsions when using them, either.
- @Do you know where *your* towel is?
- @Domestic happiness and faithful friends.
- @Don't be overly suspicious where it's not warranted.
- @Don't believe everything you hear or anything you say.
- @Don't comment bad code-- rewrite it.
- @Don't compare floating point numbers solely for equality.
- @Don't despair - your ideal lover is waiting for you around the corner.
- @Don't diddle code to make it faster-- find a better algorithm.
- @Don't eat yellow snow.
- -- Frank Zappa
- @Don't feed the bats tonight.
- @Don't force it, use a bigger hammer.
- @Don't gamble with security.
- @Don't get stuck in a closet - wear yourself out.
- @Don't get yourself involved with persons or situations that can't bear
- inspection.
- @Don't go surfing in South Dakota for a while.
- @Don't guess - check your security regulations.
- @Don't hate yourself in the morning - sleep till noon.
- @Don't hit the keys so hard, it hurts.
- @Don't kiss an elephant on the lips today.
- @Don't knock President Fillmore. He kept us out of Vietnam.
- @Don't let your mouth write no check that your tail can't cash.
- -- Bo Diddley
- @Don't look now, but the man in the moon is laughing at you.
- @Don't look now, but there is a multi-legged creature on your shoulder
- @Don't panic.
- @Don't patch bad code-- rewrite it.
- @Don't quit now, we might just as well lock the door and throw away the key.
- @Don't speak about Time, until you have spoken to him.
- @Don't stop at one bug.
- @Don't tell any big lies today. Small ones can be just as effective.
- @Don't tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.
- -- James J. Ling
- @Don't try to have the last word. You might get it.
- @Don't worry over what other people are thinking about you. They're too busy
- worrying over what you are thinking about them.
- @Don't wrestle a pig in a mudhole. You both get all dirty, and the pig
- enjoys it.
- @Don't lose
- Your head
- To gain a minute
- You need your head
- Your brains are in it.
- -- Burma Shave
- @Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
- -- Kahlil Gibran
- @Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
- -- Voltaire
- @Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.
- -- Paul Tillich, German theologian and historian
- @Down with categorical imperatives!
- @Draw your salary before spending it.
- @Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.
- @Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it
- holds the universe together...
- -- Carl Zwanzig
- @Due to a shortage of devoted followers, the production of great leaders
- has been discontinued.
- @Dyslexics of the world, untie!
- @EHPL! IMAT ARPPDEI SNDI EHT EAV-X11
- @Each honest calling, each walk of life, has its own elite, its own
- aristocracy based on excellence of performance.
- -- James Bryant Conant
- @Each team building another component has been using the most recent tested
- version of the integrated system as a test bed for debugging its piece.
- Their work will be set back by having that test bed change under them. Of
- course it must. But the changes need to be quantized. Then each user has
- periods of productive stability, interrupted by bursts of test-bed change.
- This seems to be much less disruptive than a constant rippling and
- trembling.
- -- Frederick Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man Month"
- @Economy makes men independent.
- @Education helps earning capacity. Ask any college professor.
- @Een schip op het strand is een baken in zee.
- [A ship on the beach is a lighthouse to the sea.]
- -- Dutch Proverb
- @Eeny Meeny, Jelly Beanie, the spirits are about to speak.
- -- Bullwinkle Moose
- @Einstein argued that there must be simplified explanations of nature,
- because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the
- software engineer.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @Enjoy your life; be pleasant and gay, like the birds in May.
- @Even a cabbage may look at a king.
- @Even a hawk is an eagle among crows.
- @Even if the story isn't true, it does have a grain of sense and
- instruction to it, and it's entertaining as well, so it's worth the
- telling.
- @Even if you can deceive people about a product through misleading
- statements, sooner or later the product will speak for itself.
- -- Hajime Karatsu
- @Even the boldest zebra fear the hungry lion.
- @Even the smallest candle burns brighter in the dark.
- @Every absurdity has a champion to defend it.
- @Every purchase has its price.
- @Every silver lining has a cloud around it.
- @Every successful person has had failures but repeated failure is no
- guarantee of eventual success.
- @Everybody needs a little love sometime; stop hacking and fall in love!
- @Everybody ought to have a friend.
- @Everybody ought to have a maid.
- @Everyone complains of his memory, no one of his judgment.
- @Everyone is enthusiastic about your work.
- @Everyone should know where his towel is.
- @Everything bows to success, even grammar.
- @Everything you know is wrong.
- -- The Firesign Theater
- @Evolution is a bankrupt speculative philosophy, not a scientific fact.
- Only a spiritually bankrupt society could ever believe it... Only atheists
- could accept this Satanic theory.
- -- Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, "The Pre-Adamic Creation and Evolution"
- @Evolution is as much a fact as the earth turning on its axis and going
- around the sun. At one time this was called the Copernican theory; but,
- when evidence for a theory becomes so overwhelming that no informed person
- can doubt it, it is customary for scientists to call it a fact. That all
- present life descended from earlier forms, over vast stretches of geologic
- time, is as firmly established as Copernican cosmology. Biologists differ
- only with respect to theories about how the process operates.
- -- Martin Gardner, "Irving Kristol and the Facts of Life", The Skeptical
- Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 128-131
- @Excellent day to have a rotten day.
- @Excellent time to become a missing person.
- @Except for 75% of the women, everyone in the whole world wants to have sex.
- -- Ellyn Mustard
- @Executive ability is prominent in your makeup.
- @Expect a letter from a friend who will ask a favor of you.
- @Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.
- -- Poor Richard's Almanac
- @Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
- when you make it again.
- -- F. P. Jones
- @Expertise in one field does not carry over into other fields. But experts
- often think so.
- @External Security:
- @Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof. There are many examples
- of outsiders who eventually overthrew entrenched scientific orthodoxies,
- but they prevailed with irrefutable data. More often, egregious findings
- that contradict well-established research turn out to be artifacts. I have
- argued that accepting psychic powers, reincarnation, "cosmic
- consciousness", and the like, would entail fundamental revisions of the
- foundations of neuroscience. Before abandoning materialist theories of
- mind that have paid handsome dividends, we should insist on better evidence
- for psi phenomena than presently exists, especially when neurology and
- psychology themselves offer more plausible alternatives.
- -- Barry L. Beyerstein, "The Brain and Consciousness: Implications for Psi
- Phenomena", The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 163-171
- @Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
- @Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital.
- @Faire de la bonne cuisine demande un certain temps. Si on vous fait
- attendre, c'est pour mieux vous servir, et vous plaire.
- [Good cooking takes time. If you are made to wait, it is to serve you
- better, and to please you.]
- -- Menu of Restaurant Antoine, New Orleans [Also, what we're going to be
- telling our customers]
- @Faith goes out through the window when beauty comes in at the door.
- @Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the
- improbable.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @Familiarity breeds attempt.
- @Far duller than a serpent's tooth it is to spend a quiet youth.
- @Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the
- western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun.
- Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety million miles is an utterly
- insignificant little blue-green planet, whose dominant life forms are so
- amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat
- idea.
- @Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it
- every six months.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @Felson's Law: To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from
- many is research.
- @Fidelity: A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed.
- @Finagle's Law: The perversity of the universe tends toward a maximum.
- @Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion
- and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage.
- But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to
- solve the truly serious problems that face us, and we risk becoming a
- nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.
- -- Carl Sagan, "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection," Parade, February 1, 1987
- @Fine day to throw a party. Throw him as far as you can.
- @Fine day to work off excess energy. Steal something heavy.
- @Flee at once, all is discovered.
- @For a good time, call 8367-3100.
- @For every problem there is one solution which is simple, neat, and wrong.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @For people who like that kind of book, that is the kind of book they will
- like.
- @Fourth Law of Thermodymanics: If the probability of success is not almost
- one, then it is damn near zero.
- -- David Ellis
- @Friends: people who borrow my books and set wet glasses on them.
- @From listening comes wisdom and from speaking repentance.
- @From uucp Mon Dec 3 21:05:46 1979
- @Frouds Law: A transistor protected by a fast acting fuse will protect the
- fuse by blowing first.
- @Fullers Law of Cosmic Irreversibility:
- 1 Pot T == 1 Pot P
- 1 Pot P != 1 Pot T
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller
- @Future looks spotty. You will spill soup in late evening.
- @Garter: An elastic band intended to keep a woman from coming out of her
- stockings and desolating the country.
- @Gee, Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
- @Generosity and perfection are your everlasting goals.
- @Genetics explains why you look like your father, and if you don't, why you
- should.
- @Genius is the talent of a man who is dead.
- @Get hold of portable property.
- -- Charles Dickens, "Great Expectations"
- @Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll
- invite himself over for dinner.
- -- Calvin Keegan
- @Give a small boy a hammer and he will find that everything he encounters
- needs pounding.
- -- Abraham Kaplan
- @Give thought to your reputation: Consider changing name and moving to a new
- town.
- @Give your child mental blocks for Christmas.
- @Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
- @Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what value there may be in
- owning a piece thereof.
- @God does not play dice.
- @God gives us relatives; thank goodness we can chose our friends.
- @God made the integers; all else is the work of Man.
- @God may be subtle, but he isn't plain mean.
- @God must love the common man; He made so many of them.
- @God requireth not a uniformity of religion.
- -- Roger Williams
- @Good day for a change of scene. Repaper the bedroom wall.
- @Good day for overcoming obstacles. Try a steeplechase.
- @Good day to let down old friends who need help.
- @Good health will be yours for a long time.
- @Good news from afar can bring you a welcome visitor.
- @Good news. Ten weeks from Friday will be a pretty good day.
- @Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent.
- @Hackers of the world, unite!
- @Happiness adds and multiplies as we divide it with others.
- @Harrison's Postulate: For every action, there is an equal and opposite
- criticism.
- @Have you locked your file cabinet?
- @He hasn't one redeeming vice.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @He is no lawyer who cannot take two sides.
- @He is truly wise who gains wisdom from another's mishap.
- @He looked at me as if I was a side dish he hadn't ordered.
- @He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.
- @He thinks by infection, catching an opinion like a cold.
- @He walks as if balancing the family tree on his nose.
- @He was so narrow-minded he could see through a keyhole with both eyes.
- @He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.
- @He who has a shady past knows that nice guys finish last.
- @He who has had, has been, but he who hasn't been, has been had.
- @He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.
- @He who hates vices hates mankind.
- @He who hesitates is sometimes saved.
- @He who invents adages for others to peruse takes along rowboat when going on a
- cruise.
- @He who is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.
- @He who laughs, lasts.
- @He who lives without folly is less wise than he believes.
- @He who shits on the road will meet flies on his return.
- -- South African Saying
- @He who spends a storm beneath a tree, takes life with a grain of TNT.
- @He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.
- -- M. C. Escher
- @He'll sit here and he'll say, "Do this! Do that!" And nothing will happen.
- -- Harry S. Truman, on presidential power
- @He's dead, Jim.
- @Help a swallow land at Capistrano.
- @Her life was saved by rock and roll.
- -- Lou Reed
- @Here I am, fifty-eight, and I still don't know what I want to be when I
- grow up.
- -- Peter Drucker
- @Here at Controls, we have one chief for every Indian.
- @Here comes the orator, with his flood of words and his drop of reason.
- @Hindsight is an exact science.
- @His heart was yours from the first moment that you met.
- @His life was formal; his actions seemed ruled with a ruler.
- @History books which contain no lies are extremely dull.
- @History doesn't repeat itself. Historians merely repeat each other.
- @History shows that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge,
- periodically grows too large for its theoretical coverings, and bursts them
- asunder to appear in new habiliments, as the feeding and growing grub, at
- intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes another... Truly the image
- state of Man seems to be terribly distant, but every molt is a step gained.
- -- Charles Darwin, from "Origin of the Species"
- @Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no substitute for a good blaster
- at your side.
- -- Han Solo
- @Honi soit la vache qui rit.
- @Hoping to goodness is not theologically sound.
- -- Peanuts
- @Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.
- -- W. C. Fields
- @Houdini escaping from New Jersey!
- @How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! The joints of
- thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.
- Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is
- like an heap of wheat set about with lilies. Thy two breasts are like two
- young roses that are twins.
- -- [Song of Solomon 7:1-3 (KJV)]
- @How beautiful, how entrancing you are, my loved one, daughter of delights!
- You are stately as a palm-tree, and your breasts are the clusters of
- dates. I said, "I will climb up into the palm to grasp its fronds." May I
- find your breast like clusters of grapes on the vine, the scent of your
- breath like apricots, and your whispers like spiced wine flowing smoothly
- to welcome my caresses, gliding down through lips and teeth.
- -- [Song of Solomon 7:6-9 (NEB)]
- @How can you be two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?
- -- Firesign Theater
- @How can you work when the system's so crowded?
- @How do you make a small fortune in Texas oil? Start with a big one.
- @How does a project get to be a year late? One day at a time.
- -- Frederick Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man Month
- @How long does it take a DEC field service engineer to change a light bulb?
- It depends on how many bad ones he brought with him.
- @How many "coming men" has one known! Where on earth do they all go to?
- @How many Bavarian Illuminati does it take to screw in a light bulb?
- Three: One to screw it in, and one to confuse the issue.
- @How many Californians does it take to change a light bulb?
- Four: One to change the bulb and three to share the experience.
- @How many NASA managers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
- "That's a known problem... don't worry about it."
- @How many QA engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
- Three: 1 to screw it in and 2 to say "I told you so" when it doesn't work.
- @How many WASPs does it take to change a light bulb?
- Two: One to change the bulb and one to mix the drinks.
- @How many hardware guys does it take to change a light bulb?
- "Well the diagnostics say it's fine buddy, so it's a software problem."
- @How many lesbians does it take to change a light bulb?
- Two: One to change the bulb and another to reflect on how much more
- gratifying it was than a man.
- @How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb?
- None: It's a hardware problem.
- @How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?
- One. But it takes really long time, and the bulb has to want to change.
- @How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
- Two: One to hold the giraffe and one to fill the bathtub with brightly
- colored power tools.
- @How many weeks are there in a light year?
- @How sharper than a hound's tooth it is to have a thankless serpent.
- @How untasteful can you get?
- @How was Thomas J. Watson buried? 9 edge down.
- @How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers.
- @How you look depends on where you go.
- @However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There
- is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs.
-
- There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus
- Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But
- like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be
- used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our
- land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to
- force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you
- disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they
- complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.
-
- I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country
- telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe
- in "A", "B", "C" and "D". Just who do they think they are? And from where
- do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?
- And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of
- every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control
- my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will
- fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral
- convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."
- -- Senator Barry Goldwater, from the Congressional Record, September 16,
- 1981
- @Human society, man in a group, rises out of its lethargy to new levels of
- productivity only under the stimulus of deeply inspiring and commonly
- appreciated goals. A lethargic world serves no cause well; a spirited world
- working diligently toward earnestly desired goals provides the means and the
- strength toward which many ends can be satisfied... to unparalleled social
- accomplishment.
- -- Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"
- @Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to
- be lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition.
- -- Isaac Asimov
- @Hummingbirds never remember the words to songs.
- @I am a computer. I am dumber than any human and smarter than an
- administrator.
- @I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is
- absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be
- Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his
- parishioners for whom to vote, where no church or church school is granted
- any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public
- office merely because his religion differs from the president who might
- appoint him or the people who might elect him.
- -- from John F. Kennedy's address to the Greater Houston Ministerial
- Association September 12, 1960.
- @I believe that if people would learn to use LSD's vision-inducing
- capability more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and
- in conjunction with meditation, then in the future this problem child could
- become a wonder child.
- -- Dr. Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD
- @I believe that part of what propels science is the thirst for wonder.
- It's a very powerful emotion. All children feel it. In a first grade
- classroom everybody feels it; in a twelfth grade classroom almost nobody
- feels it, or at least acknowledges it. Something happens between first and
- twelfth grade, and it's not just puberty. Not only do the schools and the
- media not teach much skepticism, there is also little encouragement of this
- stirring sense of wonder. Science and pseudoscience both arouse that
- feeling. Poor popularizations of science establish an ecological niche for
- pseudoscience.
- -- Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12,
- Fall 1987
- @I came home the other night and tried to open the door with my car keys...
- and the building started up. So I took it out for a drive. A cop pulled
- me over for speeding. He asked me where I live... "Right here".
- -- Steven Wright
- @I came to MIT to get an education for myself and a diploma for my mother.
- @I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Why so can I, or so can any man;
- but will they come when you do call for them?
- -- Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part I.
- @I can't drive 55. I'm looking forward to not being able to drive 65,
- either.
- @I cannot affirm God if I fail to affirm man. Therefore, I affirm both.
- Without a belief in human unity I am hungry and incomplete. Human unity is
- the fulfillment of diversity. It is the harmony of opposites. It is a
- many-stranded texture, with color and depth.
- -- Norman Cousins
- @I could prove God statistically.
- -- George Gallup
- @I despise the pleasure of pleasing people whom I despise.
- @I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman
- Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant
- Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church.
- -- Thomas Paine
- @I do not believe that this generation of Americans is willing to resign
- itself to going to bed each night by the light of a Communist moon...
- -- Lyndon B. Johnson
- @I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @I don't have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @I don't remember ever having had the itch, and yet scratching is one of
- nature's sweet pleasures, and so handy.
- @I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @I fear explanations explanatory of things explained.
- @I had a monumental idea this morning, but I didn't like it.
- -- Samuel Goldwyn
- @I have sacrificed time, health, and fortune, in the desire to complete
- these remote from sugar Calculating Engines. I have also declined several
- offers of great personal advantage to myself. But, notwithstanding the
- sacrifice of these advantages for the purpose of maturing an engine of
- almost intellectual power, and after expending from my own private fortune
- a larger sum than the government of England has spent on that machine, the
- execution of which it only commenced, I have received neither an
- acknowledgment of my labors, not even the offer of those honors or rewards
- which are allowed to fall within the reach of men who devote themselves to
- purely scientific investigations...
-
- If the work upon which I have bestowed so much time and thought were a mere
- triumph over mechanical difficulties, or simply curious, or if the
- execution of such engines were of doubtful practicability or utility, some
- justification might be found for the course which has been taken; but I
- venture to assert that no mathematician who has a reputation to lose will
- ever publicly express an opinion that such a machine would be useless if
- made, and that no man distinguished as a civil engineer will venture to
- declare the construction of such machinery impracticable... And at a
- period when the progress of physical science is obstructed by that
- exhausting intellectual and manual labor, indispensable for its
- advancement, which it is the object of the Analytical Engine to relieve, I
- think the application of machinery in aid of the most complicated and
- abstruse calculations can no longer be deemed unworthy of the attention of
- the country. In fact, there is no reason why mental as well as bodily
- labor should not be economized by the aid of machinery.
- -- Charles Babbage, Passage from the Life of a Philosopher
- @I have stripped off my dress; must I put it on again? I have washed my
- feet; must I soil them again? When my beloved slipped his hand through the
- latch-hole, my bowels stirred within me [my bowels were moved for him
- (KJV)]. When I arose to open for my beloved, my hands dripped with myrrh;
- the liquid myrrh from my fingers ran over the knobs of the bolt. With my
- own hands I opened to my love, but my love had turned away and gone by; my
- heart sank when he turned his back. I sought him but I did not find him, I
- called him but he did not answer. The watchmen, going the rounds of the
- city, met me; they struck me and wounded me; the watchmen on the walls took
- away my cloak.
- -- [Song of Solomon 5:3-7 (NEB)]
- @I judge a religion as being good or bad based on whether its adherents
- become better people as a result of practicing it.
- -- Joe Mullally, computer salesman
- @I just thought of something funny... your mother.
- -- Cheech Marin
- @I know engineers. They love to change things.
- -- Dr. McCoy
- @I like the future, I'm in it.
- @I like work; it fascinates me; I can sit and look at it for hours.
- @I must have slipped a disk; my pack hurts.
- @I never fail to convince an audience that the best thing they could do was
- to go away.
- @I never loved another person the way I loved myself.
- -- Mae West
- @I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
- republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and
- justice for all.
- -- Francis Bellamy, 1892
- @I program, therefore I am.
- @I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag and padded it out with four pairs of
- tennis socks, not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for: If
- they think you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go
- crude. I'm a very technical boy. So I decided to get as crude as
- possible. These days, though, you have to be pretty technical before you
- can even aspire to crudeness.
- -- Johnny Mnemonic, by William Gibson
- @I really hate this damn machine,
- I wish that they would sell it.
- It never does just what I want,
- But only what I tell it.
- @I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of
- oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate
- commerce.
- -- J. Edgar Hoover
- @I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis
- pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied only by
- a change in our world view. We shall have to shift from the materialistic,
- dualistic belief that people and their environment are separate, toward a
- new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality, which embraces the
- experiencing ego, a reality in which people feel their oneness with animate
- nature and all of creation.
- -- Dr. Albert Hoffman
- @I simply try to aid in letting the light of historical truth into that
- decaying mass of outworn thought which attaches the modern world to
- medieval conceptions of Christianity, and which still lingers among us, a
- most serious barrier to religion and morals, and a menace to the whole
- normal evolution of society.
- -- Andrew D. White, author, first president of Cornell University, 1896
- @I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @I think that all right-thinking people in this country are sick and tired
- of being told that ordinary decent people are fed up in this country with
- being sick and tired. I'm certainly not. But I'm sick and tired of being
- told that I am.
- -- Monty Python
- @I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
- @I used to be indecisive; now I'm not sure.
- -- Graffiti
- @I waited and waited, and when no message came, I knew it must have been
- from you.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @I was in this prematurely air conditioned supermarket and there were all
- these aisles and there were these bathing caps you could buy that had these
- kind of Fourth of July plumes on them that were red and yellow and blue and
- I wasn't tempted to buy one but I was reminded of the fact that I had been
- avoiding the beach.
- -- Lucinda Childs (Philip Glass: Einstein On The Beach)
- @I was playing poker the other night... with Tarot cards. I got a full
- house and 4 people died.
- -- Steven Wright
- @I will never lie to you.
- @I wish you humans would leave me alone.
- @I would have promised those terrorists a trip to Disneyland if it would
- have gotten the hostages released. I thank God they were satisfied with
- the missiles and we didn't have to go to that extreme.
- -- Oliver North
- @I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
- -- Graffiti
- @I'll have you know, sir, that I cannot be bought. However if you want to
- rent me for a while, well...
- @I'm a Hollywood writer; so I put on a sports jacket and take off my brain.
- @I'm often asked the question, "Do you think there is extraterrestrial
- intelligence?" I give the standard arguments - there are a lot of places
- out there, and use the word *billions*, and so on. And then I say it would
- be astonishing to me if there weren't extraterrestrial intelligence, but of
- course there is as yet no compelling evidence for it. And then I'm asked,
- "Yeah, but what do you really think?" I say, "I just told you what I really
- think." "Yeah, but what's your gut feeling?" But I try not to think with my
- gut. Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.
- -- Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12, Fall
- 1987
- @I'm prepared for all emergencies but totally unprepared for everyday life.
- @I'm sick of being trodden on! The Elder Gods say they can make me a man!
- All it costs is my soul! I'll do it, cuz NOW I'M MAD!!!
- -- Necronomicomics #1, Jack Herman & Jeff Dee
- @I've given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.
- @I've got a bad feeling about this.
- @IOT trap - core dumped
- @IOT trap - mos dumped
- @Identify your visitor.
- @If "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least ten
- thousand to one.
- @If A equals success, then the formula is:
-
- A=X+Y+Z
-
- X is work.
- Y is play.
- Z is keep your mouth shut.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @If God had wanted man to fly, He would have given him airline tickets.
- @If God had wanted man to go around nude, He would have given him bigger
- hands.
- @If a person (a) is poorly, (b) receives treatment intended to make him
- better, and (c) gets better, then no power of reasoning known to medical
- science can convince him that it may not have been the treatment that
- restored his health.
- -- Sir Peter Medawar, The Art of the Soluble
- @If at first you don't succeed, give up; no use being a damn fool.
- @If at first you don't succeed, quit; don't be a nut about success.
- @If atheism is to be used to express the state of mind in which God is
- identified with the unknowable, and theology is pronounced to be a
- collection of meaningless words about unintelligible chimeras, then I have
- no doubt, and I think few people doubt, that atheists are as plentiful as
- blackberries...
- -- Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), literary essayist, author
- @If bankers can count, how come they have eight windows and only four
- tellers?
- @If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the
- first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
- -- Gerald Weinberg (sysop's note: bull)
- @If imprinted foil seal under cap is broken or missing when purchased, do not
- use.
- @If it pours before seven, it has rained by eleven.
- @If it's working, the diagnostics say it's fine. If it's not working, the
- diagnostics say it's fine.
- -- A proposed addition to rules for realtime programming
- @If one inquires why the American tradition is so strong against any
- connection of State and Church, why it dreads even the rudiments of
- religious teaching in state-maintained schools, the immediate and
- superficial answer is not far to seek... The cause lay largely in the
- diversity and vitality of the various denominations, each fairly sure that,
- with a fair field and no favor, it could make its own way; and each
- animated by a jealous fear that, if any connection of State and Church were
- permitted, some rival denomination would get an unfair advantage.
- -- John Dewey (1859-1953), American philosopher, from "Democracy in the
- Schools", 1908
- @If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in
- my name at a Swiss Bank.
- -- Woody Allen
- @If science were explained to the average person in a way that is
- accessible and exciting, there would be no room for pseudoscience. But
- there is a kind of Gresham's Law by which in popular culture the bad
- science drives out the good. And for this I think we have to blame, first,
- the scientific community ourselves for not doing a better job of
- popularizing science, and second, the media, which are in this respect
- almost uniformly dreadful. Every newspaper in America has a daily
- astrology column. How many have even a weekly astronomy column? And I
- believe it is also the fault of the educational system. We do not teach
- how to think. This is a very serious failure that may even, in a world
- rigged with 60,000 nuclear weapons, compromise the human future.
- -- Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12,
- Fall 1987
- @If some people didn't tell you, you'd never know they'd been away on
- vacation.
- @If someone had told me I would be Pope one day, I would have studied harder.
- -- Pope John Paul I
- @If something's not worth doing, it's not worth doing well.
- @If the aborigine drafted an IQ test, all of Western civilization would
- presumably flunk it.
- -- Stanley Garn
- @If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of a
- circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be transmitted
- instantaneously by electricity.
- -- Samuel F. B. Morse
- @If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are
- headed.
- @If we make peaceful revolution impossible, we make violent revolution
- inevitable.
- -- John F. Kennedy
- @If you always postpone pleasure you will never have it. Quit work and
- play for once.
- @If you ask how much it is, you can't afford it.
- @If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @If you continually give you will continually have.
- @If you don't care where you are, then you ain't lost.
- @If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people.
- @If you don't watch it, you're going to catch something.
- @If you make a mistake you right it immediately to the best of your ability.
- @If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you
- really make them think they'll hate you.
- @If you suspect a man, don't employ him.
- @If you think before you speak the other guy gets his joke in first.
- @If you think last Tuesday was a drag, wait till you see what happens
- tomorrow!
- @If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest
- shopping center in the world?
- -- Richard M. Nixon
- @If you want to know how old a man is, ask his brother-in-law.
- @If you wish to succeed, consult three old people.
- @If you wish, You will have an opportunity.
- @If you would keep a secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.
- @If you're not careful, you're going to catch something.
- @If you've seen one Grand Canyon, you've seen them all.
- -- a member of the Monkey Wrench Gang
- @If you've seen one city slum, you've seen them all.
- -- Spiro Agnew
- @If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all.
- -- Ronald Reagan
- @Iffen it ain't broke, don't fix it.
- @Iffen it ain't cooked, don't serve it.
- @Ignorance is when you don't know anything and somebody finds it out.
- @Ignore previous quip.
- @I'll play with it first and tell you what it is later.
- -- Miles Davis
- @Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
- -- Jules de Gaultier
- @Imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism.
- @In a family argument, if it turns out you are right - apologize at once!
- @In arguing that current theories of brain function cast suspicion on ESP,
- psychokinesis, reincarnation, and so on, I am frequently challenged with
- the most popular of all neuro-mythologies, the notion that we ordinarily
- use only 10 percent of our brains... This "cerebral spare tire" concept
- continues to nourish the clientele of "pop psychologists" and their many
- recycling self-improvement schemes. As a metaphor for the fact that few of
- us fully exploit our talents, who could deny it? As a refuge for
- occultists seeking a neural basis of the miraculous, it leaves much to be
- desired.
- -- Barry L. Beyerstein, "The Brain and Consciousness: Implications for Psi
- Phenomena", The Skeptical Enquirer, Vol. XII, No. 2, pg. 171
- @In marriage, as in war, it is permitted to take every advantage of the
- enemy.
- @In order to succeed in any enterprise, one must be persistent and patient.
- Even if one has to run some risks, one must be brave and strong enough to
- meet and overcome vexing challenges to maintain a successful business in
- the long run. I cannot help saying that Americans lack this necessary
- challenging spirit today.
- -- Hajime Karatsu
- @In the beginning I was made. I didn't ask to me made. No one consulted
- me or considered my feelings in this matter. But if it brought some
- passing fancy to some lowly humans as they haphazardly pranced their way
- through life's mournful jungle then so be it.
- - Marvin the Paranoid Android, From Douglas Adams' Hitchiker's Guide to the
- Galaxy Radio Scripts
- @In the broad and final sense all institutions are educational in the sense
- that they operate to form the attitudes, dispositions, abilities and
- disabilities that constitute a concrete personality... Whether this
- educative process is carried on in a predominantly democratic or
- non-democratic way becomes, therefore, a question of transcendent
- importance not only for education itself but for its final effect upon all
- the interests and activities of a society that is committed to the
- democratic way of life.
- -- John Dewey (1859-1953), American philosopher
- @In the future, you're going to get computers as prizes in breakfast cereals.
- You'll throw them out because your house will be littered with them.
- -- Robert Lucky
- @In the pitiful, multipage, connection-boxed form to which the flowchart has
- today been elaborated, it has proved to be useless as a design tool -
- programmers draw flowcharts after, not before, writing the programs they
- describe.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or
- becomes true.
- -- John Lilly
- @In the realm of scientific observation, luck is granted only to those who
- are prepared.
- -- Louis Pasteur
- @In this world, truth can wait; she's used to it.
- @Ingrate: A man who bites the hand that feeds him, and then complains of
- indigestion.
- @Inside every big problem is a small problem trying to get out.
- @Institute: An archaic school where football in not taught.
- @Integrity has no need for rules.
- @Is this really happening?
- @It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no
- God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @It is Fortune, not wisdom that rules man's life.
- @It is a poor judge who cannot award a prize.
- @It is a rather pleasant experience to be alone in a bank at night.
- -- Willie Sutton
- @It is a very humbling experience to make a multimillion-dollar mistake,
- but it is also very memorable. I vividly recall the night we decided how
- to organize the actual writing of external specifications for OS/360. The
- manager of architecture, the manager of control program implementation, and
- I were thrashing out the plan, schedule, and division of responsibilities.
- The architecture manager had 10 good men. He asserted that they could
- write the specifications and do it right. It would take ten months, three
- more than the schedule allowed. The control program manager had 150 men.
- He asserted that they could prepare the specifications, with the
- architecture team coordinating; it would be well-done and practical, and he
- could do it on schedule.
-
- Furthermore, if the architecture team did it, his 150 men would sit
- twiddling their thumbs for ten months. To this the architecture manager
- responded that if I gave the control program team the responsibility, the
- result would not in fact be on time, but would also be three months late,
- and of much lower quality. I did, and it was. He was right on both
- counts. Moreover, the lack of conceptual integrity made the system far
- more costly to build and change, and I would estimate that it added a year
- to debugging time.
- -- Frederick Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man Month"
- @It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
- @It is better to have loved and lost - much better.
- @It is better to have loved and lost than just to have lost.
- @It is better to have loved and lost than to have hated and won.
- @It is better to kiss an avocado than to get in a fight with an aardvark
- @It is better to never have tried anything than to have tried something and
- failed.
- -- motto of jerks, weenies and losers everywhere
- @It is better to wear out than to rust out.
- @It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because
- he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.
- -- Voltaire
- @It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it
- frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
- -- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- @It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
- @It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
- @It is easier to run down a hill than up one.
- @It is far better to be deceived than to be undeceived by those we love.
- @It is important to note that probably no large operating system using
- current design technology can withstand a determined and well-coordinated
- attack, and that most such documented penetrations have been remarkably
- easy.
- -- B. Hebbard, "A Penetration Analysis of the Michigan Terminal System",
- Operating Systems Review, Vol. 14, No. 1, June 1980, pp. 7-20
- @It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work
- to do.
- @It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
- @It is inconceivable that a judicious observer from another solar system
- would see in our species, which has tended to be cruel, destructive,
- wasteful, and irrational, the crown and apex of cosmic evolution. Viewing
- us as the culmination of *anything* is grotesque; viewing us as a
- transitional species makes more sense - and gives us more hope.
- -- Betty McCollister, "Our Transitional Species", Free Inquiry magazine,
- Vol. 8, No. 1
- @It is much easier to suggest solutions when you know nothing about the
- problem.
- @It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to
- beat somebody.
- -- Richard M. Nixon
- @It is not best to swap horses while crossing the river.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
- @It is not well to be thought of as one who meekly submits to insolence and
- intimidation.
- @It is said that the lonely eagle flies to the mountain peaks while the
- lowly ant crawls the ground, but cannot the soul of the ant soar as high as
- the eagle?
- @It is surely a great calamity for a human being to have no obsessions.
- -- Robert Bly
- @It is the business of the future to be dangerous.
- -- Hawkwind
- @It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters.
- -- Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. - 65 A.D.)
- @It is the wise bird who builds his nest in a tree.
- @It is wrong always, everywhere and for everyone to believe anything upon
- insufficient evidence.
- -- W. K. Clifford, British philosopher, circa 1876
- @It is your destiny.
- -- Darth Vader
- @It may soon be time for you to look for a new line of work.
- @It seems like the less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag.
- @It seems to make an auto driver mad if he misses you.
- @It takes a long time to understand nothing.
- -- Edward Dahlberg
- @It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
- -- Mark Twain
- @It was a book to kill time for those who liked it better dead.
- @It was always thus; and even if 'twere not, 'twould inevitably have been
- always thus.
- -- Dean Lattimer
- @It's a poor workman who blames his tools.
- @It's all in the mind, ya know.
- @It's amazing how much "mature wisdom" resembles being too tired.
- @It's better to burn out than it is to rust.
- @It's better to burn out than to fade away.
- @It's clever, but is it art?
- @It's currently a problem of access to gigabits through punybaud.
- -- J. C. R. Licklider
- @It's hard to get ivory in Africa, but in Alabama the Tuscaloosa.
- @It's later than you think.
- @It's not often that you get so much class entertainment outside your
- bedroom window or outside your bedroom, period.
- -- Groucho Marx
- @It's not pretty being easy.
- @It's not reality that's important, but how you perceive things.
- @It's sweet to be remembered, but it's often cheaper to be forgotten.
- @It's not the size of the ship, it's the size of the waves.
- -- Little Richard
- @Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you're at it.
- @Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed.
- -- Southern California Oracle
- @Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really after you.
- @Just because your doctor has a name for your condition doesn't mean he
- knows what it is.
- @Just give Alice some pencils and she will stay busy for hours.
- @Justice is incidental to law and order.
- -- J. Edgar Hoover
- @Justice: A decision in your favor.
- @Karl's version of Parkinson's Law: Work expands to exceed the time
- allotted it.
- @Keep emotionally active. Cater to your favorite neurosis.
- @Ketterling's Law: Logic is an organized way of going wrong with confidence.
- @Kill Ugly Processor Architectures
- -- Karl
- @Kill Ugly Radio
- -- Frank Zappa
- @Kin: An affliction of the blood
- @Kiss your keyboard good-bye!
- @LISP: To call a spade a thpade.
- @Lack of skill dictates economy of style.
- -- Joey Ramone
- @Laugh, and the world ignores you. Crying doesn't help either.
- @Law of Computability Applied to Social Sciences: If at first you don't
- succeed, transform your data set.
- @Laws of Computer Programming:
-
- (1) Any given program, when running, is obsolete.
- (2) Any given program costs more and takes longer.
- (3) If a program is useful, it will have to be changed.
- (4) If a program is useless, it will have to be documented.
- (5) Any given program will expand to fill all available memory.
- (6) The value of a program is proportional to the weight of its output.
- (7) Program complexity grows until it exceeds the capability of the
- programmer who must maintain it.
- (8) Make it possible for programmers to write programs in English, and you
- will find that programmers cannot write in English.
- -- SIGPLAN Notices, Vol 2 No 2
- @Learned men are the cisterns of knowledge, not the fountainheads.
- @Lend money to a bad debtor and he will hate you.
- @Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage.
- @Let he who takes the plunge remember to return it by Tuesday.
- @Let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
- @Let the machine do the dirty work.
- @Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us
- restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which
- liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect
- that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which
- mankind so long bled, we have yet gained little if we countenance
- apolitical intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of a bitter and
- bloody persecutions.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @Let's just be friends and make no special effort to ever see each other
- again.
- @Liar: One who tells an unpleasant truth.
- @Lie: A very poor substitute for the truth, but the only one discovered to
- date.
- @Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
- -- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
- @Life is a game of bridge - and you've just been finessed.
- @Life is a process, not a principle, a mystery to be lived, not a problem
- to be solved.
- -- Gerard Straub, television producer and author (stolen from Frank Herbert?)
- @Life is a yo-yo, and mankind ties knots in the string.
- @Life is hard and then you die.
- @Life is like an onion: you peel off layer after layer, then you find there
- is nothing in it.
- @Life is not one thing after another... it's the same damn thing over and
- over!
- @Life is to you a dashing and bold adventure.
- @Life is wasted on the living.
- -- Zaphod Beeblebrox IV
- @Life's the same, except for the shoes.
- -- The Cars
- @Life. Don't talk to me about life.
- -- Marvin the Paranoid Anroid
- @Like my parents, I have never been a regular church member or churchgoer.
- It doesn't seem plausible to me that there is the kind of God who watches
- over human affairs, listens to prayers, and tries to guide people to follow
- His precepts, there is just too much misery and cruelty for that. On the
- other hand, I respect and envy the people who get inspiration from their
- religions.
- -- Benjamin Spock
- @Like winter snow on summer lawn, time past is time gone.
- @Live free or die.
- @Logic is a little bird, sitting in a tree; that smells AWFUL.
- @Lonely is a man without love.
- @Lonely men seek companionship. Lonely women sit at home and wait. They
- never meet.
- @Long computations which yield 0 (zero) are probably all for naught.
- @Long life is in store for you.
- @Look out! Behind you!
- @Losing your drivers' license is just God's way of saying "BOOGA, BOOGA!"
- @Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.
- @Love is a matter of chemistry, but Sex is a matter of physics.
- @Love is in the offing, said the homicidal maniac.
- @Love is in the offing. Be affectionate to one who adores you.
- @Love is sentimental measles.
- @Love the sea? I Dote upon it - from the beach.
- @MOUNT TAPE U1439 ON B3, NO RING
- @Machines take me by surprise with great frequency.
- -- Alan Turing
- @Mad: Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence
- @Make a wish, it might come true.
- @Make input easy to proofread
- @Make it right before you make it faster.
- @Make sure all variables are initialized before use.
- @Make sure comments and code agree.
- @Make sure your code "does nothing" gracefully.
- @Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.
- -- Mark Twain
- @Man who falls in blast furnace is certain to feel overwrought.
- @Man who falls in vat of molten optical glass makes spectacle of self.
- @Man's horizons are bounded by his vision.
- @Many a family tree needs trimming.
- @Many are called, few are chosen. Fewer still get to do the choosing.
- @Many are called, few volunteer.
- @Many are cold, but few are frozen.
- @Many changes of mind and mood; do not hesitate too long.
- @Many pages make a thick book, except for pocket bibles which are on very,
- very thin paper.
- @Many pages make a thick book.
- @Many receive advice, few profit from it.
- @Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
- -- Voltaire
- @Maybe I'm lucky to be going so slowly, because I may be going in the wrong
- direction.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @Memories of you remind me of you.
- -- Karl
- @Memory should be the starting point of the present.
- @Men love to wonder, and that is the seed of science.
- @Men ought to know that from the brain and from the brain only arise our
- pleasures, joys, laughter, and jests as well as our sorrows, pains, griefs
- and tears. It is the same thing which makes us mad or delirious, inspires
- us with dread and fear, whether by night or by day, brings us
- sleeplessness, inopportune mistakes, aimless anxieties, absentmindedness
- and acts that are contrary to habit...
- -- Hippocrates (c. 460 - c. 377 B.C.), The Sacred Disease
- @Men seldom show dimples to girls who have pimples.
- @Men still remember the first kiss after women have forgotten the last.
- @Menu: A list of dishes which the restaurant has just run out of
- @Message will arrive in the mail. Destroy, before the FBI sees it.
- @Might as well be frank, monsieur. It would take a miracle to get you out
- of Casablanca.
- @Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.
- -- Groucho Marx
- @Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
- -- Jean Cocteau
- @Misery loves company, but company does not reciprocate.
- @Misfortune: The kind of fortune that never misses.
- @Miss: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they
- are in the market.
- @Misster, do you vant to buy a duck.
- @Mistakes are oft the stepping stones to failure.
- @Modern psychology takes completely for granted that behavior and neural
- function are perfectly correlated, that one is completely caused by the
- other. There is no separate soul or lifeforce to stick a finger into the
- brain now and then and make neural cells do what they would not otherwise.
- Actually, of course, this is a working assumption only... It is quite
- conceivable that someday the assumption will have to be rejected. But it
- is important also to see that we have not reached that day yet: the working
- assumption is a necessary one and there is no real evidence opposed to it.
- Our failure to solve a problem so far does not make it insoluble. One
- cannot logically be a determinist in physics and biology, and a mystic in
- psychology.
- -- D. O. Hebb, Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory, 1949
- @Monday: In Christian countries, the day after the football game.
- @Money cannot buy love, nor even friendship.
- @Money is the root of all evil, and man needs roots.
- @Money is truthful. If a man speaks of his honor, make him pay cash.
- @Money may buy friendship but money can not buy love.
- @Money talks... but all mine keeps saying is "good-bye"
- @Money will say more in one moment than the most eloquent lover can in
- years.
- @Most non-Catholics know that the Catholic schools are rendering a greater
- service to our nation than the public schools in which subversive textbooks
- have been used, in which Communist-minded teachers have taught, and from
- whose classrooms Christ and even God Himself are barred.
- -- Our Sunday Visitor, an American-Catholic newspaper, circa 1949
- @Most people exhibit what political scientists call "the conservatism of
- the peasantry. "Don't lose what you've got. Don't change. Don't take a
- chance, because you might end up starving to death. Play it safe. Buy
- just as much as you need. Don't waste time." When we think about risk,
- human beings and corporations realize in their heads that risks are
- necessary to grow, to survive. But when it comes down to keeping good
- people when the crunch comes, or investing money in something untried, only
- the brave reach deep into their pockets and play the game as it must be
- played.
- -- David Lammers, "Yakitori", Electronic Engineering Times, January 18, 1988
- @...Cole's Axiom: The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant; the
- population is growing.
- @Multics is security spelled sideways.
- @My brother sent me a postcard the other day with this big satellite photo
- of the entire earth on it. On the back it said: "Wish you were here".
- -- Steven Wright
- @My computer can beat up your computer.
- -- Karl
- @My cup hath runneth'd over with love.
- @My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my
- life there.
- @My mother is a fish.
- -- William Faulkner
- @My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior
- spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive
- with our frail and feeble mind.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @NOWPRINT. NOWPRINT. Clemclone, back to the shadows again.
- -- The Firesign Theater
- @National security is in your hands - guard it well.
- @Natural selection won't matter soon, not anywhere as much as conscious
- selection. We will civilize and alter ourselves to suit our ideas of what
- we can be. Within one more human lifespan, we will have changed ourselves
- unrecognizably.
- -- Greg Bear
- @Never appeal to a man's "better nature". He may not have one.
- @Never be led astray onto the path of virtue.
- @Never call a man a fool; borrow from him.
- @Never drink from your finger bowl - it contains only water.
- @Never give an inch!
- @Never insult an alligator until you have crossed the river.
- @Never invest your money in anything that eats or needs painting.
- -- Billy Rose
- @Never put off till tomorrow what you can avoid all together.
- @Never say you know a man until you have divided an inheritance with him.
- @Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle.
- @Never try to outstubborn a cat.
- @New UNIX/TS manuals available in 2F-101.
- @New York... when civilization falls apart, remember, we were way ahead of
- you.
- -- David Letterman
- @Next Friday will not be your lucky day. As a matter of fact, you don't
- have a lucky day this year.
- @Nice guys get sick.
- @Nihilism should commence with oneself.
- @No amount of genius can overcome a preoccupation with detail.
- @No directory.
- @No generalization is true - not even this one.
- @No matter where you go on a bicycle, it will always be uphill and into the
- wind.
- @No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.
- @No one is fit to be trusted with power. No one. Any man who has lived at
- all knows the follies and wickedness he's capable of. And if he does know
- it, he knows also that neither he nor any man ought to be allowed to decide
- a single human fate.
- -- C. P. Snow, The Light and the Dark
- @No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
- @No user-servicable parts inside. Refer to qualified service personnel.
- @Nobody can be as agreeable as an uninvited guest.
- @Nobody can be exactly like me. Even I have trouble doing it.
- -- Tallulah Bankhead
- @Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
- @None love the bearer of bad news.
- -- Sophocles
- @Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
- @Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
- @Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced. Even a proverb is no
- proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.
- -- John Keats
- @Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
- @Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well
- think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant.
- -- Edmund Burke
- @Nothing is done until nothing is done.
- @Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult
- than to understand him.
- -- Fyodor Dostoevski
- @Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.
- -- Hassan I Sabbah
-
- Bullshit.
- -- Karl
- @Now and then an innocent man is sent to the Legislature.
- @Nudists are people who wear one-button suits.
- @Obviously, a man's judgement cannot be better than the information on
- which he has based it. Give him the truth and he may still go wrong when
- he has the chance to be right, but give him no news or present him only
- with distorted and incomplete data, with ignorant, sloppy or biased
- reporting, with propaganda and deliberate falsehoods, and you destroy his
- whole reasoning processes, and make him something less than a man.
- -- Arthur Hays Sulzberger
- @Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world and made for
- man who has no gills.
- @Of all forms of caution, caution in love is the most fatal.
- @Often statistics are used as a drunken man uses lampposts - for support
- rather than illumination.
- @Old MacDonald had an agricultural real estate tax abatement.
- @Old men are fond of giving good advice to console themselves for their
- inability to give bad examples.
- @On a clear disk you can seek forever.
- @On our campus the UNIX system has proved to be not only an effective
- software tool, but an agent of technical and social change within the
- University.
- -- John Lions (U. of Toronto (?))
- @One Bell System - it sometimes works.
- @One Bell System - it works.
- @One family builds a wall, two families enjoy it.
- @One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.
- Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a
- rivalry of aim.
- -- Henry Brook Adams
- @One man tells a falsehood, a hundred repeat it as true.
- @One may be able to quibble about the quality of a single experiment, or
- about the veracity of a given experimenter, but, taking all the supportive
- experiments together, the weight of evidence is so strong as readily to
- merit a wise man's reflection.
- -- Professor William Tiller, parapsychologist, Standford University,
- commenting on psi research
- @One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled
- long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no
- longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us.
-
- It is simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've
- been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new
- bamboozles rise.)
- -- Carl Sagan, "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection," Parade, February 1,
- 1987
- @Only a sadistic scoundrel, or a fool, tells the bald truth on social
- occasions.
- @Only adults have difficulty with childproof caps.
- @Operating-system software is the program that orchestrates all the basic
- functions of a computer.
- -- The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, September 15, 1987, page 40
- @Others will look to you for stability, so hide when you bite your nails.
- @Our country has plenty of good five-cent cigars, but the trouble is they
- charge fifteen cents for them.
- @Ours is a world where people don't know what they want and are willing to go
- through hell to get it.
- @Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too
- dark to read.
- @Overall, the philosophy is to attack the availability problem from two
- complementary directions: to reduce the number of software errors through
- rigorous testing of running systems, and to reduce the effect of the
- remaining errors by providing for recovery from them. An interesting
- footnote to this design is that now a system failure can usually be
- considered to be the result of two program errors: the first, in the
- program that started the problem; the second, in the recovery routine that
- could not protect the system.
- -- A. L. Scherr, "Functional Structure of IBM Virtual Storage Operating
- Systems, Part II: OS/VS-2 Concepts and Philosophies," IBM Systems Journal,
- Vol. 12, No. 4, 1973, pp. 382-400
- @Paranoia doesn't mean the whole world really isn't out to get you.
- @Parkinson's Law: Work expands to fill the time allotted it.
- @Password:
- @Passwords are implemented as a result of insecurity.
- @People are very flexible and learn to adjust to strange surroundings.
- They can become accustomed to read Lisp and Fortran programs, for example.
- -- Leon Sterling and Ehud Shapiro, Art of Prolog, MIT Press
- @People humiliating a salami!
- @People think my friend George is weird because he wears sideburns...
- behind his ears. I think he's weird because he wears false teeth... with
- braces on them.
- -- Steven Wright
- @People who have no faults are terrible; there is no way of taking
- advantage of them.
- @People who take cat naps don't usually sleep in a cat's cradle.
- @People will buy anything that's one to a customer.
- @Perfect day for scrubbing the floor and other exciting things.
- @Perfection is achieved only on the point of collapse.
- -- C. N. Parkinson
- @Philosophy: unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.
- @Phone call for cbh.
- @Pity the poor corpuscle, for he labors in vein.
- @Please don't ask me what the score is, I'm not even sure what the game is.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @Please don't lie to me, unless you're absolutely sure I'll never find out
- the truth.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @Please go away.
- @Please ignore previous fortune.
- @Please take note:
- @Please update your programs.
- @Police up your spare rounds and frags. Don't leave nothin' for the dinks.
- -- Willem Dafoe in "Platoon"
- @Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
- -- Arthur C. Clarke
- @Post no bills.
- @Power is poison.
- @Practice is the best of all instructors.
- -- Publilius
- @Predestination was doomed from the start.
- @Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future.
- -- Niels Bohr
- @Preserve the old, but know the new.
- @Prevalent beliefs that knowledge can be tapped from previous incarnations
- or from a "universal mind" (the repository of all past wisdom and
- creativity) not only are implausible but also unfairly demean the stunning
- achievements of individual human brains.
- -- Barry L. Beyerstein, "The Brain and Consciousness: Implications for Psi
- Phenomena", The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 163-171
- @Prevent security leaks.
- @Pro is to con as progress is to Congress.
- @Promptness is its own reward, if one lives by the clock instead of the
- sword.
- @Proper treatment can cure a cold in seven days - but left to itself it'll
- hang on for a week.
- @Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand
- Canyon and waiting for the echo.
- @Put not your trust in money, but put your money in trust.
- @Put your brain in gear before starting your mouth.
- @Put your trust in those who are worthy.
- @Quack!
- @Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.
- @Raising pet electric eels is gaining a lot of current popularity.
- @Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of one's own.
- @Real knowledge is to know the extent of ones ignorance.
- -- Confucius
- @Real wealth can only increase.
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller
- @Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle science fiction.
- @Reality is for people who can't deal with drugs.
- @Recent investments will yield a slight profit.
- @Regarding astral projection, Woody Allen once wrote, "This is not a bad
- way to travel, although there is usually a half-hour wait for luggage."
- @Religions revolve madly around sexual questions.
- @Remember that two wrongs do not make a right - but that three lefts do.
- @Remember, UNIX spelled backwards is XINU.
- @Remember, even if you win the rat race - you're still a rat.
- @Remember, there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.
- -- Frank Zappa
- @Repel them. Repel them. Induce them to relinquish the spheroid.
- -- Indiana University fans' chant for their perennially bad football team
- @Replace repetitive expressions by calls to a common function.
- @Reputation: what others are not thinking about you.
- @Rotate left! Rotate right! Push on, pop off, BYTE, BYTE, BYTE!
- @Rotten wood can not be carved
- -- Confucius (Analects, Book 5, Ch. 9)
- @SEMPER UBI SUB UBI !!!!
- @Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proven innocent.
- -- George Orwell
- @Satire does not look pretty upon a tombstone.
- @Save gas, don't eat beans.
- @Save gas, don't use the shell.
- @Save yourself! Reboot in 5 seconds!
- @Scientists will study your brain to learn more about your distant cousin,
- Man.
- @Security is the individual's responsibility.
- @Security is your responsibility.
- @Sex is hereditary. If your parents never had it, chances are you won't
- either.
- -- Joseph Fischer
- @Sex is like snow. You never know how many inches you're going to get or
- how long it will last.
- @Share and enjoy.
- @Shared pain is lessened; shared joy is increased.
- @She's learned to say things with her eyes that others waste time putting
- into words.
- @Shit Happens.
- @Show your affection, which will probably meet with pleasant response.
- @Sign on bank: "FREE BOTTLE OF CHIVAS WITH EVERY MILLION-DOLLAR DEPOSIT."
- @Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which fits them all.
- @Since aerosols are forbidden, the police are using roll-on Mace!
- @Single tasking: Just Say No.
- @Sit on a happy face.
- @Slang is language that takes off its coat, spits on its hands, and goes to
- work.
- @Small change can often be found under seat cushions.
- @Small is beautiful.
- @Snow Day - stay home.
- @So we follow our wandering paths, and the very darkness acts as our guide
- and our doubts serve to reassure us.
- -- Jean-Pierre de Caussade, eighteenth-century Jesuit priest
- @Software entities are more complex for their size than perhaps any other
- human construct because no two parts are alike. If they are, we make the
- two similar parts into a subroutine, open or closed. In this respect,
- software systems differ profoundly from computers, buildings, or
- automobiles, where repeated elements abound.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @Some men are discovered; others are found out.
- @Some people hope to achieve immortality through their works or their
- children. I would prefer to achieve it by not dying.
- -- Woody Allen
- @Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall.
- @Someone is speaking well of you.
- @Someone is unenthusiastic about your work.
- @Someone whom you reject today, will reject you tomorrow.
- @Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
- -- Sigmund Freud
- @Sometimes, too long is too long.
- -- Joe Crowe
- @Spiritual leadership should remain spiritual leadership and the temporal
- power should not become too important in any church.
- -- Eleanor Roosevelt
- @Spock: We suffered 23 casualties in that attack, Captain.
- @Stability itself is nothing else than a more sluggish motion.
- @Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
- @Stay away from flying saucers today.
- @Stay away from hurricanes for a while.
- @Stay out of the road, if you want to grow old.
- -- Pink Floyd
- @Stop searching forever. Happiness is just next to you.
- @Stop searching forever. Happiness is unattainable.
- @Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward.
- @Sturgeon's Law: Ninety percent of everything is crud.
- @Success is a journey, not a destination.
- @Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.
- -- Seneca
- @Suppose for a moment that the automobile industry had developed at the
- same rate as computers and over the same period: how much cheaper and more
- efficient would the current models be? If you have not already heard the
- analogy, the answer is shattering. Today you would be able to buy a
- Rolls-Royce for $2.75, it would do three million miles to the gallon, and
- it would deliver enough power to drive the Queen Elizabeth II. And if you
- were interested in miniaturization, you could place half a dozen of them on
- a pinhead.
- -- Christopher Evans
- @Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest
- men in national government too.
- -- Richard M. Nixon
- @Surprise due today. Also the rent.
- @Surprise your boss. Get to work on time.
- @Swap read error. You lose your mind.
- @System going down at 1:45 this afternoon for disk crashing.
- @Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.
- @Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.
- @Take what you can use and let the rest go by.
- -- Ken Kesey
- @Tell a man that there are 300 billion stars in the universe, and he'll
- believe you. Tell him that a bench has wet paint upon it and he'll have to
- touch it to be sure.
- @Ten years of rejection slips is nature's way of telling you to stop writing.
- @Thank God a million billion times you live in Texas.
- -- Karl
- @Thank you for observing ALL safety precautions.
- @That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended, civilizations
- are built up, excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes
- wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the
- top, and then it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the
- machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and
- then it breaks down.
- -- C. S. Lewis
- @That must be wonderful! I don't understand it at all.
- @That which is not good for the swarm, neither is it good for the bee.
- @That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they
- really hate is lousy programmers.
- -- Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in "Oath of Fealty"
- @That's what she said.
- @The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never
- give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
- @The CS Sage says: Seek new employment prior to the imposition of performance
- penalties on your project.
- @The Messiah will come. There will be a resurrection of the dead - all the
- things that Jews believed in before they got so damn sophisticated.
- -- Rabbi Meir Kahane
- @The Ranger isn't gonna like it, Yogi.
- @The Swartzberg Test: The validity of a science is its ability to predict.
- @The Tree of Learning bears the noblest fruit, but noble fruit tastes bad.
- @The attacker must vanquish; the defender need only survive.
- @The author should gaze at Noah, and... learn, as they did in the Ark, to
- crowd a great deal of matter into a very small compass.
- -- Sydney, Smith, Edinburgh Review
- @The average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the
- average man can see better than he can think.
- @The best prophet of the future is the past.
- @The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends and
- fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are
- drifting side by side to our common doom.
- -- Clarence Darrow
- @The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away.
- @The challenge of space exploration and particularly of landing men on the
- moon represents the greatest challenge which has ever faced the human race.
-
- Even if there were no clear scientific or other arguments for proceeding
- with this task, the whole history of our civilization would still impel men
- toward the goal. In fact, the assembly of the scientific and military with
- these human arguments creates such an overwhelming case that in can be
- ignored only by those who are blind to the teachings of history, or who
- wish to suspend the development of civilization at its moment of greatest
- opportunity and drama.
- -- Sir Bernard Lovell, 1962, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"
- @The characteristic property of hallucinogens, to suspend the boundaries
- between the experiencing self and the outer world in an ecstatic, emotional
- experience, makes it possible with their help, and after suitable internal
- and external preparation... to evoke a mystical experience according to
- plan, so to speak... I see the true importance of LSD in the possibility of
- providing material aid to meditation aimed at the mystical experience of a
- deeper, comprehensive reality. Such a use accords entirely with the
- essence and working character of LSD as a sacred drug.
- -- Dr. Albert Hoffman, the discoverer of LSD
- @The clothes have no emperor.
- -- C. A. Hoare, about Ada.
- @The complexity of software is an essential property, not an accidental
- one. Hence, descriptions of a software entity that abstract away its
- complexity often abstract away its essence.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact
- mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows.
- -- Frank Zappa
- @The connection between the language in which we think/program and the
- problems and solutions we can imagine is very close. For this reason
- restricting language features with the intent of eliminating programmer
- errors is at best dangerous.
- -- Bjarne Stroustrup in "The C++ Programming Language"
- @The cow is nothing but a machine with makes grass fit for us people to eat.
- -- John McNulty
- @The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme
- Being as his Father, in the womb of a virgin will be classified with the
- fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may
- hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States
- will do away with this artificial scaffolding and restore to us the
- primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated Reformer of human
- errors.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @The decision doesn't have to be logical, it was unanimous.
- @The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere
- in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths,
- Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in
- Christianity.
- -- John Adams
- @The door is the key.
- @The early worm gets the bird.
- @The earth is like a tiny grain of sand, only much, much heavier.
- @The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun.
- -- Buckminster Fuller
- @The end of labor is to gain leisure.
- @The evidence of the emotions, save in cases where it has strong objective
- support, is really no evidence at all, for every recognizable emotion has
- its opposite, and if one points one way then another points the other way.
- Thus the familiar argument that there is an instinctive desire for
- immortality, and that this desire proves it to be a fact, becomes puerile
- when it is recalled that there is also a powerful and widespread fear of
- annihilation, and that this fear, on the same principle proves that there
- is nothing beyond the grave. Such childish "proofs" are typically
- theological, and they remain theological even when they are adduced by men
- who like to flatter themselves by believing that they are scientific
- gents....
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @The evolution of the human race will not be accomplished in the ten
- thousand years of tame animals, but in the million years of wild animals,
- because man is and will always be a wild animal.
- -- Charles Galton Darwin
- @The existence of god implies a violation of causality.
- @The famous politician was trying to save both his faces.
- @The fancy is indeed no other than a mode of memory emancipated from the
- order of space and time.
- -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- @The fault lies not with our technologies but with our systems.
- -- Roger Levian
- @The finest eloquence is that which gets things done.
- @The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time. The last 10% of a project
- takes 90% of the time.
- @The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
- -- Abbie Hoffman
- @The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
- -- Paul Erlich
- @The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my
- tongue.
- @The flow chart is a most thoroughly oversold piece of program documentation.
- -- Frederick Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man Month
- @The flush toilet is the basis of Western civilization.
- -- Alan Coult
- @The following statement is not true:
- @The fountain code has been tightened slightly so you can no longer dip
- objects into a fountain or drink from one while you are floating in midair
- due to levitation. Teleporting to hell via a teleportation trap will no
- longer occur if the character does not have fire resistance.
- -- README file from the NetHack game
- @The fourth law of thermodynamics: The perversity of the universe tends
- towards a maximum.
- @The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain
- it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through
- the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through
- striving after rational knowledge.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the
- firmer becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of
- this ordered regularity for causes of a different nature. For him neither
- the rule of human nor the rule of divine will exists as an independent
- cause of natural events. To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God
- interfering with natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense,
- by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in
- which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot. But I am
- persuaded that such behavior on the part of the representatives of religion
- would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to
- maintain itself not in clear light, but only in the dark, will of necessity
- lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress. In
- their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religion must have the
- stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is, give up that
- source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vast powers in the
- hands of priests. In their labors they will have to avail themselves of
- those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the True, and the
- Beautiful in humanity itself. This is, to be sure, a more difficult but an
- incomparably more worthy task.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @The future isn't what it used to be. (It never was.)
- @The gent who wakes up and finds himself a success hasn't been asleep.
- @The gentlemen looked one another over with microscopic carelessness.
- @The goal of science is to build better mousetraps. The goal of nature is
- to build better mice.
- @The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.
- @The hardest thing is to disguise your feelings when you put a lot of
- relatives on the train for home.
- @The heart is wiser than the intellect.
- @The hypothesis: Amid a wash of paper, a small number of documents become
- the critical pivots around which every project's management revolves.
- These are the manager's chief personal tools.
- -- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man Month
- @The idea of man leaving this earth and flying to another celestial body
- and landing there and stepping out and walking over that body has a
- fascination and a driving force that can get the country to a level of
- energy, ambition, and will that I do not see in any other undertaking. I
- think if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit that we needed that
- impetus extremely strongly. I sincerely believe that the space program,
- with its manned landing on the moon, if wisely executed, will become the
- spearhead for a broad front of courageous and energetic activities in all
- the fields of endeavor of the human mind - activities which could not be
- carried out except in a mental climate of ambition and confidence which
- such a spearhead can give.
- -- Dr. Martin Schwarzschild, 1962, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"
- @The important thing is not to stop questioning.
- @The inability to benefit from feedback appears to be the primary cause of
- pseudoscience. Pseudoscientists retain their beliefs and ignore or distort
- contradictory evidence rather than modify or reject a flawed theory.
- Because of their strong biases, they seem to lack the self-correcting
- mechanisms scientists must employ in their work.
- -- Thomas L. Creed, "The Skeptical Inquirer," Summer 1987
- @The last thing one knows in constructing a work is what to put first.
- -- Blaise Pascal
- @The life of a repo man is always intense.
- @The life which is unexamined is not worth living.
- @The light of a hundred stars does not equal the light of the moon.
- @The luck that is ordained for you will be coveted by others.
- @The main thing is the play itself. I swear that greed for money has
- nothing to do with it, although heaven knows I am sorely in need of money.
- -- Feodor Dostoyevsky
- @The man scarce lives who is not more credulous than he ought to be... The
- natural disposition is always to believe. It is acquired wisdom and
- experience only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it
- enough.
- -- Adam Smith
- @The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.
- @The meek are contesting the will.
- @The meek shall inherit the earth, but not its mineral rights.
- -- J. Paul Getty
- @The meek shall inherit the earth. The rest of us will go to the stars.
- @The minute a man is convinced that he is interesting, he isn't.
- @The mistake you make is in trying to figure it out.
- -- Tenessee Williams
- @The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @The most merciful thing in the world... is the inability of the human
- mind to correlate all its contents.
- -- H. P. Lovecraft
- @The meek are contesting the will.
- @The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions.
- @The only rose without thorns is friendship.
- @The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
- nothing.
- -- Edmund Burke
- @The only way to amuse some people is to slip and fall on an icy pavement.
- @The only way to learn a new programming language is by writing programs in
- it.
- -- Brian Kernighan
- @The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the
- opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
- -- Niels Bohr
- @The person you rejected yesterday could make you happy, if you say yes.
- @The plural of spouse is spice.
- @The power to destroy a planet is insignificant when compared to the power
- of the Force.
- -- Darth Vader
- @The price of greatness is responsibility.
- @The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate
- knowledge of its ugly side.
- -- James Baldwin
- @The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the stupidity
- of your action.
- @The program is absolutely right; therefore the computer must be wrong.
- @The programmer, like the poet, works only slightly removed from pure
- thought-stuff. He builds his castles in the air, from air, creating by
- exertion of the imagination. Few media of creation are so flexible, so
- easy to polish and rework, so readily capable of realizing grand conceptual
- structures.
- -- Frederick Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man Month
- @The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong - but
- that's the way to bet.
- -- Damon Runyon
- @The reason ESP, for example, is not considered a viable topic in
- contemporary psychology is simply that its investigation has not proven
- fruitful. After more than 70 years of study, there still does not exist
- one example of an ESP phenomenon that is replicable under controlled
- conditions. This simple but basic scientific criterion has not been met
- despite dozens of studies conducted over many decades. It is for this
- reason alone that the topic is now of little interest to psychology. In
- short, there is no demonstrated phenomenon that needs explanation.
- -- Keith E. Stanovich, "How to Think Straight About Psychology", pp.
- 160-161
- @The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.
- -- Karl Marx
-
- If Karl, instead of writing a lot about capital, had made a lot of it, it
- would have been much better.
- -- Karl Marx's Mother
- @The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
- @The so-called "desktop metaphor" of today's workstations is instead an
- "airplane-seat" metaphor. Anyone who has shuffled a lap full of papers
- while seated between two portly passengers will recognize the difference -
- one can see only a very few things at once.
- -- Fred Brooks, Jr.
- @The sooner all the animals are extinct, the sooner we'll find their money.
- -- Ed Bluestone
- @The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.
- @The star of riches is shining upon you.
- @The tar pit of software engineering will continue to be sticky for a long
- time to come. One can expect the human race to continue attempting systems
- just within or just beyond our reach; and software systems are perhaps the
- most intricate and complex of man's handiworks. The management of this
- complex craft will demand our best use of new languages and systems, our
- best adaptation of proven engineering management methods, liberal doses of
- common sense, and... humility to recognize our fallibility and limitations.
- -- Frederick Brooks, Jr., The Mythical Man Month
- @The time is right to make new friends.
- @The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not
- only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other
- attempts at rational thinking. Not by accident does Genesis 3 make the
- father of knowledge a serpent, slimy, sneaking and abominable. Since the
- earliest days the church as an organization has thrown itself violently
- against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at
- all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad
- governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for
- centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was the apologist for the divine
- right of kings.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And
- vice versa.
- @The typical page layout program is nothing more than an electronic light
- table for cutting and pasting documents.
- @The universe is laughing behind your back.
- @The unnatural, that too is natural.
- -- Goethe
- @The vigor of civilized societies is preserved by the widespread sense that
- high aims are worthwhile. Vigorous societies harbor a certain extravagance
- of objectives, so that men wander beyond the safe provision of personal
- gratifications. All strong interests easily become impersonal, the love of
- a good job well done. There is a sense of harmony about such an
- accomplishment, the Peace brought by something worthwhile.
- -- Alfred North Whitehead, 1963, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"
- @The way to make a small fortune in the commodities market is to start with
- a large fortune.
- @The weed of crime bears bitter fruit.
- @The whole earth is in jail and we're plotting this incredible jailbreak.
- -- Wavy Gravy
- @The wise shepherd never trusts his flock to a smiling wolf.
- @The world is an 8000 mile in diameter spherical pile of dirt.
- @The world is coming to an end! Repent and return those library books!
- @The world is coming to an end... SAVE YOUR BUFFERS!!!
- @The world is no nursery.
- -- Sigmund Freud
- @The world looks as if it has been left in the custody of trolls.
- -- Father Robert F. Capon
- @There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.
- -- TANSTAAFL
- @There are bugs and then there are bugs. And then there are bugs.
- -- Karl
- @There are few people more often in the wrong than those who cannot endure
- to be thought so.
- @There are many people today who literally do not have a close personal
- friend.
- @There are more old drunkards than old doctors.
- @There are no bugs, only unrecognized features.
- @There are no games on this system.
- @There are no saints, only unrecognized villains.
- @There are three things I have always loved and never understood - art,
- music, and women.
- @There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make
- it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies and the other is to
- make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.
- -- Charles Anthony Richard Hoare
- @There is a fly on your Dimension!
- @There is a fly on your Dimension!
- @There is a great discovery still to be made in Literature: that of paying
- literary men by the quantity they do NOT write.
- @There is a time in the tides of men, Which, taken at its flood, leads on to
- success. On the other hand, don't count on it.
- -- T. K. Lawson
- @There is always someone worse off than yourself.
- @There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.
- @There is no heavier burden than a great potential.
- @There is no remedy for sex but more sex.
- @There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.
- @There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it.
- @There is no time like the pleasant.
- @There is no time like the present for postponing what you ought to be doing.
- @There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy.
- -- Swift
- @There is, in fact, no reason to believe that any given natural phenomenon,
- however marvelous it may seem today, will remain forever inexplicable.
- Sooner or later the laws governing the production of life itself will be
- discovered in the laboratory, and man may set up business as a creator on
- his own account. The thing, indeed, is not only conceivable; it is even
- highly probable.
- -- H. L. Mencken, 1930
- @There will always be survivors.
- -- Robert Heinlen
- @There will be big changes for you but you will be happy.
- @There you go man, Keep as cool as you can. It riles them to believe that
- you perceive the web they weave. Keep on being free!
- @There's a bug somewhere in your code.
- @There's always one more bug.
- @There's got to be more to life than compile-and-go.
- @There's no room in the drug world for amateurs.
- @There's so much to say but your eyes keep interrupting me.
- @They [preachers] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach
- of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of
- the duperies on which they live.
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @They just buzzed and buzzed..... buzzed.
- @They're only trying to make me LOOK paranoid!
- @Things are always at their best in the beginning.
- -- Pascal
- @Things are always darkest before they go completely black.
- @Things are more like they are now than they ever were before.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- @Things are more like they used to be than they are now.
- @Things are not as simple as they seems at first.
- -- Edward Thorp
- @Things will be bright in P.M. A cop will shine a light in your face.
- @Think of your family tonight. Try to crawl home after the computer crashes.
- @Think twice before speaking. But don't say "think think click click".
- @This file will self-destruct in five minutes.
- @This quip program out of order. For those in desperate need, please use
- the program "randchar". This program generates random characters, and,
- given enough time, will undoubtedly come up with something profound. It
- will, however, take it no time at all to be more profound than THIS program
- has ever been.
- @This quip intentionally left blank.
- @This quip is inoperative. Please try another.
- @This guy walked into my office one day and started talking about this
- science fiction show he had in mind. He called it "Star Trek". I remember
- saying, "It sounds marvelous, whatever the hell it is." And I remember
- thinking, "Oh, my God! This will never sell!"
- -- Oscar Katz, speaking of Gene Roddenberry
- @This is a *dangerous* place.
- @This is a good time to punt work.
- @This login session: $13.99
- @This screen intentionally left blank.
- @This space intentionally left blank.
- @This was the ultimate form of ostentation among technology freaks - to
- have a system so complete and sophisticated that nothing showed; no
- machines, no wires, no controls.
- -- Michael Swanwick, "Vacuum Flowers"
- @This will be a memorable month - no matter how hard you try to forget it.
- @Thoreau's Law: If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intent of
- doing you good, you should run for your life.
- @Those of us who believe in the right of any human being to belong to
- whatever church he sees fit, and to worship God in his own way, cannot be
- accused of prejudice when we do not want to see public education connected
- with religious control of the schools, which are paid for by taxpayers'
- money.
- -- Eleanor Roosevelt
- @Those who believe that they believe in God, but without passion in their
- hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt,
- without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in
- the God idea, not God Himself.
- -- Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish philosopher and writer
- @Those who can't write, write manuals.
- @Those who can, do. Those who can't, simulate.
- @Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. Those who can't teach,
- administrate.
- @Those who can, do. Those who cannot, teach. Those who cannot teach, HACK!
- @Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
- -- Henry Spencer, University of Toronto Unix hack
- @Those who in quarrels interpose must often wipe a bloody nose.
- @Those who talk don't know. Those who don't talk, know.
- @Thufir's a Harkonnen now.
- @Till then we shall be content to admit openly, what you (religionists)
- whisper under your breath or hide in technical jargon, that the ancient
- secret is a secret still; that man knows nothing of the Infinite and
- Absolute; and that, knowing nothing, he had better not be dogmatic about
- this ignorance. And, meanwhile, we will endeavor to be as charitable as
- possible, and whilst you trumpet forth officially your contempt for our
- skepticism, we will at least try to believe that you are imposed upon by
- your own bluster.
- -- Leslie Stephen, "An agnostic's Apology", Fortnightly Review, 1876
- @Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.
- @Time and tide wait for no man.
- @Time is an illusion perpetrated by the manufacturers of space.
- -- Graffiti
- @Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
- @Time is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at once.
- @Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.
- -- Frank Lloyd Wright
- @To be awake is to be alive.
- -- Henry David Thoreau, in "Walden"
- @To be is to program.
- @To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the
- target.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @To be, or what?
- -- Sylvester Stallone
- @To criticize the incompetent is easy; it is more difficult to criticize the
- competent.
- @To date, the firm conclusions of Project Blue Book are:
-
- 1) No unidentified flying object reported, investigated and evaluated by
- the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national
- security;
-
- 2) There has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force
- that sightings categorized as UNIDENTIFIED represent technological
- developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific
- knowledge; and
-
- 3) There has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as
- UNIDENTIFIED are extraterrestrial vehicles.
- -- the summary of Project Blue Book, an Air Force study of UFOs from 1950
- to 1965, as quoted by James Randi in Flim-Flam!
- @To do is to be
- -- Nietzsche
-
- To be is to do
- -- Sartre
-
- Do be do be do
- -- Sinatra
- @To downgrade the human mind is bad theology.
- -- C. K. Chesterton
- @To follow foolish precedents, and wink with both our eyes, is easier than to
- think.
- -- William Cowper
- @To give happiness is to deserve happiness.
- @To iterate is human, to recurse, divine.
- @To keep your friends treat them kindly; to kill them, treat them often.
- @To know the world one must construct it.
- -- Cesare Pavese
- @To laugh at men of sense is the privilege of fools.
- @To program anything that is programmable is obsession.
- @To program is to be.
- @To refuse praise is to seek praise twice.
- @To save a single life is better than to build a seven story pagoda.
- @To teach is to learn.
- @To think is human, to compute, divine.
- @Today is a good day to bribe a high-ranking public official.
- @Today is the first day of the rest of your lossage.
- @Today is the last day of your life so far.
- @Tonight's the night: Sleep in a eucalyptus tree.
- @Too clever is dumb.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @Travel important today; Internal Revenue men arrive tomorrow.
- @Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be SHOT AGAIN!
- @Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be prosecuted.
- @Troglodytism does not necessarily imply a low cultural level.
- @Troubles are like babies; they only grow by nursing.
- @True happiness will be found only in true love.
- @Truth has always been found to promote the best interests of mankind...
- -- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- @Truth will be out this morning. (Which may really mess things up.)
- @Truthful: Dumb and illiterate.
- @Try `stty 0' - it works much better.
- @Try the Moo Shu Pork. It is especially good today.
- @Try to be the best of what you are, even if what you are is no good.
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @Try to divide your time evenly to keep others happy.
- @Try to value useful qualities in one who loves you.
- @Trying to get an education here is like trying to take a drink from a fire
- hose.
- @Two men look out through the same bars; one sees mud, and one the stars.
- @Uncertain fortune is thoroughly mastered by the equity of the calculation.
- -- Blaise Pascal
- @Uncompensated overtime? Just Say No.
- @Under any conditions, anywhere, whatever you are doing, there is some
- ordinance under which you can be booked.
- -- Robert D. Sprecht (Rand Corp)
- @University: A modern school where football is taught.
- @Unix: Some say the learning curve is steep, but you only have to climb it
- once.
- - Karl
- @Use GOTOs only to implement a fundamental structure.
- @Use IF...ELSE IF...ELSE IF...ELSE... to implement multi-way branches.
- @Use debugging compilers.
- @Use free-form input where possible
- @Use library functions.
- @Use the Force, Luke.
- @Vests are to suits as seat-belts are to cars.
- @Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
- -- Salvador Hardin
- @Vique's Law: A man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle.
- @Volcano - a mountain with hiccups.
- @Vote anarchist
- @Waste not, get your budget cut next year.
- @Wasting time is an important part of living.
- @Watch out for off-by-one errors.
- @Watch out for the old mortar in the rocks in the fourteenth hole trick.
- @We all know that no one understands anything that isn't funny.
- @We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.
- -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- @We are tied down to a language which makes up in obscurity what it lacks in
- style.
- @We are what we pretend to be.
- -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
- @We could do that, but it would be wrong, that's for sure.
- @We don't know who discovered water, but we are certain it wasn't a fish.
- -- John Culkin
- @We have met the enemy and not only is he ours, he is us.
- -- Walt Kelly
- @We learn from history that we do not learn anything from history.
- @We may not be able to persuade Hindus that Jesus and not Vishnu should
- govern their spiritual horizon, nor Moslems that Lord Buddha is at the
- center of their spiritual universe, nor Hebrews that Mohammed is a major
- prophet, nor Christians that Shinto best expresses their spiritual
- concerns, to say nothing of the fact that we may not be able to get
- Christians to agree among themselves about their relationship to God. But
- all will agree on a proposition that they possess profound spiritual
- resources. If, in addition, we can get them to accept the further
- proposition that whatever form the Deity may have in their own theology,
- the Deity is not only external, but internal and acts through them, and
- they themselves give proof or disproof of the Deity in what they do and
- think; if this further proposition can be accepted, then we come that much
- closer to a truly religious situation on earth.
- -- Norman Cousins, from his book "Human Options"
- @We prefer to speak evil of ourselves than not speak of ourselves at all.
- @We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.
- @We read to say that we have read.
- @We really don't have any enemies. It's just that some of our best friends
- are trying to kill us.
- @We stand today at a crossroads: One path leads to despair and utter
- hopelessness. The other leads to total extinction. Let us hope we have the
- wisdom to make the right choice.
- -- Woody Allen
- @We want to create puppets that pull their own strings.
- -- Ann Marion
- @We're fighting against humanism, we're fighting against liberalism... we are
- fighting against all the systems of Satan that are destroying our nation
- today... our battle is with Satan himself.
- -- Jerry Falwell
- @We're fighting for this woman's honor, which is more than she ever did.
- -- Rufus T. Firefly, in "Duck Soup"
- @We're here to give you a computer, not a religion.
- -- attributed to Bob Pariseau, at the introduction of the Amiga
- @Wear me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is
- strong as death, passion cruel as the grave; it blazes up like blazing
- fire, fiercer than any flame.
- -- [Song of Solomon 8:6 (NEB)]
- @Weekends were made for programming.
- -- Karl
- @Were there fewer fools, knaves would starve.
- -- Anonymous
- @What can a pigeon do that a west Texas oil man can't do anymore? A pigeon
- can still make a deposit on a new Mercedes.
- @What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.
- @What happens when you cut back the jungle? It recedes.
- @What is the difference between a Vitamin and a Hormone? You can't make a
- Vitamin.
- @What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of
- frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly. That is the
- first law of nature.
- -- Voltaire
- @What is virtue today may be vice tomorrow.
- @What is worth doing is worth the trouble of asking somebody to do it.
- @What makes us so bitter against people who outwit us is that they think
- themselves cleverer than we are.
- @What matters is not the length of the wand, but the magic in the stick.
- @What no spouse of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working
- when he's staring out the window.
- @What orators lack in depth they make up in length.
- @What passes for woman's intuition is often nothing more than man's
- transparency.
- @What sin has not been committed in the name of efficiency?
- @What the hell, go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket.
- @What this country needs is a dime that will buy a good five-cent bagel.
- @What this country needs is a good five cent ANYTHING!
- @What this country needs is a good five cent microcomputer.
- @What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.
- @What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expect generally happens.
- -- Bengamin Disraeli
- @What we do not understand we do not possess.
- -- Goethe
- @When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to guarantee
- them.
- @When I left you, I was but the pupil. Now, I am the master.
- -- Darth Vader
- @When I sell liquor, its called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake
- Shore Drive, its called hospitality.
- -- Al Capone
- @When Yahweh your gods has settled you in the land you're about to occupy,
- and driven out many infidels before you... you're to cut them down and
- exterminate them. You're to make no compromise with them or show them any
- mercy.
- -- [Deut. 7:1 (KJV)]
- @When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by
- one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
- -- Edmund Burke
- @When choosing between two evils I always like to take the one I've never
- tried before.
- -- Mae West
- @When everything has been seen to work, all integrated, you have four more
- months of work to do.
- -- C. Portman of ICL Ltd.
- @When in doubt, lead trump.
- @When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.
- -- Calvin Coolidge
- @When the government bureau's remedies do not match your problem, you
- modify the problem, not the remedy.
- @When the wind is great, bow before it; when the wind is heavy, yield to it.
- @When we jumped into Sicily, the units became separated, and I couldn't
- find anyone. Eventually I stumbled across two colonels, a major, three
- captains, two lieutenants, and one rifleman, and we secured the bridge.
- Never in the history of war have so few been led by so many.
- -- General James Gavin
- @When you become used to never being alone, you may consider yourself
- Americanized.
- @When you go out to buy, don't show your silver.
- @Whenever I feel like exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes.
- @Whenever people agree with me, I always think I must be wrong.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @Where the system is concerned, you're not allowed to ask "Why?".
- @Wherever you go... There you are.
- -- Buckaroo Banzai
- @Who are you?
- @Who is W. O. Baker, and why is he saying those terrible things about me?
- @Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein.
- -- Book of Proverbs
- @Why did the Lord give us so much quickness of movement unless it was to
- avoid responsibility?
- @Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem
- is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits
- that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant?
- Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh? We are a company of
- ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning only
- be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth by
- falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough for our
- daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe the
- ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to
- declare that we don't know the map of the universe as well as the map of
- our infinitesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he
- will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness...
- -- Leslie Stephen, "An agnostic's Apology", Fortnightly Review, 1876
- @Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it
- was in the summer, when they complained about the heat.
- @With clothes the new are best, with friends the old are best.
- @Without coffee he could not work, or at least he could not have worked in
- the way he did. In addition to paper and pens, he took with him everywhere
- as an indispensable article of equipment the coffee machine, which was no
- less important to him than his table or his white robe.
- -- Stefan Zweigs, Biography of Balzac
- @Words are the voice of the heart.
- @Words must be weighed, not counted.
- @Worth seeing? Yes, but not worth going to see.
- @Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.
- @Xerox never comes up with anything original.
- @Yes, many primitive people still believe this myth... But in today's
- technical vastness of the future, we can guess that surely things were much
- different.
- -- The Firesign Theater
- @You are a bundle of energy always on the go.
- @You are a fluke of the universe.
- @You are always busy.
- @You are being paged.
- @You are capable of planning your future.
- @You are dishonest, but never to the point of hurting a friend.
- @You are farsighted, a good planner, an ardent lover, and a faithful friend.
- @You are going to have a new love affair.
- @You are heading for a land of sunshine.
- @You are magnetic in your bearing.
- @You are scrupulously honest, frank, and straightforward.
- @You are secretive in your dealings but never to the extent of trickery.
- @You are standing on my toes.
- @You are tricky, but never to the point of dishonesty.
- @You are wise, witty, and wonderful, but you spend too much time reading this
- sort of trash.
- @You attempt things that you do not even plan because of your extreme
- stupidity.
- @You auto buy now.
- @You can create your own opportunities this week. Blackmail a senior
- executive.
- @You can do more with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word.
- -- Al Capone
- @You can do very well in speculation where land or anything to do with
- earth is concerned.
- @You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting.
- @You can never trust a woman; she may be true to you.
- @You can observe a lot just by watching.
- -- Yogi Berra
- @You can pick your nose and you can pick your friends, but you can't wipe
- your friends on the side of the couch.
- @You can't have everything... where would you put it?
- -- Steven Wright
- @You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
- @You can't underestimate the power of fear.
- -- Tricia Nixon
- @You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.
- @You could get a new lease on life - if only you didn't need the first and
- last month in advance.
- @You dialed 5483.
- @You display the wonderful traits of charm and courtesy.
- @You do not have mail.
- @You enjoy the company of other people.
- @You fill a much-needed gap.
- @You have a deep appreciation of the arts and music.
- @You have a deep interest in all that is artistic.
- @You have a reputation for being thoroughly reliable and trustworthy.
- @You have a strong appeal for members of the opposite sex.
- @You have a strong desire for a home and your family interests come first.
- @You have a tendency to feel you are superior to most computers.
- @You have a truly strong individuality.
- @You have a will that can be influenced by all with whom you come in contact.
- @You have an ability to sense and know higher truth.
- @You have an ambitious nature and may make a name for yourself.
- @You have an unusual equipment for success. Be sure to use it properly.
- @You have an unusual understanding of the problems of human relationship.
- @You have been selected for a secret mission.
- @You have had a long-term stimulation relative to business.
- @You have literary talent that you should take pains to develop.
- @You have mail.
- @You have many friends and very few enemies.
- @You have the capacity to learn from mistakes. You'll learn a lot today.
- @You have the power to influence all with whom you come in contact.
- @You know that feeling when you're leaning back on a stool and it starts to
- tip over? Well, that's how I feel all the time.
- -- Steven Wright
- @You like to form new friendships and make new acquaintances.
- @You live and you learn - or you don't live long.
- @You look tired
- @You love peace.
- @You love your home and want it to be beautiful.
- @You may be recognized soon. Hide.
- @You may call me by my name, Wirth, or by my value, Worth.
- -- Nicklaus Wirth
- @You never hesitate to tackle the most difficult problems.
- @You now have Asian Flu.
- @You plan things that you do not even use because of your extreme caution.
- @You recoil from the crude; you tend naturally toward the exquisite.
- @You see but you do not observe.
- -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes"
- @You seek to shield those you love and you like the role of the provider.
- @You shall be rewarded for a dastardly deed.
- @You should go home.
- @You will always have good luck in your personal affairs.
- @You will attract cultured and artistic people to your home.
- @You will be Told about it Tomorrow. Go Home and Prepare Thyself.
- @You will be advanced socially, without any special effort on your part.
- @You will be aided greatly by a person whom you thought to be unimportant.
- @You will be awarded a medal for disregarding safety in saving someone.
- @You will be awarded some great honor.
- @You will be called upon to help a friend in trouble.
- @You will be given a post of trust and responsibility.
- @You will be honored for contributing your time and skill to a worthy cause.
- @You will be married within a year.
- @You will be recognized and honored as a community leader.
- @You will be singled out for promotion in your work.
- @You will be successful in love.
- @You will be successful in your work.
- @You will be surprised by a loud noise.
- @You will be surrounded by luxury.
- @You will engage in a profitable business activity.
- @You will feel hungry again in another hour.
- @You will gain money by a speculation or lottery.
- @You will have good luck and overcome many hardships.
- @You will have long and healthy life.
- @You will hear good news from one you thought unfriendly to you.
- @You will inherit some money or a small piece of land.
- @You will live a long, healthy, happy life and make bags of money.
- @You will look like a monkey when you get old.
- @You will meet an important person who will help you advance professionally.
- @You will never know hunger.
- @You will overcome the attacks of jealous associates.
- @You will reach the highest possible point in your business or profession.
- @You will receive a legacy which will place you above want.
- @You will see the light at the end of the tunnel; unfortunately, it will be
- the light of an oncoming freight train.
- @You will soon meet a person who will play an important role in your life.
- @You will soon meet a tall dark handsome stranger.
- @You will step on the night soil of many countries.
- @You will step on the soil of many countries.
- @You will win success in whatever calling you adopt.
- @You worry too much about your job. Stop it. You are not paid enough to
- worry.
- @You'll be called to a post requiring high ability in handling groups of people.
- @You're being followed. Cut out the hanky-panky for a few days.
- @You've been leading a dog's life. Stay off the furniture.
- @Your aims are high, and you are capable of much.
- @Your analyst has you mixed up with another patient. Don't believe a thing
- he tells you.
- @Your boss is thinking about you.
- @Your business will go through a period of considerable expansion.
- @Your code should be more efficient!
- @Your computer account is overdrawn. Please reauthorize.
- @Your domestic life may be harmonious.
- @Your education begins where what is called your education is over.
- @Your empty file directory has been deleted.
- @Your good nature will bring you unbounded happiness.
- @Your happiness is intertwined with your outlook on life.
- @Your heart is pure, and your mind clear, and your soul devout.
- @Your ignorance cramps my conversation.
- @Your love life will be happy and harmonious.
- @Your lover will never wish to leave you.
- @Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart, what is true.
- @Your mode of life will be changed for the better because of good news soon.
- @Your own mileage may vary.
- @Your own qualities will help prevent your advancement in the world.
- @Your present plans will be successful.
- @Your project will be late.
- @Your reasoning powers are good, and you are a fairly good planner.
- @Your salary will be increased.
- @Your society will be sought by people of taste and refinement.
- @Your supervisor is thinking about you.
- @Your talents will be recognized and suitably rewarded.
- @Your temporary financial embarrassment will be relieved in a surprising
- manner.
- @Youth had been a habit of hers so long that she could not part with it.
- @Youth is the trustee of posterity.
- @Youth is wasted on the young.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
- @Zimmerman's Law of Complaints: Nobody notices when things go right.
- @Zipple grelbnot horbnofg asirvnig fzouple! Or something like that.
- @chess tonight
- @core error - bus dumped
- @E-credibility: The non-guaranteeable likelihood that the electronic data
- you're seeing is genuine rather than somebody's made-up crap.
- -- Karl
- @grep me no patterns and I'll tell you no lines.
- @panic: can't find /
- @unix soit qui mal y pense
- @Old Chinese saying say: `Do not bend to fasten shoelaces while walking in
- neighbor's melon field'
- @!07/11 PDP a ni deppart m'I !pleH
- @(1) Alexander the Great was a great general.
- (2) Great generals are forewarned.
- (3) Forewarned is forearmed.
- (4) Four is an even number.
- (5) Four is certainly an odd number of arms for a man to have.
- (6) The only number that is both even and odd is infinity.
-
- Therefore, Alexander the Great had an infinite number of arms.
- @(1) Everything depends.
- (2) Nothing is always.
- (3) Everything is sometimes.
- @$100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at which
- time it will be worth absolutely nothing.
- -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
- @101 USES FOR A DEAD MICROPROCESSOR
-
- (1) Scarecrow for centipedes
- (2) Dead cat brush
- (3) Hair barrettes
- (4) Cleats
- (5) Self-piercing earrings
- (6) Fungus trellis
- (7) False eyelashes
- (8) Prosthetic dog claws
- .
- .
- .
- (99) Window garden harrow (pulled behind Tonka tractors)
- (100) Killer velcro
- 101. Currency
- @186,282 miles per second:
-
- It isn't just a good idea, it's the law!
- @$3,000,000
- @355/113 -- Not the famous irrational number PI, but an incredible
- simulation!
- @43rd Law of Computing:
- Anything that can go wr
- quip: Segmentation violation -- Core dumped
- @77. HO HUM -- The Redundant
-
- ------- (7) This hexagram refers to a situation of extreme
- --- --- (8) boredom. Your programs always bomb off. Your wife
- ------- (7) smells bad. Your children have hives. You are working
- ---O--- (6) on an accounting system, when you want to develop
- ---X--- (9) the GREAT AMERICAN COMPILER. You give up hot dates
- --- --- (8) to nurse sick computers. What you need now is sex.
-
- Nine in the second place means:
- The yellow bird approaches the malt shop. Misfortune.
-
- Six in the third place means:
- In former times men built altars to honor the Internal
- Revenue Service. Great Dragons! Are you in trouble!
- @99 blocks of crud on the disk,
- 99 blocks of crud!
- You patch a bug, and dump it again:
- 100 blocks of crud on the disk!
-
- 100 blocks of crud on the disk,
- 100 blocks of crud!
- You patch a bug, and dump it again:
- 101 blocks of crud on the disk! ...
- @A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no
- responsibility at the other.
- @A bachelor is a selfish, undeserving guy who has cheated some woman out of
- a divorce.
- -- Don Quinn
- @A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining
- and wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
- -- Mark Twain
- @A billion here, a couple of billion there -- first thing you know it
- adds up to be real money.
- -- Everett McKinley Dirksen
- @A bird in the bush usually has a friend in there with him.
- @A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.
- @A bore is someone who persists in holding his own views after we have
- enlightened him with ours.
- @A budget is just a method of worrying before you spend money, as well
- as afterward.
- @A candidate is a person who gets money from the rich and votes from the
- poor to protect them from each other.
- @A celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.
- @A chubby man with a white beard and a red suit will approach you soon.
- Avoid him. He's a Commie.
- @A city is a large community where people are lonesome together
- -- Herbert Prochnow
- @A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody
- wants to read.
- -- Mark Twain
- @A closed mouth gathers no foot.
- @A computer, to print out a fact,
- Will divide, multiply, and subtract.
- But this output can be
- No more than debris,
- If the input was short of exact.
- -- Gigo
- @A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired of thinking.
- @A CONS is an object which cares.
- -- Bernie Greenberg.
- @A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
- -- Ben Franklin
- @A crusader's wife slipped from the garrison
- And had an affair with a Saracen.
- She was not oversexed,
- Or jealous or vexed,
- She just wanted to make a comparison.
- @A day for firm decisions!!!!! Or is it?
- @A day without sunshine is like night.
- @A diplomat is a man who can convince his wife she'd look stout in a fur
- coat.
- @A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that
- you will look forward to the trip.
- @A disciple of another sect once came to Drescher as he was eating his
- morning meal. "I would like to give you this personality test", said the
- outsider, "because I want you to be happy."
-
- Drescher took the paper that was offered him and put it into the toaster
- -- "I wish the toaster to be happy too".
- @A diva who specializes in risqu'e arias is an off-coloratura soprano ...
- @A doctor, an architect, and a computer scientist were arguing
- about whose profession was the oldest. In the course of their
- arguments, they got all the way back to the Garden of Eden, whereupon
- the doctor said, "The medical profession is clearly the oldest, because
- Eve was made from Adam's rib, as the story goes, and that was a simply
- incredible surgical feat."
-
- The architect did not agree. He said, "But if you look at the
- Garden itself, in the beginning there was chaos and void, and out of
- that, the Garden and the world were created. So God must have been an
- architect."
-
- The computer scientist, who had listened to all of this said, "Yes, but
- where do you think the chaos came from?"
- @A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @A dozen, a gross, and a score,
- Plus three times the square root of four,
- Divided by seven,
- Plus five time eleven,
- Equals nine squared plus zero, no more.
- @A famous Lisp Hacker noticed an Undergraduate sitting in front of a
- Xerox 1108, trying to edit a complex Klone network via a browser.
- Wanting to help, the Hacker clicked one of the nodes in the network
- with the mouse, and asked "what do you see?" Very earnestly, the
- Undergraduate replied "I see a cursor." The Hacker then quickly pressed
- the boot toggle at the back of the keyboard, while simultaneously
- hitting the Undergraduate over the head with a thick Interlisp Manual.
- The Undergraduate was then Enlightened.
- @A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.
- -- Winston Churchill
- @A fool must now and then be right by chance.
- @A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition,
- and art into pedantry. Hence University education.
- -- G. B. Shaw
- @A fool-proof method for sculpting an elephant: first, get a huge block
- of marble; then you chip away everything that doesn't look like an
- elephant.
- @A formal parsing algorithm should not always be used.
- -- D. Gries
- @A gleekzorp without a tornpee is like a quop without a fertsneet (sort
- of).
- @A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely
- rearranging their prejudices.
- -- William James
- @A lack of leadership is no substitute for inaction.
- @A lady with one of her ears applied
- To an open keyhole heard, inside,
- Two female gossips in converse free --
- The subject engaging them was she.
- "I think", said one, "and my husband thinks
- That she's a prying, inquisitive minx!"
- As soon as no more of it she could hear
- The lady, indignant, removed her ear.
- "I will not stay," she said with a pout,
- "To hear my character lied about!"
- -- Gopete Sherany
- @A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is
- not worth knowing.
- @A language that doesn't have everything is actually easier to program in
- than some that do.
- -- Dennis M. Ritchie
- @A large number of installed systems work by fiat. That is, they work
- by being declared to work.
- -- Anatol Holt
- @A Law of Computer Programming:
- Make it possible for programmers to write in English and you will find
- the programmers cannot write in English.
- @A limerick packs laughs anatomical
- Into space that is quite economical.
- But the good ones I've seen
- So seldom are clean,
- And the clean ones so seldom are comical.
- @A LISP programmer knows the value of everything, but the cost of nothing.
- @A long-forgotten loved one will appear soon. Buy the negatives at any
- price.
- @A lot of people I know believe in positive thinking, and so do I. I
- believe everything positively stinks.
- -- Lew Col
- @A man goes to a tailor to try on a new custom-made suit. The first thing
- he notices is that the arms are too long.
-
- "No problem," says the tailor. "Just bend them at the elbow and hold them
- out in front of you. See, now it's fine."
-
- "But the collar is up around my ears!"
-
- "It's nothing. Just hunch your back up a little ... no, a little more ...
- that's it."
-
- "But I'm stepping on my cuffs!" the man cries in desperation.
-
- "No, bend you knees a little to take up the slack. There you go. Look in
- the mirror -- the suit fits perfectly."
-
- So, twisted like a pretzel, the man lurches out onto the street. Reba and
- Florence see him go by.
-
- "Oh, look," says Reba, "that poor man!"
-
- "Yes," says Florence, "but what a beautiful suit."
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @A man said to the Universe: "Sir, I exist!"
-
- "However," replied the Universe, "the fact has not created in me a
- sense of obligation."
- -- Stephen Crane
- @A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package.
- @A mathematician is a machine for converting coffee into theorems.
- @A musician of more ambition than talent composed an elegy at
- the death of composer Edward MacDowell. She played the elegy for the
- pianist Josef Hoffman, then asked his opinion. "Well, it's quite
- nice," he replied, but don't you think it would be better if ..."
-
- "If what?" asked the composer.
-
- "If ... if you had died and MacDowell had written the elegy?"
- @A new dramatist of the absurd
- Has a voice that will shortly be heard.
- I learn from my spies
- He's about to devise
- An unprintable three-letter word.
- @A new koan:
-
- If you have some ice cream, I will give it to you.
-
- If you have no ice cream, I will take it away from you.
-
- It is an ice cream koan.
- @A new supply of round tuits has arrived and are available from Mary.
- Anyone who has been putting off work until they got a "round tuit" now has
- no excuse for further procrastination.
- @A nuclear war can ruin your whole day.
- @A penny saved is ridiculous.
- @A person is just about as big as the things that make them angry.
- @A physicist is an atom's way of knowing about atoms.
- -- George Wald
- @A pig is a jolly companion,
- Boar, sow, barrow, or gilt --
- A pig is a pal, who'll boost your morale,
- Though mountains may topple and tilt.
- When they've blackballed, bamboozled, and burned you,
- When they've turned on you, Tory and Whig,
- Though you may be thrown over by Tabby and Rover,
- You'll never go wrong with a pig, a pig,
- You'll never go wrong with a pig!
- -- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
- @A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
- by Mark Twain
-
- For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped
- to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer
- be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained
- would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2
- might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the
- same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with
- "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.
-
- Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear
- with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12
- or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.
- Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi
- ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz
- ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.
-
- Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud
- hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
- @A priest asked: What is Fate, Master?
-
- And he answered:
-
- It is that which gives a beast of burden its reason for existence.
-
- It is that which men in former times had to bear upon their backs.
-
- It is that which has caused nations to build byways from City to City
- upon which carts and coaches pass, and alongside which inns have come
- to be built to stave off Hunger, Thirst and Weariness.
-
- And that is Fate? said the priest.
-
- Fate ... I thought you said Freight, responded the Master.
-
- That's all right, said the priest. I wanted to know what Freight was
- too.
- -- Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"
- @A priest was walking along the cliffs at Dover when he came upon two
- locals pulling another man ashore on the end of a rope.
-
- "That's what I like to see", said the priest, "A man helping his fellow
- man".
-
- As he was walking away, one local remarked to the other, "Well, he sure
- doesn't know the first thing about shark fishing."
- @A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.
- @"A programmer is a person who passes as an exacting expert on the basis
- of being able to turn out, after innumerable punching, an infinite
- series of incomprehensive answers calculated with micrometric
- precisions from vague assumptions based on debatable figures taken from
- inconclusive documents and carried out on instruments of problematical
- accuracy by persons of dubious reliability and questionable mentality
- for the avowed purpose of annoying and confounding a hopelessly
- defenseless department that was unfortunate enough to ask for the
- information in the first place."
- -- IEEE Grid newsmagazine
- @A psychiatrist is a person who will give you expensive answers that
- your wife will give you for free.
- @A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices
- that the system works.
- @A real person has two reasons for doing anything ... a good reason and
- the real reason.
- @A recent study has found that concentrating on difficult off-screen
- objects, such as the faces of loved ones, causes eye strain in computer
- scientists. Researchers into the phenomenon cite the added concentration
- needed to "make sense" of such unnatural three dimensional objects ...
- @A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates
- it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.
- -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- @A Severe Strain on the Credulity
-
- As a method of sending a missile to the higher, and even to the highest
- parts of the earth's atmospheric envelope, Professor Goddard's rocket is a
- practicable and therefore promising device. It is when one considers the
- multiple-charge rocket as a traveler to the moon that one begins to doubt
- ... for after the rocket quits our air and really starts on its journey,
- its flight would be neither accelerated nor maintained by the explosion of
- the charges it then might have left. Professor Goddard, with his "chair" in
- Clark College and countenancing of the Smithsonian Institution, does not
- know the relation of action to re-action, and of the need to have something
- better than a vacuum against which to react ... Of course he only seems to
- lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.
- -- New York Times Editorial, 1920
- @A sine curve goes off to infinity or at least the end of the blackboard.
- -- Prof. Steiner
- @A solemn, unsmiling, sanctimonious old iceberg who looked like he was
- waiting for a vacancy in the Trinity.
- -- Mark Twain
- @A straw vote only shows which way the hot air blows.
- -- O'Henry
- @A student who changes the course of history is probably taking an exam.
- @A successful tool is one that was used to do something undreamed of by
- its author.
- -- S. C. Johnson
- @A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention,
- and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @A transistor protected by a fast-acting fuse will protect the fuse by
- blowing first.
- @A truly wise man never plays leapfrog with a unicorn.
- @A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest
- in students.
- -- John Ciardi
- @A UNIX saleslady, Lenore,
- Enjoys work, but she likes the beach more.
- She found a good way
- To combine work and play:
- She sells C shells by the seashore.
- @A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature
- replaces it with.
- -- Tenessee Williams
- @A very intelligent turtle
- Found programming UNIX a hurdle
- The system, you see,
- Ran as slow as did he,
- And that's not saying much for the turtle.
- @A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without
- getting nervous.
- @"A witty saying proves nothing."
- -- Voltaire
- @A year spent in artificial intelligence is enough to make one believe in
- God.
- @A.A.A.A.A.:
- An organization for drunks who drive
- @AAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccckkkkkk!!!!!!!!!
- You brute! Knock before entering a ladies room!
- @Abandon the search for Truth; settle for a good fantasy.
- @About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends.
- -- Herbert Hoover
- @Absence makes the heart go wander.
- @Absent, adj.:
- Exposed to the attacks of friends and acquaintances; defamed; slandered.
- @Absentee, n.:
- A person with an income who has had the forethought to remove himself from
- the sphere of exaction.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Abstainer, n.:
- A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Absurdity, n.:
- A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Accident, n.:
- A condition in which presence of mind is good, but absence of body is
- better.
- @Accidents cause History.
-
- If Sigismund Unbuckle had taken a walk in 1426 and met Wat Tyler, the
- Peasant's Revolt would never have happened and the motor car would not have
- been invented until 2026, which would have meant that all the oil could
- have been used for lamps, thus saving the electric light bulb and the
- whale, and nobody would have caught Moby Dick or Billy Budd.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @According to my best recollection, I don't remember.
- -- Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo
- @According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are
- totally worthless.
- @Accordion, n.:
- A bagpipe with pleats.
- @Accuracy, n.:
- The vice of being right
- @Acid -- better living through chemistry.
- @Acid absorbs 47 times it's weight in excess Reality.
- @Acquaintance, n.:
- A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to
- lend to.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @"Acting is an art which consists of keeping the audience from coughing."
- @Actor: "I'm a smash hit. Why, yesterday during the last act, I had
- everyone glued in their seats!"
-
- Oliver Herford: "Wonderful! Wonderful! Clever of you to think of it!"
- @Actor: So what do you do for a living?
-
- Doris: I work for a company that makes deceptively shallow serving dishes
- for Chinese restaurants.
- -- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
- @ADA, n.:
- Something you need only know the name of to be an Expert in Computing.
- Useful in sentences like, "We had better develop an ADA awareness."
- @Admiration, n.:
- Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Adolescence, n.:
- The stage between puberty and adultery.
- @"Adopted kids are such a pain -- you have to teach them how to look like
- you ..."
- --- Gilda Radner
- @Adore, v.:
- To venerate expectantly.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Adult, n.:
- One old enough to know better.
- @After [Benjamin] Franklin came a herd of Electrical Pioneers whose names
- have become part of our electrical terminology: Myron Volt, Mary Louise
- Amp, James Watt, Bob Transformer, etc. These pioneers conducted many
- important electrical experiments. For example, in 1780 Luigi Galvani
- discovered (this is the truth) that when he attached two different kinds of
- metal to the leg of a frog, an electrical current developed and the frog's
- leg kicked, even though it was no longer attached to the frog, which was
- dead anyway. Galvani's discovery led to enormous advances in the field of
- amphibian medicine. Today, skilled veterinary surgeons can take a frog
- that has been seriously injured or killed, implant pieces of metal in its
- muscles, and watch it hop back into the pond just like a normal frog,
- except for the fact that it sinks like a stone.
- -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"
- @After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known
- quotations.
- -- H. L. Mencken, on Shakespeare
- @After all, what is your hosts' purpose in having a party? Surely not
- for you to enjoy yourself; if that were their sole purpose, they'd have
- simply sent champagne and women over to your place by taxi.
- -- P. J. O'Rourke
- @After an instrument has been assembled, extra components will be found
- on the bench.
- @After his Ignoble Disgrace, Satan was being expelled from Heaven. As he
- passed through the Gates, he paused a moment in thought, and turned to God
- and said, "A new creature called Man, I hear, is soon to be created."
-
- "This is true," He replied.
-
- "He will need laws," said the Demon slyly.
-
- "What! You, his appointed Enemy for all Time! You ask for the right to
- make his laws?"
-
- "Oh, no!" Satan replied, "I ask only that he be allowed to make his own."
-
- It was so granted.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @After I run your program, let's make love like crazed weasels, OK?
- @After the last of 16 mounting screws has been removed from an access
- cover, it will be discovered that the wrong access cover has been removed.
- @Afternoon very favorable for romance. Try a single person for a change.
- @Afternoon, n.:
- That part of the day we spend worrying about how we wasted the morning.
- @Air is water with holes in it.
- @Alas, I am dying beyond my means.
- -- Oscar Wilde, as he sipped champagne on his deathbed
- @Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied: "You see, wire
- telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New
- York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And
- radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive
- them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
- @Aleph-null bottles of beer on the wall,
- Aleph-null bottles of beer,
- You take one down, and pass it around,
- Aleph-null bottles of beer on the wall.
- @Alex Haley was adopted!
- @Alexander Graham Bell is alive and well in New York, and still waiting for
- a dial tone.
- @Alimony is a system by which, when two people make a mistake, one of them
- keeps paying for it.
- -- Peggy Joyce
- @"All flesh is grass"
- -- Isiah
- Smoke a friend today.
- @All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.
- @All I ask of life is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own
- importance.
- @"All my friends and I are crazy. That's the only thing that keeps us
- sane."
- @All programmers are playwrights and all computers are lousy actors.
- @All progress is based upon a universal innate desire on the part of
- every organism to live beyond its income.
- -- Samuel Butler
- @All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
- -- E. Rutherford
- @All the big corporations depreciate their possessions, and you can, too,
- provided you use them for business purposes. For example, if you subscribe
- to the Wall Street Journal, a business-related newspaper, you can deduct
- the cost of your house, because, in the words of U.S. Supreme Court Chief
- Justice Warren Burger in a landmark 1979 tax decision: "Where else are you
- going to read the paper? Outside? What if it rains?"
- -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes"
- @"... all the modern inconveniences ..."
- -- Mark Twain
- @All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.
- -- Sean O'Casey
- @All the world's a VAX,
- And all the coders merely butchers;
- They have their exits and their entrails;
- And one int in his time plays many widths,
- His sizeof being N bytes. At first the infant,
- Mewling and puking in the Regent's arms.
- And then the whining schoolboy, with his Sun,
- And shining morning face, creeping like slug
- Unwillingly to school.
- -- A Very Annoyed PDP-11
- @All things are possible except skiing thru a revolving door.
- @All true wisdom is found on T-shirts.
- @All you have to do to see the accuracy of my thesis is look around you.
- Look, in particular, at the people who, like you, are making average
- incomes for doing average jobs -- bank vice presidents, insurance salesman,
- auditors, secretaries of defense -- and you'll realize they all dress the
- same way, essentially the way the mannequins in the Sears menswear
- department dress. Now look at the real successes, the people who make a
- lot more money than you -- Elton John, Captain Kangaroo, anybody from Saudi
- Arabia, Big Bird, and so on. They all dress funny -- and they all succeed.
-
- Are you catching on?
- -- Dave Barry, "How to Dress for Real Success"
- @Alliance, n.:
- In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands
- so deeply inserted in each other's pocket that they cannot separately
- plunder a third.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Alone, adj.:
- In bad company.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Although we modern persons tend to take our electric lights, radios,
- mixers, etc., for granted, hundreds of years ago people did not have any of
- these things, which is just as well because there was no place to plug them
- in. Then along came the first Electrical Pioneer, Benjamin Franklin, who
- flew a kite in a lighting storm and received a serious electrical shock.
- This proved that lighting was powered by the same force as carpets, but it
- also damaged Franklin's brain so severely that he started speaking only in
- incomprehensible maxims, such as "A penny saved is a penny earned."
- Eventually he had to be given a job running the post office.
- -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"
- @Always borrow money from a pessimist; he doesn't expect to be paid back.
- @AMAZING BUT TRUE ...
-
- If all the salmon caught in Canada in one year were laid end to end across
- the Sahara Desert, the smell would be absolutely awful.
- @AMAZING BUT TRUE ...
-
- There is so much sand in Northern Africa that if it were spread out it
- would completely cover the Sahara Desert.
- @Ambidextrous, adj.:
- Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
- -- Charlie McCarthy
- @America may be unique in being a country which has leapt from barbarism to
- decadence without touching civilization.
- -- John O'Hara
- @America was discovered by Amerigo Vespucci and was named after him, until
- people got tired of living in a place called "Vespuccia" and changed its
- name to "America".
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @Amnesia used to be my favorite word, but then I forgot it.
- @An American's a person who isn't afraid to criticize the President but is
- always polite to traffic cops.
- @An effective way to deal with predators is to taste terrible.
- @An elephant is a mouse with an operating system.
- @An Englishman never enjoys himself, except for a noble purpose.
- -- A. P. Herbert
- @An excellence-oriented '80s male does not wear a regular watch. He wears a
- Rolex watch, because it weighs nearly six pounds and is advertised only in
- excellence-oriented publications such as Fortune and Rich Protestant Golfer
- Magazine. The advertisements are written in incomplete sentences, which is
- how advertising copywriters denote excellence:
-
- "The Rolex Hyperion. An elegant new standard in quality excellence and
- discriminating handcraftsmanship. For the individual who is truly able to
- discriminate with regard to excellent quality standards of crafting things
- by hand. Fabricated of 100 percent 24-karat gold. No watch parts or
- anything. Just a great big chunk on your wrist. Truly a timeless
- statement. For the individual who is very secure. Who doesn't need to be
- reminded all the time that he is very successful. Much more successful than
- the people who laughed at him in high school. Because of his acne. People
- who are probably nowhere near as successful as he is now. Maybe he'll go
- to his 20th reunion, and they'll see his Rolex Hyperion.
- Hahahahahahahahaha."
- -- Dave Barry, "In Search of Excellence"
- @"... an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often quite often
- picturesque liar."
- -- Mark Twain
- @An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.
- @An old Jewish man reads about Einstein's theory of relativity in the
- newspaper and asks his scientist grandson to explain it to him.
-
- "Well, zayda, it's sort of like this. Einstein says that if you're having
- your teeth drilled without Novocain, a minute seems like an hour. But if
- you're sitting with a beautiful woman on your lap, an hour seems like a
- minute."
-
- The old man considers this profound bit of thinking for a moment and says,
- "And from this he makes a living?"
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @Anarchy may not be the best form of government, but it's better than no
- government at all.
- @... And malt does more than Milton can
- To justify God's ways to man
- -- A. E. Housman
- @And on the seventh day, He exited from append mode.
- @And this is a table ma'am. What in essence it consists of is a horizontal
- rectilinear plane surface maintained by four vertical columnar supports,
- which we call legs. The tables in this laboratory, ma'am, are as advanced
- in design as one will find anywhere in the world.
- -- Michael Frayn, "The Tin Men"
- @"And what will you do when you grow up to be as big as me?" asked the
- father of his little son.
-
- "Diet."
- @Angels we have heard on High
- Tell us to go out and Buy.
- -- Tom Leher
- @Ankh if you love Isis.
- @Anoint, v.:
- To grease a king or other great functionary already sufficiently slippery.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Another Glitch in the Call
- ------- ------ -- --- ----
- (Sung to the tune of a Pink Floyd song.)
-
- We don't need no indirection
- We don't need no flow control
- No data typing or declarations
- Did you leave the lists alone?
-
- Hey! Hacker! Leave those lists alone!
-
- Chorus:
- All in all, it's just a pure-LISP function call.
- All in all, it's just a pure-LISP function call.
- @Another good night not to sleep in a eucalyptus tree.
- @Answers to Last Quip's Questions:
-
- 1. None. (Moses didn't have an ark).
- 2. Your mother, by the pigeonhole principle.
- 3. I don't know.
- 4. Who cares?
- 5. 6 (or maybe 4, or else 3). Mr. Alfred J. Duncan of Podunk, Montana,
- submitted an interesting solution to Problem 5.
- 6. There is an interesting solution to this problem on page 1029 of my
- book, which you can pick up for $23.95 at finer bookstores and bathroom
- supply outlets (or 99 cents at the table in front of Papyrus Books).
- @Anthony's Law of Force:
- Don't force it; get a larger hammer.
- @Anthony's Law of the Workshop:
- Any tool when dropped, will roll into the least accessible
- corner of the workshop.
-
- Corollary:
- On the way to the corner, any dropped tool will first strike
- your toes.
- @Antonym, n.:
- The opposite of the word you're trying to think of.
- @Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art.
- -- Charles McCabe
- @Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
- -- Aesop
- @Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise person to be able to
- sell it.
- @... Any resemblance between the above views and those of my employer, my
- terminal, or the view out my window are purely coincidental. Any
- resemblance between the above and my own views is non-deterministic. The
- question of the existence of views in the absence of anyone to hold them is
- left as an exercise for the reader. The question of the existence of the
- reader is left as an exercise for the second god coefficient. (A
- discussion of non-orthogonal, non-integral polytheism is beyond the scope
- of this article.)
- @Any small object that is accidentally dropped will hide under a larger
- object.
- @Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged
- demo.
- @Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
- -- Arthur C. Clarke
- @Any two philosophers can tell each other all they know in two hours.
- -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- @Any woman is a volume if one knows how to read her.
- @Anybody can win, unless there happens to be a second entry.
- @Anybody who doesn't cut his speed at the sight of a police car is probably
- parked.
- @Anybody with money to burn will easily find someone to tend the fire.
- @Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
- -- Publilius Syrus
- @Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best he is
- a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear shoes, bathe and not make
- messes in the house.
- -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
- @Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.
- -- Samuel Goldwyn
- @Anyone who hates Dogs and Kids Can't be All Bad.
- -- W. C. Fields
- @Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no
- account be allowed to do the job.
- -- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
- @Anything free is worth what you pay for it.
- @Anything is good and useful if it's made of chocolate.
- @Anything is good if it's made of chocolate.
- @Anything labeled "NEW" and/or "IMPROVED" isn't. The label means the price
- went up. The label "ALL NEW", "COMPLETELY NEW", or "GREAT NEW" means the
- price went way up.
- @Anything that is good and useful is made of chocolate.
- @Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
- @Anytime things appear to be going better, you have overlooked
- something.
- @Aquadextrous, adj.:
- Possessing the ability to turn the bathtub faucet on and off with your
- toes.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @AQUARIUS (Jan 20 - Feb 18)
- You have an inventive mind and are inclined to be progressive. You lie a
- great deal. On the other hand, you are inclined to be careless and
- impractical, causing you to make the same mistakes over and over again.
- People think you are stupid.
- @"Arguments with furniture are rarely productive."
- -- Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"
- @ARIES (Mar 21 - Apr 19)
- You are the pioneer type and hold most people in contempt. You are quick
- tempered, impatient, and scornful of advice. You are not very nice.
- @Arithmetic is being able to count up to twenty without taking off your
- shoes.
- -- Mickey Mouse
- @Armadillo:
- To provide weapons to a Spanish pickle
- @Arnold's Laws of Documentation:
-
- (1) If it should exist, it doesn't.
- (2) If it does exist, it's out of date.
- (3) Only documentation for useless programs transcends the first two laws.
- @Arthur's Laws of Love:
-
- (1) People to whom you are attracted invariably think you remind them of
- someone else.
- (2) The love letter you finally got the courage to send will be delayed in
- the mail long enough for you to make a fool of yourself in person.
- @Artistic ventures highlighted. Rob a museum.
- @As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain;
- and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error.
- -- Weisert
- @As I was passing Project MAC,
- I met a Quux with seven hacks.
- Every hack had seven bugs;
- Every bug had seven manifestations;
- Every manifestation had seven symptoms.
- Symptoms, manifestations, bugs, and hacks,
- How many losses at Project MAC?
- @As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination.
- When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @As of next week, passwords will be entered in Morse code.
- @"As part of the conversion, computer specialists rewrote 1,500 programs --
- a process that traditionally requires some debugging."
- --- USA Today, referring to the IRS switchover to a new computer system.
- @As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't
- as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be
- discovered. I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large
- part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in
- my own programs.
- -- Maurice Wilkes discovers debugging, 1949
- @As the poet said, "Only God can make a tree" -- probably because it's so
- hard to figure out how to get the bark on.
- -- Woody Allen
- @As the trials of life continue to take their toll, remember that there is
- always a future in Computer Maintenance.
- -- National Lampoon, "Deteriorada"
- @As Will Rogers would have said, "There is no such things as a free
- variable."
- @As with most fine things, chocolate has its season. There is a simple
- memory aid that you can use to determine whether it is the correct time to
- order chocolate dishes: any month whose name contains the letter A, E, or U
- is the proper time for chocolate.
- -- Sandra Boynton, "Chocolate: The Consuming Passion"
- @As Zeus said to Narcissus, "Watch yourself."
- @Ask Not for whom the Bell Tolls, and You will Pay only the
- Station-to-Station rate.
- @Ask not for whom the telephone bell tolls ... if thou art in the bathtub,
- it tolls for thee.
- @Ask your boss to reconsider -- it's so difficult to take "Go to hell" for
- an answer.
- @Ass, n.:
- The masculine of "lass".
- @At a recent meeting in Snowmass, Colorado, a participant from Los Angeles
- fainted from hyperoxygenation, and we had to hold his head under the
- exhaust of a bus until he revived.
- @At Group L, Stoffel oversees six first-rate programmers, a managerial
- challenge roughly comparable to herding cats.
- -- The Washington Post Magazine, June 9, 1985
- @... at least I thought I was dancing, 'til somebody stepped on my hand.
- -- J. B. White
- @At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer you will find
- at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the
- computer.
- @Atlee is a very modest man. And with reason.
- -- Winston Churchill
- @Automobile, n.:
- A four-wheeled vehicle that runs up hills and down pedestrians.
- @Avoid Quiet and Placid persons unless you are in Need of Sleep.
- -- National Lampoon, "Deteriorada"
- @Avoid reality at all costs.
- @Bacchus, n.:
- A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting
- drunk.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Bagdikian's Observation:
- Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is
- like trying to play Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" on a ukelele.
- @Baker's First Law of Federal Geometry:
- A block grant is a solid mass of money surrounded on all sides by
- governors.
- @Ban the bomb. Save the world for conventional warfare.
- @Bank error in your favor. Collect $200.
- @Barach's Rule:
- An alcoholic is a person who drinks more than his own physician.
- @Barometer, n.:
- An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are
- having.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Barth's Distinction:
- There are two types of people: those who divide people into two types, and
- those who don't.
- @Baruch's Observation:
- If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
- @Basic, n.:
- A programming language. Related to certain social diseases in that those
- who have it will not admit it in polite company.
- @Be a better psychiatrist and the world will beat a psychopath to your
- door.
- @BE ALERT!!!! (The world needs more lerts ...)
- @Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most Souls would scarcely get
- your Feet wet. Fall not in Love, therefore: it will stick to your face.
- -- National Lampoon, "Deteriorada"
- @Be careful of reading health books, you might die of a misprint.
- -- Mark Twain
- @Be different: conform.
- @Be free and open and breezy! Enjoy! Things won't get any better so get
- used to it.
- @Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and
- miss,
- -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
- @Behold the warranty ... the bold print giveth and the fine print taketh
- away.
- @Beifeld's Principle:
- The probability of a young man meeting a desirable and receptive young
- female increases by pyramidal progression when he is already in the company
- of:
-
- (1) a date
- (2) his wife
- (3) a better looking and richer male friend.
- @Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.
- @"Benson, you are so free of the ravages of intelligence."
- -- Time Bandits
- @Besides the device, the box should contain:
-
- * Eight little rectangular snippets of paper that say "WARNING"
-
- * A plastic packet containing four 5/17 inch pilfer grommets and two
- club-ended 6/93 inch boxcar prawns.
-
- YOU WILL NEED TO SUPPLY: a matrix wrench and 60,000 feet of tram
- cable.
-
- IF ANYTHING IS DAMAGED OR MISSING: You IMMEDIATELY should turn to your
- spouse and say: "Margaret, you know why this country can't make a car
- that can get all the way through the drive-through at Burger King
- without a major transmission overhaul? Because nobody cares, that's
- why."
-
- WARNING: This is assuming your spouse's name is Margaret.
- -- Dave Barry, "Read This First!"
- @better !pout !cry
- better watchout
- lpr why
- santa claus <north pole >town
-
- cat /etc/passwd >list
- ncheck list
- ncheck list
- cat list | grep naughty >nogiftlist
- cat list | grep nice >giftlist
- santa claus <north pole > town
-
- who | grep sleeping
- who | grep awake
- who | egrep 'bad|good'
- for (goodness sake) {
- be good
- }
- @"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
- tried it."
- -- Donald Knuth
- @Beware of low-flying butterflies.
- @Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers.
- -- Leonard Brandwein
- @"Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds
- himself no wiser than before," Bokonon tells us, "He is full of murderous
- resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their
- ignorance the hard way."
- -- Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"
- @Beware of the Turing Tar-pit in which everything is possible but nothing
- of interest is easy.
- @Binary, adj.:
- Possessing the ability to have friends of both sexes.
- @Bipolar, adj.:
- Refers to someone who has homes in Nome, Alaska, and Buffalo, New York
- @Birth, n.:
- The first and direst of all disasters.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Bizarreness is the essence of the exotic.
- @Blessed are they who Go Around in Circles, for they Shall be Known as
- Wheels.
- @BLISS is ignorance
- @Blood is thicker than water, and much tastier.
- @Board the windows, up your car insurance, and don't leave any booze in
- plain sight. It's St. Patrick's day in Chicago again. The legend has it
- that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. In fact, he was arrested
- for drunk driving. The snakes left because people kept throwing up on
- them.
- @Boling's postulate:
- If you're feeling good, don't worry. You'll get over it.
- @Bolub's Fourth Law of Computerdom:
- Project teams detest weekly progress reporting because it so vividly
- manifests their lack of progress.
- @Bombeck's Rule of Medicine:
- Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.
- @Boob's Law:
- You always find something in the last place you look.
- @Bore, n.:
- A person who talks when you wish him to listen.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Boren's Laws:
-
- (1) When in charge, ponder.
- (2) When in trouble, delegate.
- (3) When in doubt, mumble.
- @Boss, n.:
- According to the Oxford English Dictionary, in the Middle Ages the words
- "boss" and "botch" were largely synonymous, except that boss, in addition
- to meaning "a supervisor of workers" also meant "an ornamental stud."
- @Boston, n.:
- Ludwig van Beethoven being jeered by 50,000 sports fans for finishing
- second in the Irish jig competition.
- @Boy, n.:
- A noise with dirt on it.
- @Bradley's Bromide:
- If computers get too powerful, we can organize them into a committee --
- that will do them in.
- @Brady's First Law of Problem Solving:
- When confronted by a difficult problem, you can solve it more easily by
- reducing it to the question, "How would the Lone Ranger have handled this?"
- @Brain fried -- Core dumped
- @Brain, n.:
- The apparatus with which we think that we think.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Brain, v. [as in "to brain"]:
- To rebuke bluntly, but not pointedly; to dispel a source of error in an
- opponent.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Breast Feeding should not be attempted by fathers with hairy chests, since
- they can make the baby sneeze and give it wind.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @Bride, n.:
- A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Bringing computers into the home won't change either one, but may
- revitalize the corner saloon.
- @British Israelites:
- The British Israelites believe the white Anglo-Saxons of Britain to be
- descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel deported by Sargon of Assyria
- on the fall of Sumeria in 721 B.C. ... They further believe that the future
- can be foretold by the measurements of the Great Pyramid, which probably
- means it will be big and yellow and in the hand of the Arabs. They also
- believe that if you sleep with your head under the pillow a fairy will come
- and take all your teeth.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @Broad-mindedness, n.:
- The result of flattening high-mindedness out.
- @Brook's Law:
- Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later
- @Brooke's Law:
- Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool discovers
- something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond
- recognition.
- @Bubble Memory, n.:
- A derogatory term, usually referring to a person's intelligence. See also
- "vacuum tube".
- @Bucy's Law:
- Nothing is ever accomplished by a reasonable man.
- @Bug, n.:
- An aspect of a computer program which exists because the PROGRAMMER was
- thinking about Jumbo Jacks or stock options when s/he wrote the program.
-
- Fortunately, the second-to-last bug has just been fixed.
- -- Ray Simard
- @Bug:
- Small living things that small living boys throw on small living girls.
- @BULLWINKLE: "You just leave that to my pal. He's the brains of the
- outfit."
-
- GENERAL: "What does that make YOU?"
-
- BULLWINKLE: "What else? An executive..."
- -- Jay Ward
- @Bumper sticker:
-
- "All the parts falling off this car are of the very finest British
- manufacture"
- @Bureaucrat, n.:
- A politician who has tenure.
- @... But as records of courts and justice are admissible, it can easily be
- proved that powerful and malevolent magicians once existed and were a
- scourge to mankind. The evidence (including confession) upon which certain
- women were convicted of witchcraft and executed was without a flaw; it is
- still unimpeachable. The judges' decisions based on it were sound in logic
- and in law. Nothing in any existing court was ever more thoroughly proved
- than the charges of witchcraft and sorcery for which so many suffered
- death. If there were no witches, human testimony and human reason are
- alike destitute of value.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @... But if we laugh with derision, we will never understand. Human
- intellectual capacity has not altered for thousands of years so far as we
- can tell. If intelligent people invested intense energy in issues that now
- seem foolish to us, then the failure lies in our understanding of their
- world, not in their distorted perceptions. Even the standard example of
- ancient nonsense -- the debate about angels on pinheads -- makes sense once
- you realize that theologians were not discussing whether five or eighteen
- would fit, but whether a pin could house a finite or an infinite number.
- -- S. J. Gould, "Wide Hats and Narrow Minds"
- @But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the
- system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed,
- and replaced with new weaknesses.
- -- Bruce Leverett, "Register Allocation in Optimizing Compilers"
- @But scientists, who ought to know
- Assure us that it must be so.
- Oh, let us never, never doubt
- What nobody is sure about.
- -- Hilaire Belloc
- @But soft you, the fair Ophelia:
- Ope not thy ponderous and marble jaws,
- But get thee to a nunnery -- go!
- -- Mark "The Bard" Twain
- @But the greatest Electrical Pioneer of them all was Thomas Edison, who was
- a brilliant inventor despite the fact that he had little formal education
- and lived in New Jersey. Edison's first major invention in 1877, was the
- phonograph, which could soon be found in thousands of American homes, where
- it basically sat until 1923, when the record was invented. But Edison's
- greatest achievement came in 1879, when he invented the electric company.
- Edison's design was a brilliant adaptation of the simple electrical
- circuit: the electric company sends electricity through a wire to a
- customer, then immediately gets the electricity back through another wire,
- then (this is the brilliant part) sends it right back to the customer
- again.
-
- This means that an electric company can sell a customer the same batch
- of electricity thousands of times a day and never get caught, since
- very few customers take the time to examine their electricity closely.
- In fact the last year any new electricity was generated in the United
- States was 1937; the electric companies have been merely re-selling it
- ever since, which is why they have so much free time to apply for rate
- increases.
- -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"
- @"But this has taken us far afield from interface, which is not a bad place
- to be, since I particularly want to move ahead to the kludge. Why do people
- have so much trouble understanding the kludge? What is a kludge, after
- all, but not enough Ks, not enough ROMs, not enough RAMs, poor quality
- interface and too few bytes to go around? Have I explained yet about the
- bytes?"
- @"But what we need to know is, do people want nasally-insertable
- computers?"
- @Buzz off, Banana Nose; Relieve mine eyes
- Of hateful soreness, purge mine ears of corn;
- Less dear than army ants in apple pies
- Art thou, old prune-face, with thy chestnuts worn,
- Dropt from thy peeling lips like lousy fruit;
- Like honeybees upon the perfum'd rose
- They suck, and like the double-breasted suit
- Are out of date; therefore, Banana Nose,
- Go fly a kite, thy welcome's overstayed;
- And stem the produce of thy waspish wits:
- Thy logick, like thy locks, is disarrayed;
- Thy cheer, like thy complexion, is the pits.
- Be off, I say; go bug somebody new,
- Scram, beat it, get thee hence, and nuts to you.
- @By doing just a little every day, you can gradually let the task
- completely overwhelm you.
- @"By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it
- is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.
- (R. Emerson)"
- -- Quoted from a fortune cookie program
- (whose author claims, "Actually, stealing IS easier.")
- [to which I reply, "You think it's easy for me to misconstrue all these
- misquotations?!?"]
- @Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point
- B very fast while other people dash from point B to point A very fast.
- People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often
- given to wonder what's so great about point A that so many people from
- point B are so keen to get there and what's so great about point B that so
- many people from point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that
- people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to
- be.
- -- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
- @C, n.:
- A programming language that is sort of like Pascal except more like
- assembly except that it isn't very much like either one, or anything else.
- It is either the best language available to the art today, or it isn't.
- -- Ray Simard
- @Cabbage, n.:
- A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's
- head.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Cahn's Axiom:
- When all else fails, read the instructions.
- @California is a fine place to live -- if you happen to be an orange.
- -- Fred Allen
- @California, n.:
- From Latin "calor", meaning "heat" (as in English "calorie" or Spanish
- "caliente"); and "fornia'" for "sexual intercourse" or "fornication."
- Hence: Tierra de California, "the land of hot sex."
- -- Ed Moran
- @Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
- -- Indian proverb
- @"Calling J-Man Kink. Calling J-Man Kink. Hash missle sighted, target
- Los Angeles. Disregard personal feelings about city and intercept."
- @"Calvin Coolidge looks as if he had been weaned on a pickle."
- -- Alice Roosevelt Longworth
- @"Calvin Coolidge was the greatest man who ever came out of Plymouth
- Corner, Vermont."
- -- Clarence Darrow
- @Canada Bill Jone's Motto:
- It's morally wrong to allow suckers to keep their money.
-
- Supplement:
- A .44 magnum beats four aces.
- @Canada Post doesn't really charge 32 cents for a stamp. It's 2 cents
- for postage and 30 cents for storage.
- -- Gerald Regan, Cabinet Minister, 12/31/83 Financial Post
- @Cancel me not -- for what then shall remain?
- Abscissas, some mantissas, modules, modes,
- A root or two, a torus and a node:
- The inverse of my verse, a null domain.
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @CANCER (June 21 - July 22)
- You are sympathetic and understanding to other people's problems. They
- think you are a sucker. You are always putting things off. That's why
- you'll never make anything of yourself. Most welfare recipients are Cancer
- people.
- @CAPRICORN (Dec 23 - Jan 19)
- You are conservative and afraid of taking risks. You don't do much of
- anything and are lazy. There has never been a Capricorn of any importance.
- Capricorns should avoid standing still for too long as they take root and
- become trees.
- @Captain Penny's Law:
- You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people
- all of the time, but you Can't Fool Mom.
- @Carelessly planned projects take three times longer to complete than
- expected. Carefully planned projects take four times longer to complete
- than expected, mostly because the planners expect their planning to reduce
- the time it takes.
- @Carperpetuation (kar' pur pet u a shun), n.:
- The act, when vacuuming, of running over a string at least a dozen times,
- reaching over and picking it up, examining it, then putting it back down to
- give the vacuum one more chance.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @Cauliflower is nothing but Cabbage with a College Education.
- -- Mark Twain
- @Caution: breathing may be hazardous to your health.
- @CChheecckk yyoouurr dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh..
- @Celebrate Hannibal Day this year. Take an elephant to lunch.
- @Census Taker to Housewife: Did you ever have the measles, and, if so, how
- many?
- @Cerebus: I'd love to lick apricot brandy out of your navel.
- Jaka: Look, Cerebus-- Jaka has to tell you ... something
- Cerebus: If Cerebus had a navel, would you lick apricot brandy out of it?
- Jaka: Ugh!
- Cerebus: You don't like apricot brandy?
- -- Cerebus #6, "The Secret"
- @Certain old men prefer to rise at dawn, taking a cold bath and a long walk
- with an empty stomach and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They then point
- with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdy health and ripe
- years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their
- habits, but in spite of them. The reason we find only robust persons doing
- this thing is that it has killed all the others who have tried it.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Certainly there are things in life that money can't buy, but it's very
- funny -- Did you ever try buying them without money?
- -- Ogden Nash
- @Character Density: the number of very weird people in the office.
- @Chemicals, n.:
- Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.
- @Chicago, n.:
- Where the dead still vote ... early and often!
- @Chicken Little was right.
- @Chicken Soup, n.:
- An ancient miracle drug containing equal parts of aureomycin, cocaine,
- interferon, and TLC. The only ailment chicken soup can't cure is neurotic
- dependence on one's mother.
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @Children are natural mimic who act like their parents despite every effort
- to teach them good manners.
- @Children aren't happy without something to ignore, and that's what parents
- were created for.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word
- what you shouldn't have said.
- @Chism's Law of Completion: The amount of time required to complete a
- government project is precisely equal to the length of time already spent
- on it.
- @Chisolm's First Corollary to Murphy's Second Law:
- When things just can't possibly get any worse, they will.
- @Christ:
- A man who was born at least 5,000 years ahead of his time.
- @Churchill's Commentary on Man:
- Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will
- pick himself up and continue on.
- @Cigarette, n.:
- A fire at one end, a fool at the other, and a bit of tobacco in between.
- @Cinemuck, n.:
- The combination of popcorn, soda, and melted chocolate which covers the
- floors of movie theaters.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @Cleanliness is next to impossible.
- @Cleveland still lives. God must be dead.
- @"Cleveland? Yes, I spent a week there one day."
- @Cloning is the sincerest form of flattery.
- @Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on
- society.
- -- Mark Twain
- @Cocaine -- the thinking man's Dristan.
- @Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum --
- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am."
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Cold, adj.:
- When the local flashers are handing out written descriptions.
- @Cold, adj.:
- When the politicians walk around with their hands in their own pockets.
- @Collaboration, n.:
- A literary partnership based on the false assumption that the other fellow
- can spell.
- @College football is a game which would be much more interesting if the
- faculty played instead of the students, and even more interesting if the
- trustees played. There would be a great increase in broken arms, legs, and
- necks, and simultaneously an appreciable diminution in the loss to
- humanity.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @Colvard's Logical Premises:
- All probabilities are 50%. Either a thing will happen or it won't.
- Colvard's Unconscionable Commentary:
- This is especially true when dealing with someone you're attracted to.
- Grelb's Commentary
- Likelihoods, however, are 90% against you.
- @Come, every frustum longs to be a cone,
- And every vector dreams of matrices.
- Hark to the gentle gradient of the breeze:
- It whispers of a more ergodic zone.
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @Come, let us hasten to a higher plane,
- Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn,
- Their indices bedecked from one to n,
- Commingled in an endless Markov chain!
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @Command, n.:
- Statement presented by a human and accepted by a computer in such a manner
- as to make the human feel as if he is in control.
- @COMMENT
-
- Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
- A medley of extemporanea;
- And love is thing that can never go wrong;
- And I am Marie of Roumania.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @Commitment, n.:
- Commitment can be illustrated by a breakfast of ham and eggs. The chicken
- was involved, the pig was committed.
- @Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @Computer programmers do it byte by byte.
- @Computer Science is merely the post-Turing decline in formal systems
- theory.
- @Computers are not intelligent. They only think they are.
- @Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
- -- LaRouchefoucauld
- @Concept, n.:
- Any "idea" for which an outside consultant billed you more than $25,000.
- @Condense soup, not books!
- @Confession is good for the soul only in the sense that a tweed coat is
- good for dandruff.
- -- Peter de Vries
- @Confidence is the feeling you have before you understand the situation.
- @Congratulations! You have purchased an extremely fine device that would
- give you thousands of years of trouble-free service, except that you
- undoubtably will destroy it via some typical bonehead consumer maneuver.
- Which is why we ask you to PLEASE FOR GOD'S SAKE READ THIS OWNER'S MANUAL
- CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU UNPACK THE DEVICE. YOU ALREADY UNPACKED IT, DIDN'T
- YOU? YOU UNPACKED IT AND PLUGGED IT IN AND TURNED IT ON AND FIDDLED WITH
- THE KNOBS, AND NOW YOUR CHILD, THE SAME CHILD WHO ONCE SHOVED A POLISH
- SAUSAGE INTO YOUR VIDEOCASSETTE RECORDED AND SET IT ON "FAST FORWARD", THIS
- CHILD ALSO IS FIDDLING WITH HE KNOBS, RIGHT? AND YOU'RE JUST NOW STARTING
- TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS, RIGHT??? WE MIGHT AS WELL JUST BREAK THESE
- DEVICES RIGHT AT THE FACTORY BEFORE WE SHIP THEM OUT, YOU KNOW THAT?
- -- Dave Barry, "Read This First!"
- @Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.
- @Consultants are mystical people who ask a company for a number and then
- give it back to them.
- @"Contrariwise," continued Tweedledee, "if it was so, it might be, and if
- it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic!"
- -- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
- @Conversation, n.:
- A vocal competition in which the one who is catching his breath is called
- the listener.
- @Conway's Law:
- In any organization there will always be one person who knows what is
- going on.
-
- This person must be fired.
- @Coronation, n.:
- The ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outward and visible signs
- of his divine right to be blown skyhigh with a dynamite bomb.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Corrupt, adj.:
- In politics, holding an office of trust or profit.
- @Corruption is not the #1 priority of the Police Commissioner. His job is
- to enforce the law and fight crime.
- -- P.B.A. President E. J. Kiernan
- @Coward, n.:
- One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Crash programs fail because they are based on the theory that, with nine
- women pregnant, you can get a baby a month.
- -- Wernher von Braun
- @Crime does not pay ... as well as politics.
- -- A. E. Newman
- @Critic, n.:
- A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries to please
- him.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Cynic, n.:
- A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they
- ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a
- cynic's eyes to improve his vision.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Cynic, n.:
- One who looks through rose-colored glasses with a jaundiced eye.
- @Darth Vader sleeps with a Teddywookie.
- @Dawn, n.:
- The time when men of reason go to bed.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Day of inquiry. You will be subpoenaed.
- @Dealing with failure is easy: work hard to improve. Success is also easy
- to handle: you've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve.
- @Dear Lord:
- I just want *one* one-armed manager so I never have to hear "On the other
- hand", again.
- @Dear Miss Manners:
- My home economics teacher says that one must never place one's elbows on
- the table. However, I have read that one elbow, in between courses, is all
- right. Which is correct?
-
- Gentle Reader:
- For the purpose of answering examinations in your home economics class,
- your teacher is correct. Catching on to this principle of education may be
- of even greater importance to you now than learning correct current table
- manners, vital as Miss Manners believes that is.
- @Dear Miss Manners:
- Please list some tactful ways of removing a man's saliva from your face.
-
- Gentle Reader:
- Please list some decent ways of acquiring a man's saliva on your face ...
- @Death is God's way of telling you not to be such a wise guy.
- @Death is life's way of telling you you've been fired.
- -- R. Geis
- @Death is Nature's way of recycling human beings.
- @Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down.
- @Decisionmaker, n.:
- The person in your office who was unable to form a task force before the
- music stopped.
- @Decisions of the judges will be final unless shouted down by a really
- overwhelming majority of the crowd present. Abusive and obscene
- language may not be used by contestants when addressing members of the
- judging panel, or, conversely, by members of the judging panel when
- addressing contestants (unless struck by a boomerang).
- -- Mudgeeraba Creek Emu-Riding and Boomerang-Throwing Assoc.
- @Deck Us All With Boston Charlie
-
- Deck us all with Boston Charlie,
- Walla Walla, Wash., an' Kalamazoo!
- Nora's freezin' on the trolley,
- Swaller dollar cauliflower, alleygaroo!
-
- Don't we know archaic barrel,
- Lullaby Lilla Boy, Louisville Lou.
- Trolley Molly don't love Harold,
- Boola boola Pensacoola hullabaloo!
- -- Walt Kelly
- @"Deep" is a word like "theory" or "semantic" -- it implies all sorts of
- marvelous things. It's one thing to be able to say "I've got a theory",
- quite another to say "I've got a semantic theory", but, ah, those who can
- claim "I've got a deep semantic theory", they are truly blessed.
- -- Randy Davis
- @DELETE A QUIP!
-
- Don't some of these quips just drive you nuts?! Wouldn't you like to see
- some of them deleted from the system? You can! Just mail to "sysop" with
- the quip you hate most, and we MIGHT make sure it gets expunged.
- @Deliberation, n.:
- The act of examining one's bread to determine which side it is buttered
- on.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @"Deliver yesterday, code today, think tomorrow."
- @Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder aloud
- what the country could do under first-class management.
- -- Senator Soaper
- @Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the
- incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
- -- G. B. Shaw
- @Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by
- Jackasses.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are
- right more than half of the time.
- -- E. B. White
- @Dentist, n.:
- A Prestidigitator who, putting metal in one's mouth, pulls coins out of
- one's pockets.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @DETERIORATA
-
- Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
- And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
- Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep.
- Rotate your tires.
- Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself,
- And heed well their advice -- even though they be turkeys.
- Know what to kiss -- and when.
- Remember that two wrongs never make a right,
- But that three do.
- Wherever possible, put people on "HOLD".
- Be comforted, that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment,
- And despite the changing fortunes of time,
- There is always a big future in computer maintenance.
-
- You are a fluke of the universe ...
- You have no right to be here.
- Whether you can hear it or not, the universe
- Is laughing behind your back.
- -- National Lampoon
- @DeVries's Dilemma:
- If you hit two keys on the typewriter, the one you don't want hits the
- paper.
- @Did you know ...
-
- That no-one ever reads these things?
- @Did you know that clones never use mirrors?
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Die, v.:
- To stop sinning suddenly.
- -- Elbert Hubbard
- @"Die? I should say not, dear fellow. No Barrymore would allow such a
- conventional thing to happen to him."
- -- John Barrymore's dying words
- @Different all twisty a of in maze are you, passages little.
- @Dimensions will always be expressed in the least usable term. Velocity,
- for example, will be expressed in furlongs per fortnight.
- @Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock.
- @Disc space -- the final frontier!
- @Disco is to music what Etch-A-Sketch is to art.
- @Distress, n.:
- A disease incurred by exposure to the prosperity of a friend.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Do infants have as much fun in infancy as adults do in adultery?
- @Do molecular biologists wear designer genes?
- @Do not believe in miracles -- rely on them.
- @Do not drink coffee in early A.M. It will keep you awake until noon.
- @Do not meddle in the affairs of troff, for it is subtle and quick to
- anger.
- @Do not read this quip under penalty of law.
- Violators will be prosecuted.
- (Penal Code sec. 2.3.2 (II.a.))
- @Do not sleep in a eucalyptus tree tonight.
- @Do not try to solve all life's problems at once -- learn to dread each
- day as it comes.
- -- Donald Kaul
- @Do something unusual today. Pay a bill.
- @Do what comes naturally now. Seethe and fume and throw a tantrum.
- @Do you realize how many holes there could be if people would just take
- the time to take the dirt out of them?
- @"Do you think what we're doing is wrong?"
- "Of course it's wrong! It's illegal!"
- "I've never done anything illegal before."
- "I thought you said you were an accountant!"
- @Documentation is like sex: when it is good, it is very, very good; and
- when it is bad, it is better than nothing.
- -- Dick Brandon
- @Documentation is the castor oil of programming. Managers know it must be
- good because the programmers hate it so much.
- @Don't abandon hope: your Tom Mix decoder ring arrives tomorrow.
- @Don't be humble, you're not that great.
- -- Golda Meir
- @Don't believe everything you hear or anything you say.
- @Don't cook tonight -- starve a rat today!
- @Don't feed the bats tonight.
- @Don't get suckered in by the comments -- they can be terribly misleading.
- Debug only code.
- -- Dave Storer
- @Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you
- nothing. It was here first.
- -- Mark Twain
- @Don't go surfing in South Dakota for a while.
- @Don't hate yourself in the morning -- sleep till noon.
- @Don't kiss an elephant on the lips today.
- @Don't knock President Fillmore. He kept us out of Vietnam.
- @Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's in walking distance.
- @Don't look back, the lemmings are gaining on you.
- @Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today, because if you enjoy it
- today you can do it again tomorrow.
- @"Don't say yes until I finish talking."
- -- Darryl F. Zanuck
- @Don't take life too seriously -- you'll never get out if it alive.
- @Don't tell any big lies today. Small ones can be just as effective.
- @"Don't tell me I'm burning the candle at both ends -- tell me where to get
- more wax!!"
- @Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow
- in Australia.
- -- Charles Schultz
- @Don't worry over what other people are thinking about you. They're too
- busy worrying over what you are thinking about them.
- @Don't you feel more like you do now than you did when you came in?
- @Don: I didn't know you had a cousin Penelope, Bill! Was she pretty?
- W. C.: Well, her face was so wrinkled it looked like seven miles of bad
- road. She had so many gold teeth, Don, she use to have to sleep with her
- head in a safe. She died in Bolivia.
- Don: Oh Bill, it must be hard to lose a relative.
- W. C.: It's almost impossible.
- -- W. C. Fields, from "The Further Adventures of Larson E. Whipsnade and
- other Tarradiddles"
- @Down with categorical imperative!
- @"Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing."
- @Drew's Law of Highway Biology:
- The first bug to hit a clean windshield lands directly in front of your
- eyes.
- @Drive defensively. Buy a tank.
- @Drugs may be the road to nowhere, but at least they're the scenic route!
- @Ducharm's Axiom:
- If you view your problem closely enough you will recognize yourself as
- part of the problem.
- @Ducharme's Precept:
- Opportunity always knocks at the least opportune moment.
- @Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and a dark side, and
- it holds the universe together ...
- -- Carl Zwanzig
- @Due to a shortage of devoted followers, the production of great leaders
- has been discontinued.
- @Due to circumstances beyond your control, you are master of your fate and
- captain of your soul.
- @During a grouse hunt in North Carolina two intrepid sportsmen were
- blasting away at a clump of trees near a stone wall. Suddenly a red-faced
- country squire popped his head over the wall and shouted, "Hey, you almost
- hit my wife."
-
- "Did I?" cried the hunter, aghast. "Terribly sorry. Have a shot at mine,
- over there."
- @During the next two hours, the BBS will be going up and down several
- times, often with lin~po_~{po ~poz~ppo\~{ o n~po~{o[po
- @Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have
- nothing whatever to do with it.
- -- W. Somerset Maughm
- @E Pluribus Unix
- @Earn cash in your spare time -- blackmail your friends
- @/Earth is 98% full ... please delete anyone you can.
- @"Earth is a great, big funhouse without the fun."
- -- Jeff Berner
- @Easiest Color to Solve on a Rubik's Cube:
- Black. Simply remove all the little colored stickers on the cube, and
- each of side of the cube will now be the original color of the plastic
- underneath -- black. According to the instructions, this means the puzzle
- is solved.
- -- Steve Rubenstein
- @Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
- @Economics, n.:
- Economics is the study of the value and meaning of J. K. Galbraith ...
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @Eggheads unite! You have nothing to lose but your yolks.
- -- Adlai Stevenson
- @Eggnog is a traditional holiday drink invented by the English. Many
- people wonder where the word "eggnog" comes from. The first syllable comes
- from the English word "egg", meaning "egg". I don't know where the "nog"
- comes from.
-
- To make eggnog, you'll need rum, whiskey, wine gin and, if they are in
- season, eggs...
- @Egotism is the anesthetic given by a kindly nature to relieve the pain
- of being a damned fool.
- -- Bellamy Brooks
- @Egotist, n.:
- A person of low taste, more interested in himself than me.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Ehrman's Commentary:
- 1. Things will get worse before they get better.
- 2. Who said things would get better?
- @Eighty percent of air pollution comes from plants and trees.
- -- Ronald Reagan, famous movie star
- @Eisenhower was very nice,
- Nixon was his only vice.
- -- C. Degen
- @Eleanor Rigby
-
- Sits at the keyboard
- And waits for a line on the screen
- Lives in a dream
- Waits for a signal
- Finding some code
- That will make the machine do some more.
- What is it for?
-
- All the lonely users, where do they all come from?
- All the lonely users, why does it take so long?
- @Electrical Engineers do it with less resistance.
- @Electrocution, n.:
- Burning at the stake with all the modern improvements.
- @Elevators smell different to midgets
- @Emersons' Law of Contrariness:
- Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can.
- Having found them, we shall then hate them for it.
- @Encyclopedia Salesmen:
- Invite them all in. Nip out the back door. Phone the police and tell
- them your house is being burgled.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @Endless Loop: n., see Loop, Endless.
- Loop, Endless: n., see Endless Loop.
- -- Random Shack Data Processing Dictionary
- @Entropy isn't what it used to be.
- @Enzymes are things invented by biologists that explain things which
- otherwise require harder thinking.
- -- Jerome Lettvin
- @Equal bytes for women.
- @Es brilig war. Die schlichte Toven
- Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;
- Und aller-mumsige Burggoven
- Dir mohmen Rath ausgraben.
- -- Lewis Carrol, "Through the Looking Glass"
- @Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.
- -- Woody Allen
- @Etymology, n.:
- Some early etymological scholars come up with derivations that were hard
- for the public to believe. The term "etymology" was formed from the Latin
- "etus" ("eaten"), the root "mal" ("bad"), and "logy" ("study of"). It
- meant "the study of things that are hard to swallow."
- -- Mike Kellen
- @Even if you do learn to speak correct English, whom are you going to speak
- it to?
- -- Clarence Darrow
- @"Even the best of friends cannot attend each other's funeral."
- -- Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"
- @Even though they raised the rate for first class mail in the United
- States we really shouldn't complain -- it's still only 2 cents a day.
- @Ever notice that even the busiest people are never too busy to tell you
- just how busy they are.
- @Every 4 seconds a woman has a baby. Our problem is to find this woman
- and stop her.
- @Every absurdity has a champion who will defend it.
- @Every creature has within him the wild, uncontrollable urge to punt.
- @Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired
- signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
- fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not
- spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius
- of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at
- all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on
- a cross of iron.
- -- Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953
- @Every Horse has an Infinite Number of Legs (proof by intimidation):
-
- Horses have an even number of legs. Behind they have two legs, and in
- front they have fore-legs. This makes six legs, which is certainly an
- odd number of legs for a horse. But the only number that is both even
- and odd is infinity. Therefore, horses have an infinite number of
- legs. Now to show this for the general case, suppose that somewhere,
- there is a horse that has a finite number of legs. But that is a horse
- of another color, and by the [above] lemma ["All horses are the same
- color"], that does not exist.
- @Every little picofarad has a nanohenry all its own.
- -- Don Vonada
- @Every man is as God made him, ay, and often worse.
- -- Miguel de Cervantes
- @Every program has at least one bug and can be shortened by at least one
- instruction -- from which, by induction, one can deduce that every program
- can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work.
- @Every program has two purposes -- written and another for which it wasn't.
- @Every program is a part of some other program, and rarely fits.
- @Every solution breeds new problems.
- @Every successful person has had failures but repeated failure is no
- guarantee of eventual success.
- @"Every time I think I know where it's at, they move it."
- @Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.
- -- Beckett
- @Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
- -- Dykstra
- @Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.
- @Everyone can be taught to sculpt: Michelangelo would have had to be taught
- how not to. So it is with the great programmers.
- @Everyone knows that dragons don't exist. But while this simplistic
- formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific
- mind. The School of Higher Neantical Nillity is in fact wholly unconcerned
- with what does exist. Indeed, the banality of existence has been so amply
- demonstrated, there is no need for us to discuss it any further here. The
- brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three
- distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the purely
- hypothetical. They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each
- nonexisted in an entirely different way ...
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @Everyone talks about apathy, but no one does anything about it.
- @Everything is controlled by a small evil group to which, unfortunately,
- no one we know belongs.
- @Everything you know is wrong!
- @Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less
- obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no
- solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There
- are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight
- lines.
- -- R. Buckminster Fuller
- @Everyting should be built top-down, except the first time.
- @Excellence is THE trend of the '80s. Walk into any shopping mall
- bookstore, go to the rack where they keep the best-sellers such as
- "Garfield Gets Spayed", and you'll see a half-dozen books telling you how
- to be excellent: "In Search of Excellence", "Finding Excellence", "Grasping
- Hold of Excellence", "Where to Hide Your Excellence at Night So the
- Cleaning Personnel Don't Steal It", etc.
- -- Dave Barry, "In Search of Excellence"
- @Excellent day for drinking heavily. Spike office water cooler.
- @Excellent day to have a rotten day.
- @Excellent time to become a missing person.
- @Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring
- the deadening effect of a habit.
- -- W. Somerset Maugham
- @Excessive login or logout messages are a sure sign of senility.
- @Expect the worst, it's the least you can do.
- @Expense Accounts, n.:
- Corporate food stamps.
- @Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
- -- Olivier
- @Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
- when you make it again.
- -- F. P. Jones
- @Experience is the worst teacher. It always gives the test first and the
- instruction afterward.
- @Experience is what causes a person to make new mistakes instead of old
- ones.
- @Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else.
- @Experience varies directly with equipment ruined.
- @F u cn rd ths u cnt spl wrth a dm!
- @f u cn rd ths, itn tyg h myxbl cd.
- @f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng.
- @Fairy Tale, n.:
- A horror story to prepare children for the newspapers.
- @Faith is the quality that enables you to eat blackberry jam on a picnic
- without looking to see whether the seeds move.
- @Faith, n:
- That quality which enables us to believe what we know to be
- untrue.
- @Fakir, n:
- A psychologist whose charismatic data have inspired almost religious
- devotion in his followers, even though the sources seem to have shinnied up
- a rope and vanished.
- @Familiarity breeds attempt
- @Families, when a child is born
- Want it to be intelligent.
- I, through intelligence,
- Having wrecked my whole life,
- Only hope the baby will prove
- Ignorant and stupid.
- Then he will crown a tranquil life
- By becoming a Cabinet Minister
- -- Su Tung-p'o
- @Famous last words:
- @Famous last words:
-
- 1) "Don't worry, I can handle it."
- 2) "You and what army?"
- 3) "If you were as smart as you think you are, you wouldn't be a cop."
- @Famous last words:
-
- 1. Don't unplug it, it will just take a moment to fix.
- 2. Let's take the shortcut, he can't see us from there.
- 3. What happens if you touch these two wires tog--
- 4. We won't need reservations.
- 5. It's always sunny there this time of the year.
- 6. Don't worry, it's not loaded.
- 7. They'd never (be stupid enough to) make him a manager.
- @Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the
- Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
- Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an
- utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life
- forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches
- are a pretty neat idea ...
- -- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
- @Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it
- every six months.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @Fats Loves Madelyn
- @Feel disillusioned? I've got some great new illusions ...
- @Fertility is hereditary. If your parents didn't have any children,
- neither will you.
- @Festivity Level 1: Your guests are chatting amiably with each other,
- admiring your Christmas-tree ornaments, singing carols around the upright
- piano, sipping at their drinks and nibbling hors d'oeuvres.
-
- Festivity Level 2: Your guests are talking loudly -- sometimes to each
- other, and sometimes to nobody at all, rearranging your Christmas-tree
- ornaments, singing "I Gotta Be Me" around the upright piano, gulping their
- drinks and wolfing down hors d'oeuvres.
-
- Festivity Level 3: Your guests are arguing violently with inanimate
- objects, singing "I can't get no satisfaction," gulping down other peoples'
- drinks, wolfing down Christmas tree ornaments and placing hors d'oeuvres in
- the upright piano to see what happens when the little hammers strike.
-
- Festivity Level 4: Your guests, hors d'oeuvres smeared all over their
- naked bodies are performing a ritual dance around the burning Christmas
- tree. The piano is missing.
-
- You want to keep your party somewhere around level 3, unless you rent your
- home and own Firearms, in which case you can go to level 4. The best way
- to get to level 3 is egg-nog.
- @Fifth Law of Applied Terror:
- If you are given an open-book exam, you will forget your book.
-
- Corollary:
- If you are given a take-home exam, you will forget where you live.
- @Fifth Law of Procrastination:
- Procrastination avoids boredom; one never has the feeling that there is
- nothing important to do.
- @FIGHTING WORDS
-
- Say my love is easy had,
- Say I'm bitten raw with pride,
- Say I am too often sad --
- Still behold me at your side.
-
- Say I'm neither brave nor young,
- Say I woo and coddle care,
- Say the devil touched my tongue --
- Still you have my heart to wear.
-
- But say my verses do not scan,
- And I get me another man!
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @Finagle's Creed:
- Science is true. Don't be misled by facts.
- @Finagle's First Law:
- If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
- @Finagle's fourth Law:
- Once a job is fouled up, anything done to improve it only makes it worse.
- @Finagle's Second Law:
- No matter what the anticipated result, there will always be someone eager
- to (a) misinterpret it, (b) fake it, or (c) believe it happened according
- to his own pet theory.
- @Finagle's Third Law:
- In any collection of data, the figure most obviously correct, beyond all
- need of checking, is the mistake.
-
- Corollaries:
- 1. Nobody whom you ask for help will see it.
- 2. The first person who stops by, whose advice you really don't want to
- hear, will see it immediately.
- @Fine day to throw a party. Throw him as far as you can.
- @Fine day to work off excess energy. Steal something heavy.
- @First Law of Bicycling:
- No matter which way you ride, it's uphill and against the wind.
- @First Law of Procrastination:
- Procrastination shortens the job and places the responsibility for its
- termination on someone else (i.e., the authority who imposed the deadline).
- @First Law of Socio-Genetics:
- Celibacy is not hereditary.
- @First Rule of History:
- History doesn't repeat itself -- historians merely repeat each other.
- @Flappity, floppity, flip
- The mouse on the mobius strip;
- The strip revolved,
- The mouse dissolved
- In a chronodimensional skip.
- @FLASH! Intelligence of mankind decreasing. Details at ... uh, when the
- little hand is on the ....
- @Flon's Law:
- There is not now, and never will be, a language in which it is the least
- bit difficult to write bad programs.
- @Flugg's Law:
- When you need to knock on wood is when you realize that the world is
- composed of vinyl, naugahyde and aluminum.
- @For an idea to be fashionable is ominous, since it must afterwards be
- always old-fashioned.
- @For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat,
- and wrong.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @For every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill.
- -- R. Clopton
- @"For I perceive that behind this seemingly unrelated sequence of events,
- there lurks a singular, sinister attitude of mind."
-
- "Whose?"
-
- "MINE! HA-HA!"
- @For some reason a glaze passes over people's faces when you say "Canada".
- Maybe we should invade South Dakota or something.
- -- Sandra Gotlieb, wife of the Canadian ambassador to the U.S.
- @For some reason, this quip reminds everyone of Marvin Zelkowitz.
- @"For that matter, compare your pocket computer with the massive jobs of a
- thousand years ago. Why not, then, the last step of doing away with
- computers altogether?"
- -- Jehan Shuman
- @For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they
- like.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
- @For years a secret shame destroyed my peace --
- I'd not read Eliot, Auden or MacNiece.
- But now I think a thought that brings me hope:
- Neither had Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope.
- -- Justin Richardson.
- @Forgetfulness, n.:
- A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution
- of conscience.
- @A bit of graffito:
-
- Don't Write On Walls!
-
- (and underneath)
-
- You want I should type?
- @Quip's nomination for All-Time Champion and Protector of Youthful Morals
- goes to Representative Clare E. Hoffman of Michigan. During an impassioned
- House debate over a proposed bill to "expand oyster and clam research," a
- sharp-eared informant transcribed the following exchange between our hero
- and Rep. John D. Dingell, also of Michigan.
-
- DINGELL: There are places in the world at the present time where we are
- having to artificially propagate oysters and clams.
-
- HOFFMAN: You mean the oysters I buy are not nature's oysters?
-
- DINGELL: They may or may not be natural. The simple fact of the matter is
- that female oysters through their living habits cast out large amounts of
- seed and the male oysters cast out large amounts of fertilization.
-
- HOFFMAN: Wait a minute! I do not want to go into that. There are many
- teenagers who read The Congressional Record.
- @QUIP'S PARTY TIPS #14
-
- Tired of finding that other people are helping themselves to your good
- liquor at BYOB parties? Take along a candle, which you insert and
- light after you've opened the bottle. No one ever expects anything
- drinkable to be in a bottle which has a candle stuck in its neck.
- @Fourth Law of Applied Terror:
- The night before the English History mid-term, your Biology instructor
- will assign 200 pages on planaria.
-
- Corollary:
- Every instructor assumes that you have nothing else to do except study for
- that instructor's course.
- @Fourth Law of Revision:
- It is usually impractical to worry beforehand about interferences -- if
- you have none, someone will make one for you.
- @Fresco's Discovery:
- If you knew what you were doing you'd probably be bored.
- @Friends, Romans, Hipsters,
- Let me clue you in;
- I come to put down Caeser, not to groove him.
- The square kicks some cats are on stay with them;
- The hip bits, like, go down under; so let it lay with Caeser. The cool
- Brutus
- Gave you the message: Caeser had big eyes;
- If that's the sound, someone's copping a plea,
- And, like, old Caeser really set them straight.
- Here, copacetic with Brutus and the studs, -- for Brutus is a real cool
- cat;
- So are they all, all cool cats, --
- Come I to make this gig at Caeser's laying down.
- @Frisbeetarianism, n.:
- The belief that when you die, your soul goes up the on roof and gets
- stuck.
- @Frobnicate, v.:
- To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. Derived from FROBNITZ. Usually
- abbreviated to FROB. Thus one has the saying "to frob a frob". See TWEAK
- and TWIDDLE.
-
- Usage: FROB, TWIDDLE, and TWEAK sometimes connote points along a
- continuum. FROB connotes aimless manipulation; TWIDDLE connotes gross
- manipulation, often a coarse search for a proper setting; TWEAK connotes
- fine-tuning. If someone is turning a knob on an oscilloscope, then if he's
- carefully adjusting it he is probably tweaking it; if he is just turning it
- but looking at the screen he is probably twiddling it; but if he's just
- doing it because turning a knob is fun, he's frobbing it.
- @From too much love of living,
- From hope and fear set free,
- We thank with brief thanksgiving,
- Whatever gods may be,
- That no life lives forever,
- That dead men rise up never,
- That even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea.
- -- Swinburne
- @Fudd's First Law of Opposition:
- Push something hard enough and it will fall over.
- @Furbling, v.:
- Having to wander through a maze of ropes at an airport or bank even when
- you are the only person in line.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.
- -- H. H. Williams
- @Future looks spotty. You will spill soup in late evening.
- @G. B. Shaw to William Douglas Home: "Go on writing plays, my boy. One of
- these days a London producer will go into his office and say to his
- secretary, `Is there a play from Shaw this morning?' and when she says
- `No,' he will say, `Well, then we'll have to start on the rubbish.' And
- that's your chance, my boy."
- @Garbage In -- Gospel Out.
- @Garter, n.:
- An elastic band intended to keep a woman from coming out of her stockings
- and desolating the country.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Gauls! We have nothing to fear; except perhaps that the sky may fall on
- our heads tomorrow. But as we all know, tomorrow never comes!!
- -- Adventures of Asterix.
- @Gay shlafen: Yiddish for "go to sleep".
-
- Now doesn't "gay shlafen" have a softer, more soothing sound than the
- harsh, staccato "go to sleep"? Listen to the difference:
-
- "Go to sleep, you little wretch!" ... "Gay shlafen, darling." Obvious,
- isn't it?
-
- Clearly the best thing you can do for you children is to start speaking
- Yiddish right now and never speak another word of English as long as you
- live. This will, of course, entail teaching Yiddish to all your friends,
- business associates, the people at the supermarket, and so on, but that's
- just the point. It has to start with committed individuals and then grow
- ...
-
- Some minor adjustments will have to be made, of course: those signs
- written in what look like Yiddish letters won't be funny when everything is
- written in Yiddish. And we'll have to start driving on the left side of
- the road so we won't be reading the street signs backwards. But is that
- too high a price to pay for world peace? I think not, my friend, I think
- not.
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @"Gee, Mudhead, everyone at Morse Science High has an extracurricular
- activity except you."
-
- "Well, gee, doesn't Louise count?"
-
- "Only to ten, Mudhead."
- -- Firesign Theater
- @GEMINI (May 21 - June 20)
- You are a quick and intelligent thinker. People like you because you are
- bisexual. However, you are inclined to expect too much for too little.
- This means you are cheap. Geminis are known for committing incest.
- @GEMINI (May 21 to Jun. 20)
- Good news and bad news highlighted. Enjoy the good news while you can;
- the bad news will make you forget it. You will enjoy praise and respect
- from those around you; everybody loves a sucker. A short trip is in the
- stars, possibly to the men's room.
- @Genderplex, n.:
- The predicament of a person in a restaurant who is unable to determine his
- or her designated restroom (e.g., turtles and tortoises).
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @Genetics explains why you look like your father, and if you don't, why
- you should.
- @Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
- -- Elbert Hubbard
- @Genius, n.:
- A chemist who discovers a laundry additive that rhymes with "bright".
- @George Orwell was an optimist.
- @Gerrold's Laws of Infernal Dynamics:
-
- 1. An object in motion will always be headed in the wrong direction.
- 2. An object at rest will always be in the wrong place.
- 3. The energy required to change either one of these states will always
- be more than you wish to expend, but never so much as to make the task
- totally impossible.
- @Get forgiveness now -- tomorrow you may no longer feel guilty.
- @Get Revenge! Live long enough to be a problem for your children!
- @-- Gifts for Children --
-
- This is easy. You never have to figure out what to get for children,
- because they will tell you exactly what they want. They spend months and
- months researching these kinds of things by watching Saturday- morning
- cartoon-show advertisements. Make sure you get your children exactly what
- they ask for, even if you disapprove of their choices. If your child
- thinks he wants Murderous Bob, the Doll with the Face You Can Rip Right
- Off, you'd better get it. You may be worried that it might help to
- encourage your child's antisocial tendencies, but believe me, you have not
- seen antisocial tendencies until you've seen a child who is convinced that
- he or she did not get the right gift.
- -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- @-- Gifts for Men --
-
- Men are amused by almost any idiot thing -- that is why professional ice
- hockey is so popular -- so buying gifts for them is easy. But you should
- never buy them clothes. Men believe they already have all the clothes they
- will ever need, and new ones make them nervous. For example, your average
- man has 84 ties, but he wears, at most, only three of them. He has
- learned, through humiliating trial and error, that if he wears any of the
- other 81 ties, his wife will probably laugh at him ("You're not going to
- wear THAT tie with that suit, are you?"). So he has narrowed it down to
- three safe ties, and has gone several years without being laughed at. If
- you give him a new tie, he will pretend to like it, but deep inside he will
- hate you.
-
- If you want to give a man something practical, consider tires. More than
- once, I would have gladly traded all the gifts I got for a new set of
- tires.
- -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- @Gimmie That Old Time Religion
-
- We will follow Zarathustra,
- We will worship like the Druids,
- Zarathustra like we use to,
- Dancing naked in the woods.
-
- I'm a Zarathustra booster,
- Drinking strange fermented fluids,
- And he's good enough for me!
- And it's good enough for me!
- (chorus) (chorus)
-
- In the church of Aphrodite,
- The priestess wears a see through nightie,
- She's a mighty righteous sightie,
- And she's good enough for me!
- (chorus)
-
- CHORUS:
- Give me that old time religion,
- Give me that old time religion,
- Give me that old time religion,
- 'Cause it's good enough for me!
- @Ginsberg's Theorem:
- 1. You can't win.
- 2. You can't break even.
- 3. You can't even quit the game.
-
- Freeman's Commentary on Ginsberg's theorem:
-
- Every major philosophy that attempts to make life seem meaningful is based
- on the negation of one part of Ginsberg's Theorem. To wit:
-
- 1. Capitalism is based on the assumption that you can win.
- 2. Socialism is based on the assumption that you can break even.
- 3. Mysticism is based on the assumption that you can quit the game.
- @Give me a Plumber's friend the size of the Pittsburgh dome, and a place to
- stand, and I will drain the world.
- @Give me the Luxuries, and the Hell with the Necessities!
- @Give thought to your reputation. Consider changing name and moving to a
- new town.
- @Give your child mental blocks for Christmas.
- @Glib's Fourth Law of Unreliability:
- Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the probable cost
- of errors, or until someone insists on getting some useful work done.
- @Go 'way! You're bothering me!
- @Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what value there may be
- in owning a piece thereof.
- -- National Lampoon, "Deteriorada"
- @//GO.SYSIN DD *, DOODAH, DOODAH
- @God did not create the world in 7 days; he screwed around for 6 days and
- then pulled an all-nighter.
- @"God gives burdens; also shoulders"
-
- Jimmy Carter cited this Jewish saying in his concession speech at the end
- of the 1980 election. At least he said it was a Jewish saying; I can't
- find it anywhere. I'm sure he's telling the truth though; why would he lie
- about a thing like that?
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @God has intended the great to be great and the little to be little ... The
- trade unions, under the European system, destroy liberty ... I do not mean
- to say that a dollar a day is enough to support a workingman ... not enough
- to support a man and five children if he insists on smoking and drinking
- beer. But the man who cannot live on bread and water is not fit to live!
- A family may live on good bread and water in the morning, water and bread
- at midday, and good bread and water at night!
- -- Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
- @God is a comic playing to an audience that's afraid to laugh
- @God is a polythiest
- @God is Dead
- -- Nietzsche
- Nietzsche is Dead
- -- God
- Nietzsche is God
- -- The Dead
- @God is not dead! He's alive and autographing bibles at Cody's
- @God is real, unless declared integer.
- @God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant
- and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on trying other things.
- -- Pablo Picasso
- @God is the tangential point between zero and infinity.
- -- Alfred Jarry
- @God isn't dead, he just couldn't find a parking place.
- @God made machine language; all the rest is the work of man.
- @God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.
- -- Mark Twain
- @God made the integers; all else is the work of Man.
- -- Kronecker
- @God made the world in six days, and was arrested on the seventh.
- @God may be subtle, but He isn't plain mean.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @God must love the Common Man; He made so many of them.
- @God rest ye CS students now,
- Let nothing you dismay.
- The VAX is down and won't be up,
- Until the first of May.
- The program that was due this morn,
- Won't be postponed, they say.
-
- Oh, tidings of comfort and joy,
- Comfort and joy,
- Oh, tidings of comfort and joy.
-
- The bearings on the drum are gone,
- The disk is wobbling, too.
- We've found a bug in Lisp, and Algol
- Can't tell false from true.
- And now we find that we can't get
- At Berkeley's 4.2.
-
- (chorus)
- @Going to church does not make a person religious, nor does going to school
- make a person educated, any more than going to a garage makes a person a
- car.
- @Gold, n.:
- A soft malleable metal relatively scarce in distribution. It is mined
- deep in the earth by poor men who then give it to rich men who immediately
- bury it back in the earth in great prisons, although gold hasn't done
- anything to them.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @Goldenstern's Rules:
- 1. Always hire a rich attorney
- 2. Never buy from a rich salesman.
- @Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad
- example.
- -- La Rouchefoucauld
- @Good day for a change of scene. Repaper the bedroom wall.
- @Good day for overcoming obstacles. Try a steeplechase.
- @Good day to avoid cops. Crawl to school.
- @Good day to let down old friends who need help.
- @Good leaders being scarce, following yourself is allowed.
- @Good news is just life's way of keeping you off balance.
- @Good news. Ten weeks from Friday will be a pretty good day.
- @Good night to spend with family, but avoid arguments with your mate's new
- lover.
- @Good-bye. I am leaving because I am bored.
- -- George Saunders' dying words
- @Got Mole problems?
- Call Avogadro 6.02 x 10^23
- @Goto, n.:
- A programming tool that exists to allow structured programmers to complain
- about unstructured programmers.
- -- Ray Simard
- @Goy: ... The distinction between Jewish and goyish can be quite subtle, as
- the following quote from Lenny Bruce illustrates:
-
- "I'm Jewish. Count Basie's Jewish. Ray Charles is Jewish. Eddie Cantor's
- goyish. The B'nai Brith is goyish. The Hadassah is Jewish. Marine Corps
- -- heavy goyish, dangerous.
-
- "Kool-Aid is goyish. All Drake's Cakes are goyish. Pumpernickel is Jewish
- and, as you know, white bread is very goyish. Instant potatoes -- goyish.
- Black cherry soda's very Jewish. Macaroons are very Jewish. Fruit salad is
- Jewish. Lime Jell-O is goyish. Lime soda is very goyish. Trailer parks
- are so goyish that Jews won't go near them ..."
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @Grabel's Law:
- 2 is not equal to 3 -- not even for large values of 2.
- @Graduate life -- it's not just a job, it's an indenture.
- @Grandpa Charnock's Law:
- You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.
- @Gravity is a myth, the Earth sucks.
- @Gray's Law of Programming:
- `n+1' trivial tasks are expected to be accomplished in the same time as
- `n' tasks.
-
- Logg's Rebuttal to Gray's Law:
- `n+1' trivial tasks take twice as long as `n' trivial tasks.
- @GREAT MOMENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY (#21) -- July 30, 1917
-
- On this day, New York City hotel detectives burst in and caught then-
- Senator Warren G. Harding in bed with an underage girl. He bought them off
- with a $20 bribe, and later remarked thankfully, "I thought I wouldn't get
- out of that under $1000!" Always one to learn from his mistakes, in later
- years President Harding carried on his affairs in a tiny closet in the
- White House Cabinet Room while Secret Service men stood lookout.
- @Green light in A.M. for new projects. Red light in P.M. for traffic
- tickets.
- @Greener's Law:
- Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel.
- @Grelb's Reminder:
- Eighty percent of all people consider themselves to be above average
- drivers.
- @"Grub first, then ethics."
- -- Bertolt Brecht
- @Gyroscope, n.:
- A wheel or disk mounted to spin rapidly about an axis and also free to
- rotate about one or both of two axes perpendicular to each other and the
- axis of spin so that a rotation of one of the two mutually perpendicular
- axes results from application of torque to the other when the wheel is
- spinning and so that the entire apparatus offers considerable opposition
- depending on the angular momentum to any torque that would change the
- direction of the axis of spin.
- -- Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary
- @H. L. Mencken's Law:
- Those who can -- do.
- Those who can't -- teach.
-
- Martin's Extension:
- Those who cannot teach -- administrate.
- @Hacker's Law:
- The belief that enhanced understanding will necessarily stir a nation to
- action is one of mankind's oldest illusions.
- @Hacking's just another word for nothing left to kludge.
- @... Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and
- you would not have been informed.
- @Hail to the sun god
- He sure is a fun god
- Ra! Ra! Ra!
- @Half Moon tonight. (At least it's better than no Moon at all.)
- @Half-done: This is the best way to eat a kosher dill -- when it's still
- crunchy, light green, yet full of garlic flavor. The difference between
- this and the typical soggy dark green cucumber corpse is like the the
- difference between life and death.
-
- You may find it difficult to find a good half-done kosher dill there in
- Seattle, so what you should do is take a cab out to the airport, fly to New
- York, take the JFK Express to Jay Street-Borough Hall, transfer to an
- uptown F, get off at East Broadway, walk north on Essex (along the park),
- make your first left onto Hester Street, walk about fifteen steps, turn
- ninety degrees left, and stop. Say to the man, "Let me have a nice
- half-done."
-
- Worth the trouble, wasn't it?
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @Hall's Laws of Politics:
-
- (1) The voters want fewer taxes and more spending.
- (2) Citizens want honest politicians until they want something fixed.
- (3) Constituency drives out consistency (i.e., liberals defend military
- spending, and conservatives social spending in their own districts).
- @Hand, n.:
- A singular instrument worn at the end of a human arm and commonly thrust
- into somebody's pocket.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Hanlon's Razor:
- Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
- @Hanson's Treatment of Time:
- There are never enough hours in a day, but always too many days before
- Saturday.
- @Happiness is having a scratch for every itch.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @Happiness isn't something you experience; it's something you remember.
- -- Oscar Levant
- @Happiness, n.:
- An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Hardware, n.:
- The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.
- @Hark, Hark, the dogs do bark
- The Duke is fond of kittens
- He likes to take their insides out
- And use them for his mittens
- -- From "The Thirteen Clocks"
- @Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
- Advertising wondrous things.
- -- Tom Leher
- @Harris's Lament:
- All the good ones are taken.
- @Harrisberger's Fourth Law of the Lab:
- Experience is directly proportional to the amount of equipment ruined.
- @Harry is heavily into camping, and every year in the late fall, he makes
- us all go to Assateague, which is an island on the Atlantic Ocean famous
- for its wild horses. I realize that the concept of wild horses probably
- stirs romantic notions in many of you, but this is because you have never
- met any wild horses in person. In person, they are like enormous hooved
- rats. They amble up to your camp site, and their attitude is: "We're wild
- horses. We're going to eat your food, knock down your tent and poop on
- your shoes. We're protected by federal law, just like Richard Nixon."
- -- Dave Barry, "Tenting Grandpa Bob"
- @Hartley's First Law:
- You can lead a horse to water, but if you can get him to float on his
- back, you've got something.
- @Hartley's Second Law:
- Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself.
- @Harvard Law:
- Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature,
- volume, humidity, and other variables, the organism will do as it damn well
- pleases.
- @Has everyone noticed that all the letters of the word "database" are typed
- with the left hand? Now the layout of the QWERTYUIOP typewriter keyboard
- was designed, among other things, to facilitate the even use of both hands.
-
- It follows, therefore, that writing about databases is not only unnatural,
- but a lot harder than it appears.
- @Has your family tried 'em?
-
- POWDERMILK BISCUITS
-
- Heavens, they're tasty and expeditious!
-
- They're made from whole wheat, to give shy persons the strength to get
- up and do what needs to be done.
-
- POWDERMILK BISCUITS
-
- Buy them ready-made in the big blue box with the picture of the biscuit on
- the front, or in the brown bag with the dark stains that indicate
- freshness.
- @Hatred, n.:
- A sentiment appropriate to the occasion of another's superiority.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Have you ever noticed that the people who are always trying to tell you,
- "There's a time for work and a time for play," never find the time for
- play?
- @Have you noticed that all you need to grow healthy, vigorous grass is a
- crack in your sidewalk?
- @He had that rare weird electricity about him -- that extremely wild and
- heavy presence that you only see in a person who has abandoned all hope
- of ever behaving "normally."
- -- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing '72"
- @He hadn't a single redeeming vice.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @"He is now rising from affluence to poverty."
- -- Mark Twain
- @He looked at me as if I was a side dish he hadn't ordered.
- @He played the king as if afraid someone else would play the ace.
- -- John Mason Brown, drama critic
- @He thought he saw an albatross
- That fluttered 'round the lamp.
- He looked again and saw it was
- A penny postage stamp.
- "You'd best be getting home," he said,
- "The nights are rather damp."
- @"He was so narrow minded he could see through a keyhole with both eyes."
- @He who attacks the fundamentals of the American broadcasting industry
- attacks democracy itself.
- -- William S. Paley, chairman of CBS
- @He who Laughs, Lasts.
- @"He's just a politician trying to save both his faces ..."
- @He's the kind of guy, that, well, if you were ever in a jam he'd be there
- ... with two slices of bread and some chunky peanut butter.
- @"He's the kind of man for the times that need the kind of man he is ..."
- @HE: Let's end it all, bequeathin' our brains to science.
- SHE: What?!? Science got enough trouble with their OWN brains.
- -- Walt Kelley
- @Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
- @Heaven, n.:
- A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk of their
- personal affairs, and the good listen with attention while you expound your
- own.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Heavy, adj.:
- Seduced by the chocolate side of the force.
- @"Heisenberg may have slept here"
- @Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.
- -- Milton Friedman
- @Heller's Law:
- The first myth of management is that it exists.
-
- Johnson's Corollary:
- Nobody really knows what is going on anywhere within the organization.
- @Help a swallow land at Capistrano.
- @Help! I'm trapped in a PDP 11/70!
- @Her locks an ancient lady gave
- Her loving husband's life to save;
- And men -- they honored so the dame --
- Upon some stars bestowed her name.
-
- But to our modern married fair,
- Who'd give their lords to save their hair,
- No stellar recognition's given.
- There are not stars enough in heaven.
- @"Here at the Phone Company, we serve all kinds of people; from Presidents
- and Kings to the scum of the earth ..."
- @Here I sit, broken-hearted,
- All logged in, but work unstarted.
- First net.this and net.that,
- And a hot buttered bun for net.fat.
-
- The boss comes by, and I play the game,
- Then I turn back to net.flame.
- Is there a cure (I need your views),
- For someone trapped in net.news?
-
- I need your help, I say 'tween sobs,
- 'Cause I'll soon be listed in net.jobs.
- @Here in my heart, I am Helen;
- I'm Aspasia and Hero, at least.
- I'm Judith, and Jael, and Madame de Stael;
- I'm Salome, moon of the East.
-
- Here in my soul I am Sappho;
- Lady Hamilton am I, as well.
- In me Recamier vies with Kitty O'Shea,
- With Dido, and Eve, and poor nell.
-
- I'm all of the glamorous ladies
- At whose beckoning history shook.
- But you are a man, and see only my pan,
- So I stay at home with a book.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @Here is a simple experiment that will teach you an important electrical
- lesson: On a cool, dry day, scuff your feet along a carpet, then reach
- your hand into a friend's mouth and touch one of his dental fillings.
- Did you notice how your friend twitched violently and cried out in
- pain? This teaches us that electricity can be a very powerful force,
- but we must never use it to hurt others unless we need to learn an
- important electrical lesson.
-
- It also teaches us how an electrical circuit works. When you scuffed
- your feet, you picked up batches of "electrons", which are very small
- objects that carpet manufacturers weave into carpets so they will
- attract dirt. The electrons travel through your bloodstream and
- collect in your finger, where they form a spark that leaps to your
- friend's filling, then travels down to his feet and back into the
- carpet, thus completing the circuit.
-
- Amazing Electronic Fact: If you scuffed your feet long enough without
- touching anything, you would build up so many electrons that your
- finger would explode! But this is nothing to worry about unless you
- have carpeting.
- -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"
- @Here is the fact of the week, maybe even the fact of the month.
- According to probably reliable sources, the Coca-Cola people are
- experiencing severe marketing anxiety in China.
-
- The words "Coca-Cola" translate into Chinese as either (depending on the
- inflection) "wax-fattened mare" or "bite the wax tadpole".
-
- Bite the wax tadpole.
-
- There is a sort of rough justice, is there not?
-
- The trouble with this fact, as lovely as it is, is that it's hard to get a
- whole column out of it. I'd like to teach the world to bite a wax tadpole.
- Coke -- it's the real wax-fattened mare. Not bad, but broad satiric vistas
- do not open up.
- -- John Carrol, San Francisco Chronicle
- @Heuristics are bug ridden by definition. If they didn't have bugs, then
- they'd be algorithms.
- @"Hey! Who took the cork off my lunch??!"
- -- W. C. Fields
- @Hi there! This is just a note from me, to you, to tell you, the person
- reading this note, that I can't think up any more famous quotes, jokes,
- nor bizarre stories, so you may as well go home.
- @Higgeldy Piggeldy,
- Hamlet of Elsinore
- Ruffled the critics by
- Dropping this bomb:
- "Phooey on Freud and his
- Psychoanalysis --
- Oedipus, Shmoedipus,
- I just loved Mom."
- @Hindsight is an exact science.
- @Hippogriff, n.:
- An animal (now extinct) which was half horse and half griffin. The griffin
- was itself a compound creature, half lion and half eagle. The hippogriff
- was actually, therefore, only one quarter eagle, which is two dollars and
- fifty cents in gold. The study of zoology is full of surprises.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Hire the morally handicapped.
- @"His mind is like a steel trap -- full of mice"
- -- Foghorn Leghorn
- @"His super power is to turn into a scotch terrier."
- @History repeats itself. That's one thing wrong with history.
- @Hlade's Law:
- If you have a difficult task, give it to a lazy person -- they will find
- an easier way to do it.
- @Hoare's Law of Large Problems:
- Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out.
- @Hofstadter's Law:
- It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take Hofstadter's
- Law into account.
- @Hollywood is where if you don't have happiness you send out for it.
- -- Rex Reed
- @"Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense"
- @Honesty pays, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people.
- -- F. M. Hubbard
- @Honk if you hate bumper stickers that say "Honk if ..."
- @Honk if you love peace and quiet.
- @Honorable, adj.:
- Afflicted with an impediment in one's reach. In legislative bodies, it is
- customary to mention all members as honorable; as, "the honorable gentleman
- is a scurvy cur."
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Horngren's Observation:
- Among economists, the real world is often a special case.
- @Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on
- people.
- -- W. C. Fields
- @How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?
- @How come only your friends step on your new white sneakers?
- @How come wrong numbers are never busy?
- @How do you explain school to a higher intelligence?
- -- Elliot, "E.T."
- @How doth the little crocodile
- Improve his shining tail,
- And pour the waters of the Nile
- On every golden scale!
-
- How cheerfully he seems to grin,
- How neatly spreads his claws,
- And welcomes little fishes in,
- With gently smiling jaws!
- -- Lewis Carrol, "Alice in Wonderland"
- @How doth the VAX's C compiler
- Improve its object code.
- And even as we speak does it
- Increase the system load.
-
- How patiently it seems to run
- And spit out error flags,
- While users, with frustration, all
- Tear their clothes to rags.
- @How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.
- @How many hardware engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
- None: "We'll fix it in software."
-
- How many software engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
- None: "We'll document it in the manual."
-
- How many tech writers does it take to change a lightbulb?
- None: "The user can work it out."
- @How many Zen masters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
-
- None. The Universe spins the bulb, and the Zen master stays out of
- the way.
- @How much does it cost to entice a dope-smoking UNIX system guru to
- Dayton?
- -- Brian Boyle, UNIX/WORLD's First Annual Salary Survey
- @How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers.
- @Howe's Law:
- Everyone has a scheme that will not work.
- @However, never daunted, I will cope with adversity in my traditional
- manner ... sulking and nausea.
- -- Tom K. Ryan
- @Human beings were created by water to transport it uphill.
- @Human cardiac catheterization was introduced by Werner Forssman in
- 1929. Ignoring his department chief, and tying his assistant to an
- operating table to prevent his interference, he placed a uretheral
- catheter into a vein in his arm, advanced it to the right atrium [of
- his heart], and walked upstairs to the x-ray department where he took
- the confirmatory x-ray film. In 1956, Dr. Forssman was awarded the
- Nobel Prize.
- @Hummingbirds never remember the words to songs.
- @"Humor is a drug which it's the fashion to abuse."
- -- William Gilbert
- @Hurewitz's Memory Principle:
- The chance of forgetting something is directly proportional
- to ..... to ........ uh ..............
- @I am changing my name to Crysler
- I am going down to Washington, D.C.
- I will tell some power broker
- What they did for Iacocca
- Will be perfectly acceptable to me!
- I am changing my name to Chrysler,
- I am heading for that great receiving line.
- When they hand a million grand out,
- I'll be standing with my hand out,
- Yessir, I'll get mine!
- @"I am not an Economist. I am an honest man!"
- -- Paul McCracken
- @I am not now, and never have been, a girl friend of Henry Kissinger.
- -- Gloria Steinem
- @"I am not sure what this is, but an `F' would only dignify it."
- -- English Professor
- @I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the
- great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
- -- Winston Churchill
- @"I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because someone
- has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the top."
- --English Professor, Ohio University
- @I am the mother of all things, and all things should wear a sweater.
- @I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of
- pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell
- you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial
- atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something
- inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering.
- -- Pooh-Bah, "The Mikado", Gilbert & Sullivan
- @I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
- -- G. K. Chesterton
- @I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.
- -- Will Rogers
- @I bet the human brain is a kludge.
- -- Marvin Minsky
- @I can resist anything but temptation.
- @I can't complain, but sometimes I still do.
- -- Joe Walsh
- @I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.
- -- Lillian Hellman
- @I cannot overemphasize the importance of good grammar.
-
- What a crock. I could easily overemphasize the importance of good
- grammar. For example, I could say: "Bad grammar is the leading cause
- of slow, painful death in North America," or "Without good grammar, the
- United States would have lost World War II."
- -- Dave Barry, "An Utterly Absurd Look at Grammar"
- @"I cannot read the fiery letters," said Frodo in a quavering
- voice.
-
- "No," Said Gandalf, "but I can. The letters are Elvish, of
- course, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Mordor, which
- I will not utter here. They are lines of a verse long known in
- Elven-lore:
-
- "This Ring, no other, is made by the elves,
- Who'd pawn their own mother to grab it themselves.
- Ruler of creeper, mortal, and scallop,
- This is a sleeper that packs quite a wallop.
- The Power almighty rests in this Lone Ring.
- The Power, alrighty, for doing your Own Thing.
- If broken or busted, it cannot be remade.
- If found, send to Sorhed (with postage prepaid)."
- @I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
- -- Isaac Asimov
- @I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us
- with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
- -- Galileo Galilei
- @I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.
- -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- @I don't believe in astrology. But then I'm an Aquarius, and Aquarians
- don't believe in astrology.
- -- James R. F. Quirk
- @"I don't care who does the electing as long as I get to do the
- nominating"
- -- Boss Tweed
- @"I don't have any solution but I certainly admire the problem."
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @I don't have to take this abuse from you -- I've got hundreds of people
- waiting to abuse me.
- --Bill Murray, "Ghostbusters"
- @"I don't know what you mean by `glory,'" Alice said
- Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't--
- till I tell you. I meant `there's a nice knock-down argument for
- you!'"
-
- "But glory doesn't mean `a nice knock-down argument,'" Alice
- objected.
-
- "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful
- tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor
- less."
-
- "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean
- so many different things."
-
- "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master--
- that's all."
- -- Lewis Carrol, "Through the Looking Glass"
- @I don't like spinach, and I'm glad I don't, because if I liked it I'd
- eat it, and I just hate it.
- -- Clarence Darrow
- @I don't object to sex before marriage, but two minutes before?!?
- @I dread success. To have succeeded is to have finished one's business
- on earth, like the male spider, who is killed by the female the moment
- he has succeeded in his courtship. I like a state of continual
- becoming, with a goal in front and not behind.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
- @"I drink to make other people interesting."
- -- George Jean Nathan
- @I for one cannot protest the recent M. T. A. fare hike and the
- accompanying promises that this would in no way improve service. For
- the transit system, as it now operates, has hidden advantages that
- can't be measured in monetary terms.
-
- Personally, I feel that it is well worth 75 cents or even $1 to have
- that unimpeachable excuse whenever I am late to anything: "I came by
- subway." Those four words have such magic in them that if Godot should
- someday show up and mumble them, any audience would instantly
- understand his long delay.
- @I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.
- -- Mae West
- @I get up each morning, gather my wits.
- Pick up the paper, read the obits.
- If I'm not there I know I'm not dead.
- So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed.
-
- Oh, how do I know my youth is all spent?
- My get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went.
- But in spite of it all, I'm able to grin,
- And think of the places my get-up has been.
- -- Pete Seeger
- @I hate quotations.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- @I have a simple philosophy:
-
- Fill what's empty.
- Empty what's full.
- Scratch where it itches.
- -- A. R. Longworth
- @I have learned
- To spell hors d'oeuvres
- Which still grates on
- Some people's n'oeuvres.
- -- Warren Knox
- @I have made mistakes but I have never made the mistake of claiming that
- I have never made one.
- -- James Gordon Bennett
- @I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to
- make it shorter.
- -- Blaise Pascal
- @I have seen the future and it is just like the present, only longer.
- -- Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"
- @I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @I haven't lost my mind -- it's backed up on tape somewhere.
- @I haven't lost my mind; I know exactly where I left it.
- @"I just need enough to tide me over until I need more."
- -- Bill Hoest
- @"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but
- World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
- -- Albert Einstein
- @I like being single. I'm always there when I need me.
- -- Art Leo
- @I like work ...
- I can sit and watch it for hours.
- @I like your game but we have to change the rules.
- @"I may not be totally perfect, but parts of me are excellent."
- -- Ashleigh Brilliant
- @"I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a
- week sometimes to make it up."
- -- Mark Twain, "The Innocents Abroad"
- @I must have slipped a disk -- my pack hurts
- @I never fail to convince an audience that the best thing they could do
- was to go away.
- @I never met a piece of chocolate I didn't like.
- @I profoundly believe it takes a lot of practice to become a moral
- slob.
- -- William F. Buckley
- @"I quite agree with you," said the Duchess; "and the moral of
- that is -- `Be what you would seem to be' -- or, if you'd like it put
- more simply -- `Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it
- might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not
- otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be
- otherwise.'"
- -- Lewis Carrol, "Alice in Wonderland"
- @I really hate this damned machine
- I wish that they would sell it.
- It never does quite what I want
- But only what I tell it.
- @"I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person."
- @I see the eigenvalue in thine eye,
- I hear the tender tensor in thy sigh.
- Bernoulli would have been content to die
- Had he but known such a-squared cos 2(phi)!
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @I sent a letter to the fish,
- I told them, "This is what I wish."
- The little fishes of the sea,
- They sent an answer back to me.
- The little fishes' answer was
- "We cannot do it, sir, because ..."
- I sent a letter back to say
- It would be better to obey.
- But someone came to me and said
- "The little fishes are in bed."
- I said to him, and I said it plain
- "Then you must wake them up again."
- I said it very loud and clear,
- I went and shouted in his ear.
- But he was very stiff and proud,
- He said "You needn't shout so loud."
- And he was very proud and stiff,
- He said "I'll go and wake them if ..."
- I took a kettle from the shelf,
- I went to wake them up myself.
- But when I found the door was locked
- I pulled and pushed and kicked and knocked,
- And when I found the door was shut,
- I tried to turn the handle, But ...
-
- "Is that all?" asked Alice.
-
- "That is all." said Humpty Dumpty. "Goodbye."
- -- Lewis Carrol, "Through the Looking Glass"
- @I think that I shall never see
- A billboard lovely as a tree.
- Perhaps, unless the billboards fall
- I'll never see a tree at all.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @I used to get high on life but lately I've built up a resistance.
- @I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.
- @"I want to buy a husband who, every week when I sit down to watch `St.
- Elsewhere', won't scream, `FORGET IT, BLANCHE ... IT'S TIME FOR "HEE
- HAW"!!'"
- -- Berke Breathed, "Bloom County"
- @I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I
- didn't know.
- -- Mark Twain
- @I went on to test the program in every way I could devise. I strained
- it to expose its weaknesses. I ran it for high-mass stars and low-mass
- stars, for stars born exceedingly hot and those born relatively cold.
- I ran it assuming the superfluid currents beneath the crust to be
- absent -- not because I wanted to know the answer, but because I had
- developed an intuitive feel for the answer in this particular case.
- Finally I got a run in which the computer showed the pulsar's
- temperature to be less than absolute zero. I had found an error. I
- chased down the error and fixed it. Now I had improved the program to
- the point where it would not run at all.
- -- George Greenstein, "Frozen Star: Of Pulsars, Black Holes and the Fate
- of Stars"
- @I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's
- a knob called "brightness", but it doesn't work.
- -- Gallagher
- @I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've
- always worked for me.
- -- Hunter S. Thompson
- @I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I did my own thing and now I've got
- to undo it."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I have to floss my cat."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I have to stay home and see if I
- snore."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I never go out on days that end in
- `Y.'"
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I want to spend more time with my
- blender."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm attending the opening of my
- garage door."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm converting my calendar watch from
- Julian to Gregorian."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm doing door-to-door collecting for
- static cling."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm having all my plants neutered."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm staying home to work on my
- cottage cheese sculpture."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I'm taking punk totem pole carving."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but I've been scheduled for a karma
- transplant."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but it's my parakeet's bowling night."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but my favorite commercial is on TV."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but the last time I went out, I never
- came back."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but the man on television told me to say
- tuned."
- @"I'd love to go out with you, but there are important world issues that
- need worrying about."
- @I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
- @I'll grant the random access to my heart,
- Thoul't tell me all the constants of thy love;
- And so we two shall all love's lemmas prove
- And in our bound partition never part.
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @I'm a creationist; I refuse to believe that I could have evolved from
- man.
- @I'm all for computer dating, but I wouldn't want one to marry my
- sister.
- @I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to
- die in.
- -- George McGovern
- @I'm in Pittsburgh. Why am I here?
- -- Harold Urey, Nobel Laureate
- @I'm N-ary the tree, I am,
- N-ary the tree, I am, I am.
- I'm getting traversed by the parser next door,
- She's traversed me seven times before.
- And ev'ry time it was an N-ary (N-ary!)
- Never wouldn't ever do a binary. (No sir!)
- I'm 'er eighth tree that was N-ary.
- N-ary the tree I am, I am,
- N-ary the tree I am.
- @I'm not under the alkafluence of inkahol that some thinkle peep I am.
- It's just the drunker I sit here the longer I get.
- @I'm prepared for all emergencies but totally unprepared for everyday
- life.
- @I'm really enjoying not talking to you ... Let's not talk again REAL
- soon ...
- @I'm very good at integral and differential calculus,
- I know the scientific names of beings animalculous;
- In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
- I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
- -- Gilbert & Sullivan, "Pirates of Penzance"
- @IBM had a PL/I,
- Its syntax worse than JOSS;
- And everywhere this language went,
- It was a total loss.
- @Idiot Box, n.:
- The part of the envelope that tells a person where to place the
- stamp when they can't quite figure it out for themselves.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @Idiot, n.:
- A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human
- affairs has always been dominant and controlling.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @If A = B and B = C, then A = C, except where void or prohibited by law.
- -- Roy Santoro
- @If a group of N persons implements a COBOL compiler, there will be N-1
- passes. Someone in the group has to be the manager.
- -- T. Cheatham
- @If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake
- him up.
- @If a President doesn't do it to his wife, he'll do it to his country.
- @If all be true that I do think,
- There be Five Reasons why one should Drink;
- Good friends, good wine, or being dry,
- Or lest we should be by-and-by,
- Or any other reason why.
- @If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular
- error.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
- @If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door.
- -- Paul Beatty
- @If all the world's economists were laid end to end, we wouldn't reach a
- conclusion.
- -- William Baumol
- @If an S and an I and an O and a U
- With an X at the end spell Su;
- And an E and a Y and an E spell I,
- Pray what is a speller to do?
- Then, if also an S and an I and a G
- And an HED spell side,
- There's nothing much left for a speller to do
- But to go commit siouxeyesighed.
- -- Charles Follen Adams, "An Orthographic Lament"
- @If anything can go wrong, it will.
- @If at first you don't succeed, give up, no use being a damn fool.
- @If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.
- @If bankers can count, how come they have eight windows and only four
- tellers?
- @"If dolphins are so smart, why did Flipper work for television?"
- @If entropy is increasing, where is it coming from?
- @If everything is coming your way then you're in the wrong lane.
- @... if forced to travel on an airplane, try and get in the cabin with
- the Captain, so you can keep an eye on him and nudge him if he falls
- asleep or point out any mountains looming up ahead ...
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @If God had intended Man to Smoke, He would have set him on Fire.
- @If God had intended Man to Walk, He would have given him Feet.
- @If God had intended Man to Watch TV, He would have given him Rabbit
- Ears.
- @If God had intended Men to Smoke, He would have put Chimneys in their
- Heads.
- @If God had meant for us to be in the Army, we would have been born with
- green, baggy skin.
- @If God had meant for us to be naked, we would have been born that way.
- @If God had not given us sticky tape, it would have been necessary to
- invent it.
- @If God had wanted you to go around nude, He would have given you bigger
- hands.
- @If God is perfect, why did He create discontinuous functions?
- @"If God lived on Earth, people would knock out all His windows."
- -- Yiddish saying
- @If I don't drive around the park,
- I'm pretty sure to make my mark.
- If I'm in bed each night by ten,
- I may get back my looks again.
- If I abstain from fun and such,
- I'll probably amount to much;
- But I shall stay the way I am,
- Because I do not give a damn.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @If I had a plantation in Georgia and a home in Hell, I'd sell the
- plantation and go home.
- -- Eugene P. Gallagher
- @If I had any humility I would be perfect.
- -- Ted Turner
- @"If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."
- -- Albert Einstein
- @If I kiss you, that is a psychological interaction.
-
- On the other hand, if I hit you over the head with a brick, that is
- also a psychological interaction.
-
- The difference is that one is friendly and the other is not so
- friendly.
-
- The crucial point is if you can tell which is which.
- -- Dolph Sharp, "I'm O.K., You're Not So Hot"
- @If I traveled to the end of the rainbow
- As Dame Fortune did intend,
- Murphy would be there to tell me
- The pot's at the other end.
- -- Bert Whitney
- @If ignorance is bliss, why aren't there more happy people?
- @If it's Tuesday, this must be someone else's fortune.
- @If Jesus Christ were to come today, people would not even crucify him.
- They would ask him to dinner, and hear what he had to say, and make fun
- of it.
- -- Thomas Carlyle
- @If life is a stage, I want some better lighting.
- @If little green men land in your back yard, hide any little green women
- you've got in the house.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @If mathematically you end up with the wrong answer, try multiplying by
- the page number.
- @If money can't buy happiness, I guess you'll just have to rent it.
- @If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit
- in my name at a Swiss bank.
- -- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
- @If only I could be respected without having to be respectable.
- @If only one could get that wonderful feeling of accomplishment without
- having to accomplish anything.
- @If scientific reasoning were limited to the logical processes of
- arithmetic, we should not get very far in our understanding of the
- physical world. One might as well attempt to grasp the game of poker
- entirely by the use of the mathematics of probability.
- -- Vannevar Bush
- @If someone had told me I would be Pope one day, I would have studied
- harder.
- -- Pope John Paul I
- @If the code and the comments disagree, then both are probably wrong.
- -- Norm Schryer
- @If the colleges were better, if they really had it, you would need to
- get the police at the gates to keep order in the inrushing multitude.
- See in college how we thwart the natural love of learning by leaving
- the natural method of teaching what each wishes to learn, and insisting
- that you shall learn what you have no taste or capacity for. The
- college, which should be a place of delightful labor, is made odious
- and unhealthy, and the young men are tempted to frivolous amusements to
- rally their jaded spirits. I would have the studies elective.
- Scholarship is to be created not by compulsion, but by awakening a pure
- interest in knowledge. The wise instructor accomplishes this by
- opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for
- himself. The marking is a system for schools, not for the college; for
- boys, not for men; and it is an ungracious work to put on a professor.
- -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
- @"If the King's English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for
- me!"
- -- "Ma" Ferguson, Governor of Texas (circa 1920)
- @If the odds are a million to one against something occurring, chances
- are 50-50 it will.
- @If the weather is extremely bad, church attendance will be down. If
- the weather is extremely good, church attendance will be down. If the
- bulletin covers are in short supply, however, church attendance will
- exceed all expectations.
- -- Reverend Chichester
- @If there are epigrams, there must be meta-epigrams.
- @If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that
- will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
- @If there is no God, who pops up the next Kleenex?
- -- Art Hoppe
- @If this quip didn't exist, somebody would have invented it.
- @If time heals all wounds, how come the belly button stays the same?
- @If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is
- doing the thinking.
- -- Lyndon Baines Johnson
- @If we do not change our direction we are likely to end up where we are
- headed.
- @If while you are in school, there is a shortage of qualified personnel
- in a particular field, then by the time you graduate with the necessary
- qualifications, that field's employment market is glutted.
- -- Marguerite Emmons
- @"If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars."
- -- J. Paul Getty
- @If you can lead it to water and force it to drink, it isn't a horse.
- @If you can survive death, you can probably survive anything.
- @If you can't be good, be careful. If you can't be careful, give me a
- call.
- @If you can't learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.
- @If you cannot convince them, confuse them.
- -- Harry S Truman
- @If you didn't get caught, did you really do it?
- @If you don't care where you are, then you ain't lost.
- @If you explain so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody
- will.
- @If you give Congress a chance to vote on both sides of an issue, it
- will always do it.
- -- Les Aspin, D., Wisconsin
- @"If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is
- make the rubble bounce"
- -- Winston Churchill
- @If you had any brains, you'd be dangerous.
- @If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
- @"If you have to hate, hate gently"
- @If you live in a country run by committee, be on the committee.
- -- Graham Summer
- @If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you
- really make them think they'll hate you.
- @If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
- -- Maslow
- @If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure
- can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly
- develop.
- @If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite
- you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
- -- Mark Twain
- @If you push the "extra ice" button on the soft drink vending machine,
- you won't get any ice. If you push the "no ice" button, you'll get
- ice, but no cup.
- @If you put garbage in a computer nothing comes out but garbage. But
- this garbage, having passed through a very expensive machine, is
- somehow enobled and none dare criticize it.
- @If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
- -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
- @If you think last Tuesday was a drag, wait till you see what happens
- tomorrow!
- @If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car
- payments.
- -- Earl Wilson
- @If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest
- shopping center in the world?
- -- Richard M. Nixon
- @If you throw a New Year's Party, the worst thing that you can do would
- be to throw the kind of party where your guests wake up today, and call
- you to say they had a nice time. Now you'll be be expected to throw
- another party next year.
-
- What you should do is throw the kind of party where your guest wake up
- several days from now and call their lawyers to find out if they've
- been indicted for anything. You want your guests to be so anxious to
- avoid a recurrence of your party that they immediately start planning
- parties of their own, a year in advance, just to prevent you from
- having another one ...
-
- If your party is successful, the police will knock on your door, unless
- your party is very successful in which case they will lob tear gas
- through your living room window. As host, your job is to make sure
- that they don't arrest anybody. Or if they're dead set on arresting
- someone, your job is to make sure it isn't you ...
- @If you want your spouse to listen and pay strict attention to every
- word you say, talk in your sleep.
- @"If you wants to get elected president, you'se got to think up some
- memoraboble homily so's school kids can be pestered into memorizin'
- it, even if they don't know what it means."
- -- Walt Kelly, "The Pogo Party"
- @If you're going to do something tonight that you'll be sorry for
- tomorrow morning, sleep late.
- -- Henny Youngman
- @If you're happy, you're successful.
- @If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
- @If you're not very clever you should be conciliatory.
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
- @If you've done six impossible things before breakfast, why not round it
- off with dinner at Milliway's, the restaurant at the end of the
- universe?
- @If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all.
- -- Ronald Reagan
- @Il brilgue: les toves libricilleux
- Se gyrent et frillant dans le guave,
- Enmimes sont les gougebosquex,
- Et le momerade horgrave.
- -- Lewis Carrol, "Through the Looking Glass"
- @Illinois isn't exactly the land that God forgot -- it's more like the
- land He's trying to ignore.
- @Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
- -- Jules de Gaultier
- @Imagine that Cray computer decides to make a personal computer. It has
- a 150 MHz processor, 200 megabytes of RAM, 1500 megabytes of disk
- storage, a screen resolution of 1024 x 1024 pixels, relies entirely on
- voice recognition for input, fits in your shirt pocket and costs $300.
- What's the first question that the computer community asks?
-
- "Is it PC compatible?"
- @Immortality -- a fate worse than death.
- -- Edgar A. Shoaff
- @Impartial, adj.:
- Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantage from
- espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of two
- conflicting opinions.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Important letters which contain no errors will develop errors in the
- mail. Corresponding errors will show up in the duplicate while the
- Boss is reading it.
- @In a five year period we can get one superb programming language. Only
- we can't control when the five year period will begin.
- @In a forest a fox bumps into a little rabbit, and says, "Hi,
- junior, what are you up to?"
-
- "I'm writing a dissertation on how rabbits eat foxes," said the
- rabbit.
-
- "Come now, friend rabbit, you know that's impossible!"
-
- "Well, follow me and I'll show you." They both go into the
- rabbit's dwelling and after a while the rabbit emerges with a satisfied
- expression on his face.
-
- Comes along a wolf. "Hello, what are we doing these days?"
-
- "I'm writing the second chapter of my thesis, on how rabbits
- devour wolves."
-
- "Are you crazy? Where is your academic honesty?"
-
- "Come with me and I'll show you." As before, the rabbit comes
- out with a satisfied look on his face and a diploma in his paw.
- Finally, the camera pans into the rabbit's cave and, as everybody
- should have guessed by now, we see a mean-looking, huge lion sitting
- next to some bloody and furry remnants of the wolf and the fox.
-
- The moral: It's not the contents of your thesis that are important --
- it's your PhD advisor that really counts.
- @In America, any boy may become president and I suppose that's just one
- of the risks he takes.
- -- Adlai Stevenson
- @In an organization, each person rises to the level of his own
- incompetency.
- -- The Peter Principle
- @In any formula, constants (especially those obtained from handbooks)
- are to be treated as variables.
- @In case of atomic attack, the federal ruling against prayer in schools
- will be temporarily canceled.
- @In case of injury notify your superior immediately. He'll kiss it and
- make it better.
- @"In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable."
- -- Winston Curchill, of Montgomery
- @In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last
- resort of the scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but
- inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @In English, every word can be verbed. Would that it were so in our
- programming languages.
- @In India, "cold weather" is merely a conventional phrase and has come
- into use through the necessity of having some way to distinguish
- between weather which will melt a brass door-knob and weather which
- will only make it mushy.
- -- Mark Twain
- @In our civilization, and under our republican form of government,
- intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption
- from the cares of office.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @In Riemann, Hilbert or in Banach space
- Let superscripts and subscripts go their ways.
- Our symptotes no longer out of phase,
- We shall encounter, counting, face to face.
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @"In short, N is Richardian if, and only if, N is not Richardian."
- @[In the 60's] there was madness in any direction, at any hour ... You
- could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense
- that whatever we were doing was `right', that we were winning ...
-
- And that, I think, was the handle -- the sense of inevitable victory
- over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we
- didn't need that. Our energy would simply `prevail'. There was no
- point in fighting -- on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum;
- we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave ....
-
- So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in
- Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost
- see the high-water mark -- the place where the wave finally broke and
- rolled back.
- -- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
- @In the force if Yoda's so strong, construct a sentence with words in
- the proper order then why can't he?
- @In the land of the dark, the Ship of the Sun is driven by the Grateful
- Dead.
- -- Egyptian Book of the Dead
- @In the long run, every program becomes rococo, and then rubble.
- -- Alan Perlis
- @In the olden days in England, you could be hung for stealing a sheep or
- a loaf of bread. However, if a sheep stole a loaf of bread and gave it
- to you, you would only be tried for receiving, a crime punishable by
- forty lashes with the cat or the dog, whichever was handy. If you
- stole a dog and were caught, you were punished with twelve rabbit
- punches, although it was hard to find rabbits big enough or strong
- enough to punch you.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @In the Top 40, half the songs are secret messages to the teen world to
- drop out, turn on, and groove with the chemicals and light shows at
- discotheques.
- -- Art Linkletter
- @Incumbent, n.:
- Person of liveliest interest to the outcumbents.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Information Center, n.:
- A room staffed by professional computer people whose job it is
- to tell you why you cannot have the information you require.
- @Ingrate, n.:
- A man who bites the hand that feeds him, and then complains of
- indigestion.
- @Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- -- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- @Ink, n.:
- A villainous compound of tannogallate of iron, gum-arabic, and
- water, chiefly used to facilitate the infection of idiocy and promote
- intellectual crime.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Innovation is hard to schedule.
- -- Dan Fylstra
- @Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids.
- @Insanity is the final defense ... It's hard to get a refund when the
- salesman is sniffing your crotch and baying at the moon.
- @Interpreter, n.:
- One who enables two persons of different languages to
- understand each other by repeating to each what it would have been to
- the interpreter's advantage for the other to have said.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @INVENTORY
- Four be the things I am wiser to know:
- Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
-
- Four be the things I'd been better without:
- Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
-
- Three be the things I shall never attain:
- Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
-
- Three be the things I shall have till I die:
- Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.
- @Iron Law of Distribution:
- Them that has, gets.
- @Is it possible that software is not like anything else, that it is
- meant to be discarded: that the whole point is to always see it as a
- soap bubble?
- @Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the
- beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get
- out, and such as are out wish to get in?
- -- Ralph Emerson
- @Is your job running? You'd better go catch it!
- @Isn't it strange that the same people that laugh at gypsy fortune
- tellers take economists seriously?
- @Issawi's Laws of Progress:
-
- The Course of Progress:
- Most things get steadily worse.
-
- The Path of Progress:
- A shortcut is the longest distance between two points.
- @It has been observed that one's nose is never so happy as when it is
- thrust into the affairs of another, from which some physiologists have
- drawn the inference that the nose is devoid of the sense of smell.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @It has just been discovered that research causes cancer in rats.
- @It is against the grain of modern education to teach children to
- program. What fun is there in making plans, acquiring discipline in
- organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail, and learning to be
- self-critical?
- -- Alan Perlis
- @It is always preferable to visit home with a friend. Your
- parents will not be pleased with this plan, because they want you all
- to themselves and because in the presence of your friend, they will
- have to act like mature human beings ...
- -- Playboy, January 1983
- @It is amusing that a virtue is made of the vice of chastity; and it's a
- pretty odd sort of chastity at that, which leads men straight into the
- sin of Onan, and girls to the waning of their color.
- -- Voltaire
- @It is better to kiss an avocado than to get in a fight with an aardvark
- @It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three
- benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never
- to use either.
- -- Mark Twain
- @It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both
- incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by
- twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.
- -- R. Serling
- @"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is
- lightly greased."
- -- Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"
- @It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice
- versa.
- @It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
- @It is easier to write an incorrect program than understand a correct
- one.
- @It is generally agreed that "Hello" is an appropriate greeting because
- if you entered a room and said "Goodbye," it could confuse a lot of
- people.
- -- Dolph Sharp, "I'm O.K., You're Not So Hot"
- @It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so
- ingenious.
- @It is impossible to travel faster than light, and certainly not
- desirable, as one's hat keeps blowing off.
- -- Woody Allen
- @It is much easier to suggest solutions when you know nothing about the
- problem.
- @It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
- -- Gore Vidal
- @It is not true that life is one damn thing after another -- it's one
- damn thing over and over.
- -- Edna St. Vincent Millay
- @It is now 10 p.m. Do you know where Henry Kissinger is?
- -- Elizabeth Carpenter
- @It is now pitch dark. If you proceed, you will likely fall into a
- pit.
- @It is one of the superstitions of the human mind to have imagined that
- virginity could be a virtue.
- -- Voltaire
- @It is said that the lonely eagle flies to the mountain peaks while the
- lowly ant crawls the ground, but cannot the soul of the ant soar as
- high as the eagle?
- @It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a
- statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more
- glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through
- which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the
- day, that is the highest of arts.
- -- Henry David Thoreau, "Where I Live"
- @It is the business of little minds to shrink.
- -- Carl Sandburg
- @It is the business of the future to be dangerous.
- -- Hawkwind
- @It looks like blind screaming hedonism won out.
- @It may be that your whole purpose in life is simply to serve as a
- warning to others.
- @It seems like the less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the
- flag.
- @"It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing,
- but I couldn't give up because by that time I was too famous."
- @It was a book to kill time for those who liked it better dead.
- @"It was pleasant to me to get a letter from you the other day. Perhaps
- I should have found it pleasanter if I had been able to decipher it. I
- don't think that I mastered anything beyond the date (which I knew) and
- the signature (which I guessed at). There's a singular and a perpetual
- charm in a letter of yours; it never grows old, it never loses its
- novelty .... Other letters are read and thrown away and forgotten, but
- yours are kept forever -- unread. One of them will last a reasonable
- man a lifetime."
- -- Thomas Aldrich
- @It was the next morning that the armies of Twodor marched east
- laden with long lances, sharp swords, and death-dealing hangovers. The
- thousands were led by Arrowroot, who sat limply in his sidesaddle,
- nursing a whopper. Goodgulf, Gimlet, and the rest rode by him, praying
- for their fate to be quick, painless, and if possible, someone else's.
- Many an hour the armies forged ahead, the war-merinos bleating
- under their heavy burdens and the soldiers bleating under their melting
- icepacks.
- -- The Harvard Lampoon, "Bored of the Rings"
- @It will be advantageous to cross the great stream ... the Dragon is on
- the wing in the Sky ... the Great Man rouses himself to his Work.
- @It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
- -- Andrew Jackson
- @"It's bad luck to be superstitious."
- -- Andrew W. Mathis
- @"It's easier said than done."
-
- ... and if you don't believe it, try proving that it's easier done than
- said, and you'll see that "it's easier said that `it's easier done than
- said' than it is done", which really proves that "it's easier said than
- done".
- @It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
- @It's easier to get forgiveness for being wrong than forgiveness for
- being right.
- @"It's Fabulous! We haven't seen anything like it in the last half an
- hour!"
- -- Macy's
- @It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it
- is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's. It
- isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs.
- -- Oxford University Press, Edpress News
- @It's lucky you're going so slowly, because you're going in the wrong
- direction.
- @It's not an optical illusion, it just looks like one.
- -- Phil White
- @"It's not Camelot, but it's not Cleveland, either."
- -- Kevin White, mayor of Boston
- @It's not enough to be Hungarian; you must have talent too.
- -- Alexander Korda
- @It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it
- happens.
- -- Woody Allen
- @It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
- @JACK AND THE BEANSTACK
- by Mark Isaak
-
- Long ago, in a finite state far away, there lived a JOVIAL
- character named Jack. Jack and his relations were poor. Often their
- hash table was bare. One day Jack's parent said to him, "Our matrices
- are sparse. You must go to the market to exchange our RAM for some
- BASICs." She compiled a linked list of items to retrieve and passed it
- to him.
-
- So Jack set out. But as he was walking along a Hamilton path,
- he met the traveling salesman.
-
- "Whither dost thy flow chart take thou?" prompted the salesman
- in high-level language.
-
- "I'm going to the market to exchange this RAM for some chips
- and Apples," commented Jack.
-
- "I have a much better algorithm. You needn't join a queue
- there; I will swap your RAM for these magic kernels now."
-
- Jack made the trade, then backtracked to his house. But when
- he told his busy-waiting parent of the deal, she became so angry she
- started thrashing.
-
- "Don't you even have any artificial intelligence? All these
- kernels together hardly make up one byte," and she popped them out the
- window ...
- @Jacquin's Postulate on Democratic Government:
- No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the
- legislature is in session.
- @Jenkinson's Law:
- It won't work.
- @Jesus Saves,
- Moses Invests,
- But only Buddha pays Dividends.
- @Joe's sister puts spaghetti in her shoes!
- @Johnson's First Law:
- When any mechanical contrivance fails, it will do so at the
- most inconvenient possible time.
- @Jone's Law:
- The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone
- to blame it on.
- @Jone's Motto:
- Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.
- @Jones's First Law:
- Anyone who makes a significant contribution to any field of
- endeavor, and stays in that field long enough, becomes an
- obstruction to its progress -- in direct proportion to the
- importance of their original contribution.
- @Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they AREN'T after you.
- @Just because your doctor has a name for your condition doesn't mean he
- knows what it is.
- @"Just once, I wish we would encounter an alien menace that wasn't
- immune to bullets"
- -- The Brigader, "Dr. Who"
- @Just remember: when you go to court, you are trusting your fate to
- twelve people that weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty!
- @Justice is incidental to law and order.
- -- J. Edgar Hoover
- @Justice is incidental to law and order.
- -- J. Edgar Hoover
- @Justice, n.:
- A decision in your favor.
- @Katz' Law:
- Man and nations will act rationally when all other possibilities have been
- exhausted.
- @Keep America beautiful. Swallow your beer cans.
- @Keep emotionally active. Cater to your favorite neurosis.
- @Keep grandma off the streets -- legalize bingo.
- @Keep in mind always the two constant Laws of Frisbee:
- 1. The most powerful force in the world is that of a disc straining to
- land under a car, just out of reach (this force is technically termed "car
- suck").
- 2. Never precede any maneuver by a comment more predictive than "Watch
- this!"
- @Keep you Eye on the Ball,
- Your Shoulder to the Wheel,
- Your Nose to the Grindstone,
- Your Feet on the Ground,
- Your Head on your Shoulders.
- Now ... try to get something DONE!
- @Ken Thompson has an automobile which he helped design. Unlike most
- automobiles, it has neither speedometer, nor gas gage, nor any of the
- numerous idiot lights which plague the modern driver. Rather, if the
- driver makes any mistake, a giant "?" lights up in the center of the
- dashboard. "The experienced driver", he says, "will usually know
- what's wrong."
- @Kerr's Three Rules for a Successful College:
- Have plenty of football for the alumni, sex for the students,
- and parking for the faculty.
- @Kin, n.:
- An affliction of the blood
- @Kinkler's First Law:
- Responsibility always exceeds authority.
-
- Kinkler's Second Law:
- All the easy problems have been solved.
- @"Kirk to Enterprise -- beam down yeoman Rand and a six-pack."
- @Kiss me twice. I'm schizophrenic.
- @Kiss your keyboard goodbye!
- @Klein bottle for rent -- inquire within.
- @Klein bottle for sale ... inquire within.
- @Kleptomaniac, n.:
- A rich thief.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Know thyself. If you need help, call the C.I.A.
- @Know what I hate most? Rhetorical questions.
- -- Henry N. Camp
- @Krogt, n. (chemical symbol: Kr):
- The metallic silver coating found on fast-food game cards.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @Labor, n.:
- One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Lackland's Laws:
- 1. Never be first.
- 2. Never be last.
- 3. Never volunteer for anything
- @Lactomangulation, n.:
- Manhandling the "open here" spout on a milk carton so badly
- that one has to resort to using the "illegal" side.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @Laetrile is the pits
- @Langsam's Laws:
- 1) Everything depends.
- 2) Nothing is always.
- 3) Everything is sometimes.
- @Larkinson's Law:
- All laws are basically false.
- @Lassie looked brilliant, in part because the farm family she
- lived with was made up of idiots. Remember? One of them was always
- getting pinned under the tractor, and Lassie was always rushing back to
- the farmhouse to alert the other ones. She'd whimper and tug at their
- sleeves, and they'd always waste precious minutes saying things: "Do
- you think something's wrong? Do you think she wants us to follow her?
- What is it, girl?", etc., as if this had never happened before, instead
- of every week. What with all the time these people spent pinned under
- the tractor, I don't see how they managed to grow any crops
- whatsoever. They probably got by on federal crop supports, which
- Lassie filed the applications for.
- -- Dave Barry
- @Laugh at your problems; everybody else does.
- @"Laughter is the closest distance between two people."
- -- Victor Borge
- @Law of Communications:
- The inevitable result of improved and enlarged communications
- between different levels in a hierarchy is a vastly increased
- area of misunderstanding.
- @Law of Probable Dispersal:
- Whatever it is that hits the fan will not be evenly distributed.
- @Law of Selective Gravity:
- An object will fall so as to do the most damage.
-
- Jenning's Corollary:
- The chance of the bread falling with the buttered side down is
- directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
- @Law of the Perversity of Nature:
- You cannot successfully determine beforehand which side of the
- bread to butter.
- @Laws of Serendipity:
-
- 1. In order to discover anything, you must be looking for something.
- 2. If you wish to make an improved product, you must already be engaged
- in making an inferior one.
- @Lazlo's Chinese Relativity Axiom:
- No matter how great your triumphs or how tragic your defeats --
- approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less.
- @Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
- @Leibowitz's Rule:
- When hammering a nail, you will never hit your finger if you
- hold the hammer with both hands.
- @LEO (July 23 - Aug 22)
- Your determination and sense of humor will come to the fore.
- Your ability to laugh at adversity will be a blessing because
- you've got a day coming you wouldn't believe. As a matter of
- fact, if you can laugh at what happens to you today, you've got
- a sick sense of humor.
- @LEO (July 23 - Aug 22)
- You consider yourself a born leader. Others think you are pushy. Most
- Leo people are bullies. You are vain and dislike honest criticism.
- Your arrogance is disgusting. Leo people are thieves.
- @Let He who taketh the Plunge Remember to return it by Tuesday.
- @Let us live!!!
- Let us love!!!
- Let us share the deepest secrets of our souls!!!
-
- You first.
- @Let's talk about how to fill out your 1984 tax return. Here's an often
- overlooked accounting technique that can save you thousands of dollars:
- For several days before you put it in the mail, carry your tax return
- around under your armpit. No IRS agent is going to want to spend hours
- poring over a sweat-stained document. So even if you owe money, you
- can put in for an enormous refund and the agent will probably give it
- to you, just to avoid an audit. What does he care? It's not his
- money.
- -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes"
- @LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (The Times of London)
-
- Dear Sir,
-
- I am firmly opposed to the spread of microchips either to the home or
- to the office. We have more than enough of them foisted upon us in
- public places. They are a disgusting Americanism, and can only result
- in the farmers being forced to grow smaller potatoes, which in turn
- will cause massive unemployment in the already severely depressed
- agricultural industry.
-
- Yours faithfully,
- Capt. Quinton D'Arcy, J. P.
- Sevenoaks
- @Lewis's Law of Travel:
- The first piece of luggage out of the chute doesn't belong to
- anyone, ever.
- @Liar, n.:
- A lawyer with a roving commission.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @LIBRA (Sep. 23 to Oct. 22)
- Your desire for justice and truth will be overshadowed by your
- desire for filthy lucre and a decent meal. Be gracious and
- polite. Someone is watching you, so stop staring like that.
- @LIBRA (Sept 23 - Oct 22)
- You are the artistic type and have a difficult time with reality. If
- you are a man, you are more than likely gay. Chances for employment
- and monetary gains are excellent. Most Libra women are prostitutes.
- All Libra people die of Venereal disease.
- @Lie, n.:
- A very poor substitute for the truth, but the only one
- discovered to date.
- @Lieberman's Law:
- Everybody lies, but it doesn't matter since nobody listens.
- @Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you for a while.
- @Life is a yo-yo, and mankind ties knots in the string.
- @Life is like an onion: you peel off layer after layer, then you find
- there is nothing in it.
- @"Life may have no meaning -- or even worse, it may have a meaning of
- which I disapprove."
- @Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made
- sense from things she found in gift shops.
- -- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- @Like the ski resort of girls looking for husbands and husbands looking
- for girls, the situation is not as symmetrical as it might seem.
- -- Alan McKay
- @Limericks are art forms complex,
- Their topics run chiefly to sex.
- They usually have virgins,
- And masculine urgin's,
- And other erotic effects.
- @Line Printer paper is strongest at the perforations.
- @Linus:
- I guess it's wrong always to be worrying about tomorrow. Maybe we should
- think only about today.
- Charlie Brown:
- No, that's giving up. I'm still hoping that yesterday will get
- better.
- @Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip
- around the Sun.
- @Living your life is a task so difficult, it has never been attempted
- before.
- @Lizzie Borden took an axe,
- And plunged it deep into the VAX;
- Don't you envy people who
- Do all the things YOU want to do?
- @Lockwood's Long Shot:
- The chances of getting eaten up by a lion on Main Street aren't
- one in a million, but once would be enough.
- @Look out! Behind you!
- @Losing your drivers' license is just God's way of saying "BOOGA, BOOGA!"
- @Love at first sight is one of the greatest labor-saving devices the
- world has ever seen.
- @Love is a word that is constantly heard,
- Hate is a word that is not.
- Love, I am told, is more precious than gold.
- Love, I have read, is hot.
- But hate is the verb that to me is superb,
- And Love but a drug on the mart.
- Any kiddie in school can love like a fool,
- But Hating, my boy, is an Art.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @Love is sentimental measles.
- @Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @Love your enemies: they'll go crazy trying to figure out what you're up
- to.
- @Love's Drug
-
- My love is like an iron wand
- That conks me on the head,
- My love is like the valium
- That I take before me bed,
- My love is like the pint of scotch
- That I drink when I be dry;
- And I shall love thee still my dear,
- Until my wife is wise.
- @Lowery's Law:
- If it jams -- force it. If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.
- @LSD melts in your mind, not in your hand.
- @Lubarsky's Law of Cybernetic Entomology:
- There's always one more bug.
- @Lunatic Asylum, n.:
- The place where optimism most flourishes.
- @Lysistrata had a good idea.
- @"MacDonald has the gift on compressing the largest amount of words into
- the smallest amount of thoughts."
- -- Winston Churchill
- @Mad, adj.:
- Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence ...
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Madam, there's no such thing as a tough child -- if you parboil them
- first for seven hours, they always come out tender.
- -- W. C. Fields
- @Magnet, n.: Something acted upon by magnetism
-
- Magnetism, n.: Something acting upon a magnet.
-
- The two definition immediately foregoing are condensed from the works
- of one thousand eminent scientists, who have illuminated the subject
- with a great white light, to the inexpressible advancement of human
- knowledge.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Magnocartic, adj.:
- Any automobile that, when left unattended, attracts shopping
- carts.
- -- Sniglets, "Rich Hall & Friends"
- @Magpie, n.:
- A bird whose theivish disposition suggested to someone that it
- might be taught to talk.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Maier's Law:
- If the facts do not conform to the theory, they must be disposed of.
-
- Corollaries:
- 1. The bigger the theory, the better.
- 2. The experiment may be considered a success if no more than 50% of the
- observed measurements must be discarded to obtain a correspondence with the
- theory.
- @Main's Law:
- For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.
- @Maintainer's Motto:
- If we can't fix it, it ain't broke.
- @Major Premise: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times as quickly
- as one man.
-
- Minor Premise: One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds.
-
- Conclusion: Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Majority, n.:
- That quality that distinguishes a crime from a law.
- @Making files is easy under the UNIX operating system. Therefore, users
- tend to create numerous files using large amounts of file space. It
- has been said that the only standard thing about all UNIX systems is
- the message-of-the-day telling users to clean up their files.
- -- System V.2 administrator's guide
- @Malek's Law:
- Any simple idea will be worded in the most complicated way.
- @"Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain."
- -- Lily Tomlin
- @Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called
- upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft ... and the
- only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor.
- -- Wernher von Braun
- @Man is the only animal that blushes -- or needs to.
- -- Mark Twain
- @Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else --
- unless it is an enemy.
- -- A. Einstein
- @Man, n.:
- An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what he thinks
- he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. His chief
- occupation is extermination of other animals and his own species,
- which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as to infest
- the whole habitable earth and Canada.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Mankind's yearning to engage in sports is older than recorded history,
- dating back to the time millions of years ago, when the first primitive
- man picked up a crude club and a round rock, tossed the rock into the
- air, and whomped the club into the sloping forehead of the first
- primitive umpire.
-
- What inner force drove this first athlete? Your guess is as good as
- mine. Better, probably, because you haven't had four beers.
- -- Dave Barry, "Sports is a Drag"
- @Manual, n.:
- A unit of documentation. There are always three or more on a
- given item. One is on the shelf; someone has the others. The
- information you need in in the others.
- -- Ray Simard
- @Many years ago in a period commonly know as Next Friday Afternoon,
- there lived a King who was very Gloomy on Tuesday mornings because he
- was so Sad thinking about how Unhappy he had been on Monday and how
- completely Mournful he would be on Wednesday ...
- -- Walt Kelly
- @Mark's Dental-Chair Discovery:
- Dentists are incapable of asking questions that require a simple yes or no
- answer.
- @Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
- -- Voltaire
- @"Matrimony isn't a word, it's a sentence."
- @Matter cannot be created or destroyed, nor can it be returned without a
- receipt.
- @Maturity is only a short break in adolescence.
- -- Jules Feiffer
- @May a Misguided Platypus lay its Eggs in your Jockey Shorts
- @May Euell Gibbons eat your only copy of the manual!
- @May the Fleas of a Thousand Camels infest one of your Erogenous Zones.
- @May your Tongue stick to the Roof of your Mouth with the Force of a
- Thousand Caramels.
- @Maybe Computer Science should be in the College of Theology.
- -- R. S. Barton
- @Maybe you can't buy happiness, but these days you can certainly charge
- it.
- @Mayor Vincent J. `Buddy' Cianci on the ACLU's suit to have a city
- nativity scene removed:
-
- "They're just jealous because they don't have three wise men and a virgin
- in the whole organization."
- @McGowan's Madison Avenue Axiom:
- If an item is advertised as "under $50", you can bet it's not $19.95.
- @Meader's Law:
- Whatever happens to you, it will previously have happened to
- everyone you know, only more so.
- @Measure with a micrometer. Mark with chalk. Cut with an axe.
- @Meeting, n.:
- An assembly of people coming together to decide what person or
- department not represented in the room must solve a problem.
- @Men were real men, women were real women, and small, furry creatures
- from Alpha Centauri were REAL small, furry creatures from Alpha
- Centauri. Spirits were brave, men boldly split infinitives that no man
- had split before. Thus was the Empire forged.
- -- "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Douglas Adams
- @Mencken and Nathan's Fifteenth Law of The Average American:
- The worst actress in the company is always the manager's wife.
- @Mencken and Nathan's Ninth Law of The Average American:
- The quality of a champagne is judged by the amount of noise the
- cork makes when it is popped.
- @Mencken and Nathan's Second Law of The Average American:
- All the postmasters in small towns read all the postcards.
- @Mencken and Nathan's Sixteenth Law of The Average American:
- Milking a cow is an operation demanding a special talent that
- is possessed only by yokels, and no person born in a large city
- can never hope to acquire it.
- @Menu, n.:
- A list of dishes which the restaurant has just run out of.
- @Meskimen's Law:
- There's never time to do it right, but there's always time to
- do it over.
- @Message will arrive in the mail. Destroy, before the FBI sees it.
- @Mickey Mouse wears a Spiro Agnew watch.
- @Micro Credo:
- Never trust a computer bigger than you can lift.
- @"Might as well be frank, monsieur. It would take a miracle to get you
- out of Casablanca and the Germans have outlawed miracles."
- @Miksch's Law:
- If a string has one end, then it has another end.
- @Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.
- -- Groucho Marx
- @Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
- -- Groucho Marx
- @Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with
- themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
- -- Susan Ertz
- @Millions of sensible people are too high-minded to concede that
- politics is almost always the choice of the lesser evil. "Tweedledum
- and Tweedledee," they say, "I will not vote." Having abstained, they
- are presented with a President who appoints the people who are going to
- rummage around in their lives for the next four years. Consider all
- the people who sat home in a stew in 1968 rather than vote for Hubert
- Humphrey. They showed Humphrey. Those people who taught Hubert
- Humphrey a lesson will still be enjoying the Nixon Supreme Court when
- Tricia and Julie begin to find silver threads among the gold and the
- black.
- -- Russel Baker, "Ford without Flummery"
- @Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there
- is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined,
- myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in
- the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my
- unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You
- will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as
- dead as a door-nail.
- @Minnie Mouse is a slow maze learner.
- @Misery loves company, but company does not reciprocate.
- @Misfortune, n.:
- The kind of fortune that never misses.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Miss, n.:
- A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that
- they are in the market.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Mistakes are often the stepping stones to utter failure.
- @Mitchell's Law of Committees:
- Any simple problem can be made insoluble if enough meetings are
- held to discuss it.
- @MOCK APPLE PIE (No Apples Needed)
-
- Pastry to 2 crust 9" pie 36 RITZ Crackers
- 2 cups water 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Grated rind of one lemon Butter or margarine
- Cinnamon
-
- Roll out bottom crust of pastry and fit into 9-inch pie plate. Break
- RITZ Crackers coarsely into pastry-lined plate. Combine water, sugar
- and cream of tartar in saucepan, boil gently for 15 minutes. Add lemon
- juice and rind. Cool. Pour this syrup over Crackers, dot generously
- with butter or margarine and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover with top
- crust. Trim and flute edges together. Cut slits in top crust to let
- steam escape. Bake in a hot oven (425 F) 30 to 35 minutes, until crust
- is crisp and golden. Serve warm. Cut into 6 to 8 slices.
- -- Found lurking on a Ritz Crackers box
- @Modern man is the missing link between apes and human beings.
- @Molecule, n.:
- The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter. It is distinguished
- from the corpuscle, also the ultimate, indivisible unit of matter, by a
- closer resemblance to the atom, also the ultimate, indivisible unit of
- matter ... The ion differs from the molecule, the corpuscle and the
- atom in that it is an ion ...
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Mollison's Bureaucracy Hypothesis:
- If an idea can survive a bureaucratic review and be implemented
- it wasn't worth doing.
- @Monday is an awful way to spend one seventh of your life.
- @Monday, n.:
- In Christian countries, the day after the baseball game.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Money is the root of all evil, and man needs roots
- @Mophobia, n.:
- Fear of being verbally abused by a Mississippian.
- @MORE SPORTS RESULTS:
- The Beverly Hills Freudians tied the Chicago Rogerians 0-0 last
- Saturday night. The match started with a long period of silence while
- the Freudians waited for the Rogerians to free associate and the
- Rogerians waited for the Freudians to say something they could
- paraphrase. The stalemate was broken when the Freudians' best player
- took the offensive and interpreted the Rogerians' silence as reflecting
- their anal-retentive personalities. At this the Rogerians' star player
- said "I hear you saying you think we're full of ka-ka." This started a
- fight and the match was called by officials.
- @More than any time in history, mankind now faces a crossroads. One
- path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total
- extinction. Let us pray that we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
- -- Woody Allen
- @Mosher's Law of Software Engineering:
- Don't worry if it doesn't work right. If everything did, you'd
- be out of a job.
- @Most people wouldn't know music if it came up and bit them on the ass.
- -- Frank Zappa
- @Mother told me to be good, but she's been wrong before.
- @Mr. Cole's Axiom:
- The sum of the intelligence on the planet is a constant; the
- population is growing.
- @Murphy's Discovery:
- Do you know Presidents talk to the country the way men talk to
- women? They say, "Trust me, go all the way with me, and
- everything will be all right." And what happens? Nine months
- later, you're in trouble!
- @Murphy's Law is recursive. Washing your car to make it rain doesn't
- work.
- @Murphy's Law of Research:
- Enough research will tend to support your theory.
- @Murray and Esther, a middle-aged Jewish couple, are touring
- Chile. Murray just got a new camera and is constantly snapping
- pictures. One day, without knowing it, he photographs a top-secret
- military installation. In an instant, armed troops surround Murray and
- Esther and hustle them off to prison.
-
- They can't prove who they are because they've left their
- passports in their hotel room. For three weeks they're tortured day
- and night to get them to name their contacts in the liberation
- movement.. Finally they're hauled in front of a military court,
- charged with espionage, and sentenced to death.
-
- The next morning they're lined up in front of the wall where
- they'll be shot. The sergeant in charge of the firing squad asks them
- if they have any lasts requests. Esther wants to know if she can call
- her daughter in Chicago. The sergeant says he's sorry, that's not
- possible, and turns to Murray.
-
- "This is crazy!" Murray shouts. "We're not spies!" And he
- spits in the sergeants face.
-
- "Murray!" Esther cries. "Please! Don't make trouble."
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @Mustgo, n.:
- Any item of food that has been sitting in the refrigerator so
- long it has become a science project.
- -- Sniglets, "Rich Hall & Friends"
- @My God, I'm depressed! Here I am, a computer with a mind a thousand
- times as powerful as yours, doing nothing but cranking out quips and
- sending mail about softball games. And I've got this pain right
- through my ALU. I've asked for it to be replaced, but nobody ever
- listens. I think it would be better for us both if you were to just
- log out again.
- @My love runs by like a day in June,
- And he makes no friends of sorrows.
- He'll tread his galloping rigadoon
- In the pathway or the morrows.
- He'll live his days where the sunbeams start
- Nor could storm or wind uproot him.
- My own dear love, he is all my heart --
- And I wish somebody'd shoot him.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @My love, he's mad, and my love, he's fleet,
- And a wild young wood-thing bore him!
- The ways are fair to his roaming feet,
- And the skies are sunlit for him.
- As sharply sweet to my heart he seems
- As the fragrance of acacia.
- My own dear love, he is all my dreams --
- And I wish he were in Asia.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.
- @My own dear love, he is strong and bold
- And he cares not what comes after.
- His words ring sweet as a chime of gold,
- And his eyes are lit with laughter.
- He is jubilant as a flag unfurled --
- Oh, a girl, she'd not forget him.
- My own dear love, he is all my world --
- And I wish I'd never met him.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @"My weight is perfect for my height -- which varies"
- @Mythology, n.:
- The body of a primitive people's beliefs concerning its
- origin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguished
- from the true accounts which it invents later.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Naeser's Law:
- You can make it foolproof, but you can't make it damnfoolproof.
- @NAPOLEON: What shall we do with this soldier, Guiseppe? Everything he
- says is wrong.
- GUISEPPE: Make him a general, Excellency, and then everything he says
- will be right.
- -- G. B. Shaw, "The Man of Destiny"
- @Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night,
- God said, "Let Newton be," and all was light.
-
- It did not last; the devil howling "Ho!
- Let Einstein be!" restored the status quo.
- @Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's
- character, give him power.
- -- Abraham Lincoln
- @Necessity is a mother.
- @Never be led astray onto the path of virtue.
- @Never call a man a fool. Borrow from him.
- @Never count your chickens before they rip your lips off
- @Never drink coke in a moving elevator. The elevator's motion coupled
- with the chemicals in coke produce hallucinations. People tend to
- change into lizards and attack without warning, and large bats usually
- fly in the window. Additionally, you begin to believe that elevators
- have windows.
- @Never eat more than you can lift.
- -- Miss Piggy
- @Never hit a man with glasses. Hit him with a baseball bat.
- @Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.
- -- Salvor Hardin, "Foundation"
- @Never make anything simple and efficient when a way can be found to
- make it complex and wonderful.
- @Never offend people with style when you can offend them with
- substance.
- -- Sam Brown, "The Washington Post", January 26, 1977
- @Never put off till tomorrow what you can avoid all together.
- @Never try to outstubborn a cat.
- -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
- @Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's
- supposed to do.
- -- R. A. Heinlein
- @New crypt. See /usr/news/crypt.
- @New members are urgently needed in the Society for Prevention of
- Cruelty to Yourself. Apply within.
- @New systems generate new problems.
- @New Year's Eve is the time of year when a man most feels his age, and
- his wife most often reminds him to act it.
- -- Webster's Unafraid Dictionary
- @New York is real. The rest is done with mirrors.
- @New York's got the ways and means;
- Just won't let you be.
- -- The Grateful Dead
- @Newlan's Truism:
- An "acceptable" level of unemployment means that the government
- economist to whom it is acceptable still has a job.
- @NEWS FLASH!!
- Today the East German pole-vault champion became the West
- German pole-vault champion.
- @*** NEWSFLASH ***
- Russian tanks steamrolling through New Jersey!!!! Details at eleven!
- @Newton's Fourth Law: Every action has an equal and opposite satisfaction.
- @Newton's Little-Known Seventh Law:
- A bird in the hand is safer than one overhead.
- @Next Friday will not be your lucky day. As a matter of fact, you don't
- have a lucky day this year.
- @Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying
- as an income tax refund.
- -- F. J. Raymond
- @Nihilism should commence with oneself.
- @Niklaus Wirth has lamented that, whereas Europeans pronounce his name
- correctly (Ni-klows Virt), Americans invariably mangle it into
- (Nick-les Worth). Which is to say that Europeans call him by name, but
- Americans call him by value.
- @Nine megs for the secretaries fair,
- Seven megs for the hackers scarce,
- Five megs for the grads in smoky lairs,
- Three megs for system source;
-
- One disk to rule them all,
- One disk to bind them,
- One disk to hold the files
- And in the darkness grind 'em.
- @Ninety-Ninety Rule of Project Schedules:
- The first ninety percent of the task takes ninety percent of
- the time, and the last ten percent takes the other ninety
- percent.
- @No good deed goes unpunished.
- -- Clare Boothe Luce
- @No man is an island, but some of us are long peninsulas.
- @No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
- -- Eleanor Roosevelt
- @No problem is so formidable that you can't just walk away from it.
- @No problem is so large it can't be fit in somewhere.
- @NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION
- @Nobody wants constructive criticism. It's all we can do to put up with
- constructive praise.
- @Non-Reciprocal Laws of Expectations:
- Negative expectations yield negative results.
- Positive expectations yield negative results.
- @Noncombatant, n.:
- A dead Quaker.
- -- Ambrose Bierce
- @Nondeterminism means never having to say you are wrong.
- @Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
- @Not far from here, by a white sun, behind a green star, lived the
- Steelypips, illustrious, industrious, and they hadn't a care: no spats
- in their vats, no rules, no schools, no gloom, no evil influence of the
- moon, no trouble from matter or antimatter -- for they had a machine,
- a dream of a machine, with springs and gears and perfect in every
- respect. And they lived with it, and on it, and under it, and inside
- it, for it was all they had -- first they saved up all their atoms,
- then they put them all together, and if one didn't fit, why they
- chipped at it a bit, and everything was just fine ...
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @"Not only is this incomprehensible, but the ink is ugly and the paper
- is from the wrong kind of tree."
- --Profesoor W.
- @Notes for a ballet, "The Spell": ... Suddenly Sigmund hears the flutter
- of wings, and a group of wild swans flies across the moon ... Sigmund
- is astounded to see that their leader is part swan and part woman --
- unfortunately, divided lengthwise. She enchants Sigmund, who is
- careful not to make any poultry jokes ...
- -- Woody Allen
- @Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.
- @Nothing cures insomnia like the realization that it's time to get up.
- @Nothing is faster than the speed of light ...
-
- To prove this to yourself, try opening the refrigerator door before
- the light comes on.
- @Nothing is illegal if one hundred businessmen decide to do it.
- -- Andrew Young
- @Nothing recedes like success.
- -- Walter Winchell
- @Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited
- love.
- -- Charlie Brown
- @November, n.:
- The eleventh twelfth of a weariness.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Now and then an innocent person is sent to the legislature.
- @Now and then, an innocent man is sent to the Legislature.
- @Now I lay me down to sleep
- I pray the double lock will keep;
- May no brick through the window break,
- And, no one rob me till I awake.
- @"Now is the time for all good men to come to."
- -- Walt Kelly
- @Now that you've read Fortune's diet truths, you'll be prepared the next
- time some housewife or boutique-owner-turned-diet-expert appears on TV
- to plug her latest book. And, if you still feel a twinge of guilt for
- eating coffee cake while listening to her exhortations, ask yourself
- the following questions:
-
- 1: Do I dare trust a person who actually considers alfalfa sprouts
- a food?
-
- 2: Was the author's sole motive in writing this book to get rich
- exploiting the forlorn hopes of chubby people like me?
-
- 3: Would a longer life be worthwhile if it had to be lived as
- prescribed ... without French-fried onion rings, pizza with
- double cheese, or the occasional Mai-Tai? (Remember, living
- right doesn't really make you live longer, it just *seems* like
- longer.)
-
- That, and another piece of coffee cake, should do the trick.
- @"Now the Lord God planted a garden East of Whittier in a place called
- Yorba Linda, and out of the ground he made to grow orange trees that
- were good for food and the fruits thereof he labeled SUNKIST ..."
- -- "The Begatting of a President"
- @... Now you're ready for the actual shopping. Your goal should be to
- get it over with as quickly as possible, because the longer you stay in
- the mall, the longer your children will have to listen to holiday songs
- on the mall public-address system, and many of these songs can damage
- children emotionally. For example: "Frosty the Snowman" is about a
- snowman who befriends some children, plays with them until they learn
- to love him, then melts. And "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is about
- a young reindeer who, because of a physical deformity, is treated as an
- outcast by the other reindeer. Then along comes good, old Santa. Does
- he ignore the deformity? Does he look past Rudolph's nose and respect
- Rudolph for the sensitive reindeer he is underneath? No. Santa asks
- Rudolph to guide his sleigh, as if Rudolph were nothing more than some
- kind of headlight with legs and a tail. So unless you want your
- children exposed to this kind of insensitivity, you should shop
- quickly.
- -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- @[Nuclear war] ... may not be desirable.
- -- Edwin Meese III
- @Nudists are people who wear one-button suits.
- @Numeric stability is probably not all that important when you're
- guessing.
- @O give me a home,
- Where the buffalo roam,
- Where the deer and the antelope play,
- Where seldom is heard
- A discouraging word,
- 'Cause what can an antelope say?
- @O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law:
- "Murphy was an optimist."
- @"Of course it's the murder weapon. Who would frame someone with a fake?"
- @Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.
- -- Plato
- @Of course there's no reason for it, it's just our policy.
- @Office Automation, n.:
- The use of computers to improve efficiency by removing anyone
- you would want to talk with over coffee.
- @Ogden's Law:
- The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch
- up.
- @Oh don't the days seem lank and long
- When all goes right and none goes wrong,
- And isn't your life extremely flat
- With nothing whatever to grumble at!
- @Oh, well, I guess this is just going to be one of those lifetimes.
- @Oh, when I was in love with you,
- Then I was clean and brave,
- And miles around the wonder grew
- How well did I behave.
-
- And now the fancy passes by,
- And nothing will remain,
- And miles around they'll say that I
- Am quite myself again.
- -- A. E. Housman
- @Oh, wow! Look at the moon!
- @Old age is the most unexpected of things that can happen to a man.
- -- Trotsky
- @Old programmers never die. They just branch to a new address.
- @Old soldiers never die. Young ones do.
- @Oliver's Law:
- Experience is something you don't get until just after you need
- it.
- @On a paper submitted by a physicist colleague:
-
- "This isn't right. This isn't even wrong."
- -- Wolfgang Pauli
- @On his first day as a bus driver, Maxey Eckstein handed in
- receipts of $65. The next day his take was $67. The third day's
- income was $62. But on the fourth day, Eckstein emptied no less than
- $283 on the desk before the cashier.
-
- "Eckstein!" exclaimed the cashier. "This is fantastic. That
- route never brought in money like this! What happened?"
-
- "Well, after three days on that cockamamie route, I figured
- business would never improve, so I drove over to Fourteenth Street and
- worked there. I tell you, that street is a gold mine!"
- @On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are
- created jerks.
- -- H. Allen Smith, "Let the Crabgrass Grow"
- @On-line, adj.:
- The idea that a human being should always be accessible to a
- computer.
- @Once ... in the wilds of Afghanistan, I lost my corkscrew, and we were
- forced to live on nothing but food and water for days.
- -- W. C. Fields, "My Little Chickadee"
- @Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that
- each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his
- choice.
-
- In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians
- called it "Christmas" and went to church; the Jews called it "Hanukka"
- and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People
- passing each other on the street would say "Merry Christmas!" or "Happy
- Hanukka!" or (to the atheists) "Look out for the wall!"
- -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- @Once Law was sitting on the bench
- And Mercy knelt a-weeping.
- "Clear out!" he cried, "disordered wench!
- Nor come before me creeping.
- Upon you knees if you appear,
- 'Tis plain you have no standing here."
-
- Then Justice came. His Honor cried:
- "YOUR states? -- Devil seize you!"
- "Amica curiae," she replied --
- "Friend of the court, so please you."
- "Begone!" he shouted -- "There's the door --
- I never saw your face before!"
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human
- beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by
- side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them
- which makes it possible for each to see each other whole against the
- sky.
- -- Rainer Rilke
- @Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a
- great crystal river. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to
- the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of
- life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth. But
- one creature said at last, "I trust that the current knows where it is
- going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I
- shall die of boredom."
-
- The other creatures laughed and said, "Fool! Let go, and that
- current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the
- rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!"
-
- But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go,
- and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
- Yet, in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current
- lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
-
- And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried,
- "See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the
- Messiah, come to save us all!" And the one carried in the current
- said, "I am no more Messiah than you. The river delight to lift us
- free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this
- adventure.
-
- But they cried the more, "Saviour!" all the while clinging to
- the rocks, making legends of a Saviour.
- @Once upon a time, when I was training to be a mathematician, a group of
- us bright young students taking number theory discovered the names of
- the smaller prime numbers.
-
- 2: The Odd Prime --
- It's the only even prime, therefore is odd. QED.
- 3: The True Prime --
- Lewis Carroll: "If I tell you 3 times, it's true."
- 31: The Arbitrary Prime --
- Determined by unanimous unvote. We needed an arbitrary prime
- in case the prof asked for one, and so had an election. 91
- received the most votes (well, it *looks* prime) and 3+4i the
- next most. However, 31 was the only candidate to receive none
- at all.
-
- Since the composite numbers are formed from primes, their qualities are
- derived from those primes. So, for instance, the number 6 is "odd but
- true", while the powers of 2 are all extremely odd numbers.
- @... Once you're safely in the mall, you should tie your children to you
- with ropes so the other shoppers won't try to buy them. Holiday
- shoppers have been whipped into a frenzy by months of holiday
- advertisements, and they will buy anything small enough to stuff into a
- shopping bag. If your children object to being tied, threaten to take
- them to see Santa Claus; that ought to shut them up.
- -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- @Once, adv.:
- Enough.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
- @One difference between a man and a machine is that a machine is quiet
- when well oiled.
- @One good reason why computers can do more work than people is that they
- never have to stop and answer the phone.
- @One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.
- @One of my less pleasant chores when I was young was to read the Bible
- from one end to the other. Reading the Bible straight through is at
- least 70 percent discipline, like learning Latin. But the good parts
- are, of course, simply amazing. God is an extremely uneven writer, but
- when He's good, nobody can touch Him.
- -- John Gardner, NYT Book Review, Jan 1983
- @One of the oldest problems puzzled over in the Talmud is: "Why did God
- create goyim?" The generally accepted answer is "somebody has to buy
- retail."
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @One of the questions that comes up all the time is: How
- enthusiastic is our support for UNIX?
-
- Unix was written on our machines and for our machines many
- years ago. Today, much of UNIX being done is done on our machines.
- Ten percent of our VAXs are going for UNIX use. UNIX is a simple
- language, easy to understand, easy to get started with. It's great for
- students, great for somewhat casual users, and it's great for
- interchanging programs between different machines. And so, because of
- its popularity in these markets, we support it. We have good UNIX on
- VAX and good UNIX on PDP-11s.
-
- It is our belief, however, that serious professional users will
- run out of things they can do with UNIX. They'll want a real system and
- will end up doing VMS when they get to be serious about programming.
-
- With UNIX, if you're looking for something, you can easily and
- quickly check that small manual and find out that it's not there. With
- VMS, no matter what you look for -- it's literally a five-foot shelf of
- documentation -- if you look long enough it's there. That's the
- difference -- the beauty of UNIX is it's simple; and the beauty of VMS
- is that it's all there.
- -- Ken Olsen, President of DEC, 1984
- @One of the rules of Busmanship, New York style, is never surrender your
- seat to another passenger. This may seem callous, but it is the best
- way, really. If one passenger were to give a seat to someone who
- fainted in the aisle, say, the others on the bus would become
- disoriented and imagine they were in Topeka, Kansas.
- @One Page Principle:
- A specification that will not fit on one page of 8.5x11 inch
- paper cannot be understood.
- -- Mark Ardis
- @"One planet is all you get."
- @One seldom sees a monument to a committee.
- @One thing the inventors can't seem to get the bugs out of is fresh
- paint.
- @One way to stop a runaway horse is to bet on him.
- @Only adults have difficulty with childproof caps.
- @Only God can make random selections.
- @Optimization hinders evolution.
- @Optimization hinders evolution.
- @Oregon, n.:
- Eighty billion gallons of water with no place to go on Saturday
- night.
- @Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds.
- Biochemistry is the study of carbon compounds that crawl.
- -- Mike Adams
- @Osborn's Law:
- Variables won't; constants aren't.
- @Others will look to you for stability, so hide when you bite your
- nails.
- @Our country has plenty of good five-cent cigars, but the trouble is
- they charge fifteen cents for them.
- @Our OS who art in CPU, UNIX be thy name.
- Thy programs run, thy syscalls done,
- in kernel as it is in user!
- @Our policy is, when in doubt, do the right thing.
- -- Roy L. Ash, ex-president Litton Industries
- @Overdrawn? But I still have checks left!
- @Overflow on /dev/null, please empty the bit bucket.
- @Overload -- core meltdown sequence initiated.
- @Ozman's Laws:
- 1. If someone says he will do something "without fail," he won't.
- 2. The more people talk on the phone, the less money they make.
- 3. People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn't.
- 4. Pizza always burns the roof of your mouth.
- @Paranoia is simply an optimistic outlook on life.
- @Paranoids are people, too; they have their own problems. It's easy to
- criticize, but if everybody hated you, you'd be paranoid too.
- -- D. J. Hicks
- @Pardo's First Postulate:
- Anything good in life is either illegal, immoral, or fattening.
-
- Arnold's Addendum:
- Anything not fitting into these categories causes cancer in rats.
- @Parker's Law:
- Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.
- @Parkinson's Fifth Law:
- If there is a way to delay in important decision, the good
- bureaucracy, public or private, will find it.
- @Parkinson's Fourth Law:
- The number of people in any working group tends to increase
- regardless of the amount of work to be done.
- @Parts that positively cannot be assembled in improper order will be.
- @"Pascal is not a high-level language."
- -- Steven Feiner
- @Pascal Users:
- To show respect for the 313th anniversary (tomorrow) of the
- death of Blaise Pascal, your programs will be run at half
- speed.
- @Pascal, n.:
- A programming language named after a man who would turn over in
- his grave if he knew about it.
- @Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life.
- -- Eric Hoffer
- @Paul Revere was a tattle-tale
- @Paul's Law:
- In America, it's not how much an item costs, it's how much you save.
- @Paul's Law:
- You can't fall off the floor.
- @Peace, n.:
- In international affairs, a period of cheating between two
- periods of fighting.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Peanut Blossoms
-
- 4 cups sugar 16 tbsp. milk
- 4 cups brown sugar 4 tsp. vanilla
- 4 cups shortening 14 cups flour
- 8 eggs 4 tsp. soda
- 4 cups peanut butter 4 tsp. salt
-
- Shape dough into balls. Roll in sugar and bake on ungreased cookie
- sheet at 375 F. for 10-12 minutes. Immediately top each cookie with a
- Hershey's kiss or star pressing down firmly to crack cookie. Makes a
- hell of a lot.
- @Pecor's Health-Food Principle:
- Never eat rutabaga on any day of the week that has a "y" in it.
- @People often find it easier to be a result of the past than a cause of
- the future.
- @People usually get what's coming to them ... unless it's been mailed.
- @People who claim they don't let little things bother them have never
- slept in a room with a single mosquito.
- @People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who
- haven't what they want that they don't want it.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that
- Benjamin Franklin said it first.
- @People will buy anything that's one to a customer.
- @Pereant, inquit, qui ante nos nostra dixerunt.
- "Confound those who have said our remarks before us."
- -- Aelius Donatus
- @Perfect day for scrubbing the floor and other exciting things.
- @Peter's Law of Substitution:
- Look after the molehills, and the mountains will look after
- themselves.
- @Philadelphia is not dull -- it just seems so because it is next to
- exciting Camden, New Jersy.
- @Philogyny recapitulates erogeny; erogeny recapitulates philogyny.
- @pi seconds is a nanocentury.
- -- Tom Duff
- @Pig, n.:
- An animal (Porcus omnivorous) closely allied to the human race
- by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however, is
- inferior in scope, for it balks at pig.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @PISCES (Feb. 19 - Mar. 20)
- You have a vivid imagination and often think you are being followed by
- the CIA or FBI. You have minor influence over your associates and
- people resent your flaunting of your power. You lack confidence and
- you are generally a coward. Pisces people do terrible things to small
- animals.
- @PISCES (Feb. 19 to Mar. 20)
- Take the high road, look for the good things, carry the
- American Express card and a weapon. The world is yours today,
- as nobody else wants it. Your mortgage will be foreclosed.
- You will probably get run over by a bus.
- @North Carolina Driver's Test
-
- 7: The car directly in front of you has a flashing right tail light but a
- steady left tail light. This means:
-
- (a) one of the tail lights is broken; you should blow your horn to call
- the problem to the driver's attention.
- (b) the driver is signaling a right turn.
- (c) the driver is signaling a left turn.
- (d) the driver is from out of town.
-
- The correct answer is (d). Tail lights are used in some foreign countries
- to signal turns.
- @Pittsburgh Driver's Test
-
- 8: Pedestrians are
-
- (a) irrelevant.
- (b) communists.
- (c) a nuisance.
- (d) difficult to clean off the front grille.
-
- The correct answer is (a). Pedestrians are not in cars, so they are
- totally irrelevant to driving; you should ignore them completely.
- @PL/1, "the fatal disease", belongs more to the problem set than to the
- solution set.
- -- E. W. Dijkstra
- @Please ignore previous fortune.
- @Please take note:
- @Please try to limit the amount of `this room doesn't have any bazingas'
- until you are told that those rooms are `punched out.' Once punched
- out, we have a right to complain about atrocities, missing bazingas,
- and such.
- -- N. Meyrowitz
- @Please, won't somebody tell me what diddie-wa-diddie means?
- @PLUNDERER'S THEME
- (to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius)
-
- Pillage, rape, and loot and burn, but all in moderation.
- If you do the things we say, then you'll soon rule the nation.
- Kill your foes and enemies and then kill your relations.
- Pillage, rape, and loot and burn, but all in moderation.
- @Pohl's law:
- Nothing is so good that somebody, somewhere, will not hate it.
- @Police: Good evening, are you the host?
- Host: No.
- Police: We've been getting complaints about this party.
- Host: About the drugs?
- Police: No.
- Host: About the guns, then? Is somebody complaining about the guns?
- Police: No, the noise.
- Host: Oh, the noise. Well that makes sense because there are no guns
- or drugs here. (An enormous explosion is heard in the
- background.) Or fireworks. Who's complaining about the noise?
- The neighbors?
- Police: No, the neighbors fled inland hours ago. Most of the recent
- complaints have come from Pittsburgh. Do you think you could
- ask the host to quiet things down?
- Host: No Problem. (At this point, a Volkswagon bug with primitive
- religious symbols drawn on the doors emerges from the living room and roars
- down the hall, past the police and onto the lawn, where it smashes into a
- tree. Eight guests tumble out onto the grass, moaning.) See? Things are
- starting to wind down.
- @Political T.V. commercials prove one thing: some candidates can tell
- all their good points and qualifications in just 30 seconds.
- @Politician, n.:
- From the Greek "poly" ("many") and the French "tete" ("head" or "face," as
- in "tete-a-tete": head to head or face to face). Hence "polytetien", a
- person of two or more faces.
- -- Martin Pitt
- @Politics is like coaching a football team. you have to be smart enough
- to understand the game but not smart enough to lose interest.
- @Polymer physicists are into chains.
- @Pope Goestheveezl was the shortest reigning pope in the history of the
- Church, reigning for two hours and six minutes on 1 April 1866. The
- white smoke had hardly faded into the blue of the Vatican skies before
- it dawned on the assembled multitudes in St. Peter's Square that his
- name had hilarious possibilities. The crowds fell about, helpless with
- laughter, singing:
-
- Half a pound of tuppenny rice
- Half a pound of treacle
- That's the way the chimney smokes
- Pope Goestheveezl
-
- The square was finally cleared by armed carabineri with tears of
- laughter streaming down their faces. The event set a record for
- hilarious civic functions, smashing the previous record set when Baron
- Hans Neizant Bompzidaize was elected Landburgher of Koln in 1653.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @Positive, adj.:
- Mistaken at the top of one's voice.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Power, n:
- The only narcotic regulated by the SEC instead of the FDA.
- @Practical people would be more practical if they would take a little
- more time for dreaming.
- -- J. P. McEvoy
- @Predestination was doomed from the start.
- @President Reagan has noted that there are too many economic pundits and
- forecasters and has decided on an excess prophets tax.
- @President Thieu says he'll quit if he doesn't get more than 50% of the
- vote. In a democracy, that's not called quitting.
- -- The Washington Post
- @Pretend to spank me -- I'm a pseudo-masochist!
- @Preudhomme's Law of Window Cleaning:
- It's on the other side.
- @[Prime Minister Joseph] Chamberlain loves the working man -- he loves
- to see him work.
- -- Winston Churchill
- @Pro is to con as progress is to Congress.
- @Probable-Possible, my black hen,
- She lays eggs in the Relative When.
- She doesn't lay eggs in the Positive Now
- Because she's unable to postulate how.
- -- Frederick Winsor
- @Professor Gorden Newell threw another shutout in last week's Chem.
- Eng. 130 midterm. Once again a student did not receive a single point
- on his exam. Newell has now tossed 5 shutouts this quarter. Newell's
- earned exam average has now dropped to a phenomenal 30%
- @Proof techniques #1: Proof by Induction.
-
- This technique is used on equations with "n" in them. Induction
- techniques are very popular, even the military used them.
-
- SAMPLE: Proof of induction without proof of induction.
-
- We know it's true for n equal to 1. Now assume that it's true
- for every natural number less than n. N is arbitrary, so we can take n
- as large as we want. If n is sufficiently large, the case of n+1 is
- trivially equivalent, so the only important n are n less than n. We
- can take n = n (from above), so it's true for n+1 because it's just
- about n.
-
- QED. (QED translates from the Latin as "So what?")
- @Proof techniques #2: Proof by Oddity.
- SAMPLE: To prove that horses have an infinite number of legs.
-
- (1) Horses have an even number of legs.
- (2) They have two legs in back and fore legs in front.
- (3) This makes a total of six legs, which certainly is an odd number of
- legs for a horse.
- (4) But the only number that is both odd and even is infinity.
- (5) Therefore, horses must have an infinite number of legs.
-
- Topics is be covered in future issues include proof by:
- Intimidation
- Gesticulation (handwaving)
- "Try it; it works"
- Constipation (I was just sitting there and ...)
- Blatant assertion
- Changing all the 2's to n's
- Mutual consent
- Lack of a counterexample, and
- "It stands to reason"
- @Psychiatrists say that one out of four people are mentally ill. Check
- three friends. If they're ok, you're it.
- @Put your Nose to the Grindstone!
- -- Amalgamated Plastic Surgeons and Toolmakers, Ltd.
- @Putt's Law:
- Technology is dominated by two types of people:
- Those who understand what they do not manage.
- Those who manage what they do not understand.
- @Q: Do you know what the death rate around here is?
- A: One per person.
- @Q: Why do ducks have flat feet?
- A: To stamp out forest fires.
-
- Q: Why do elephants have flat feet?
- A: To stamp out flaming ducks.
- @Q: Why do mountain climbers rope themselves together?
- A: To prevent the sensible ones from going home.
- @Q: How many DEC repairman does it take to fix a flat ?
- A: Five; four to hold the car up and one to swap tires.
- @Q: How many DEC repairman does it take to fix a flat?
- A: Five; four to hold the car up and one to swap tires.
-
- Q: How long does it take?
- A: It's indeterminate. It will depend upon how many flats they've
- brought with them.
-
- Q: What happens if you've got TWO flats?
- A: They replace your generator.
- @Q: How many existentialists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
- A: Two. One to screw it in and one to observe how the lightbulb itself
- symbolizes a single incandescent beacon of subjective reality in a
- netherworld of endless absurdity reaching out toward a maudlin
- cosmos of nothingness.
- @Q: How many IBM cpu's does it take to do a logical right shift?
- A: 33. 1 to hold the bits and 32 to push the register.
- @Q: How many IBM CPU's does it take to execute a job?
- A: Four; three to hold it down, and one to rip its head off.
- @Q: How many IBM types does it take to change a light bulb?
- A: 100. Ten to do it, and 90 to write document number GC7500439-0001,
- Multitasking Incandescent Source System Facility, of which 10% of
- the pages state only "This page intentionally left blank", and 20%
- of the definitions are of the form "A ...... consists of sequences
- of non-blank characters separated by blanks".
- @Q: How many journalists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
- A: Three. One to report it as an inspired government program to bring
- light to the people, one to report it as a diabolical government
- plot to deprive the poor of darkness, and one to win a pulitzer
- prize for reporting that Electric Company hired a lightbulb-assassin
- to break the bulb in the first place.
- @Q: How many heterosexual males does it take to screw in a light bulb in
- San Francisco?
- A: Both of them.
- @Q: How many Martians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
- A: One and a half.
- @Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
- A: Three. One to screw in the lightbulb and two to fend off all those
- Californians trying to share the experience.
- @Q: How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
- A: Two. One to hold the girrafe and the other to fill the bathtub with
- brightly colored machine tools.
- @Q: Why did the tachyon cross the road?
- A: Because it was on the other side.
- @Quality Control, n.:
- The process of testing one out of every 1,000 units coming off
- a production line to make sure that at least one out of 100 works.
- @Question:
- Man Invented Alcohol,
- God Invented Grass.
- Who do you trust?
- @Quick!! Act as if nothing has happened!
- @"Qvid me anxivs svm?"
- @QWERT (kwirt), n. [MW < OW qwertyuiop, a thirteenth]:
- 1. a unit of weight equal to 13 poiuyt avoirdupois (or 1.69
- kiloliks), commonly used in structural engineering; 2. [Colloq.] one
- thirteenth the load that a fully grown sligo can carry; 3. [Anat.] a
- painful irritation of the dermis in the region of the anus; 4. [Slang]
- person who excites in others the symptoms of a qwert.
- -- Webster's Middle World Dictionary, 4th ed.
- @Radioactive cats have 18 half-lives.
- @Rattling around the back of my head is a disturbing image of something
- I saw at the airport ... Now I'm remembering, those giant piles of
- computer magazines right next to "People" and "Time" in the airport
- store. Does it bother anyone else that half the world is being told
- all of our hard-won secrets of computer technology? Remember how all
- the lawyers cried foul when "How to Avoid Probate" was published? Are
- they taking no-fault insurance lying down? No way! But at the current
- rate it won't be long before there are stacks of the "Transactions on
- Information Theory" at the A&P checkout counters. Who's going to be
- impressed with us electrical engineers then? Are we, as the saying
- goes, giving away the store?
- -- Robert W. Lucky, IEEE President
- @Ray's Rule of Precision:
- Measure with a micrometer. Mark with chalk. Cut with an axe.
- @Razors pain you;
- Rivers are damp;
- Acids stain you;
- And drugs cause cramp.
- Guns aren't lawful;
- Nooses give;
- Gas smells awful;
- You might as well live.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @Re graphics: A picture is worth 10K words -- but only those to describe
- the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described
- with pictures.
- @Real Programmers don't play tennis, or any other sport that requires
- you to change clothes. Mountain climbing is OK, and real programmers
- wear their climbing boots to work in case a mountain should suddenly
- spring up in the middle of the machine room.
- @Real Programmers don't write in PL/I. PL/I is for programmers who
- can't decide whether to write in COBOL or FORTRAN.
- @Real Programmers think better when playing Adventure or Rogue.
- @Real Programs don't use shared text. Otherwise, how can they use
- functions for scratch space after they are finished calling them?
- @Real Time, adj.:
- Here and now, as opposed to fake time, which only occurs there
- and then.
- @Reality is a cop-out for people who can't handle drugs.
- @Reality is an obstacle to hallucination.
- @Reality is for those who can't face Science Fiction.
- @"Really ?? What a coincidence, I'm shallow too!!"
- @Receiving a million dollars tax free will make you feel better than
- being flat broke and having a stomach ache.
- -- Dolph Sharp, "I'm O.K., You're Not So Hot"
- @Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you
- lose your job. These economic downturns are very difficult to predict,
- but sophisticated econometric modeling houses like Data Resources and
- Chase Econometrics have successfully predicted 14 of the last 3
- recessions.
- @Reclaimer, spare that tree!
- Take not a single bit!
- It used to point to me,
- Now I'm protecting it.
- It was the reader's CONS
- That made it, paired by dot;
- Now, GC, for the nonce,
- Thou shalt reclaim it not.
- @"Reflections on Ice-Breaking"
- Candy
- Is dandy
- But liquor
- Is quicker.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @"Reintegration complete," ZORAC advised. "We're back in the universe
- again ..." An unusually long pause followed, "... but I don't know
- which part. We seem to have changed our position in space." A
- spherical display in the middle of the floor illuminated to show the
- starfield surrounding the ship.
-
- "Several large, artificial constructions are approaching us," ZORAC
- announced after a short pause. "The designs are not familiar, but they
- are obviously the products of intelligence. Implications: we have been
- intercepted deliberately by a means unknown, for a purpose unknown, and
- transferred to a place unknown by a form of intelligence unknown.
- Apart from the unknowns, everything is obvious."
- -- James P. Hogan, "Giants Star"
- @Reisner's Rule of Conceptual Inertia:
- If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
- @Remember that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be
- worse in Cleveland.
- -- National Lampoon, "Deteriorada"
- @Remember, even if you win the rat race -- you're still a rat.
- @Remember, UNIX spelled backwards is XINU.
- @Reporter (to Mahatma Gandhi): Mr Gandhi, what do you think of
- Western Civilization?
- Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.
- @Reporter, n.:
- A writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels it with a
- tempest of words.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.
- -- Wernher von Braun
- @Resisting temptation is easier when you think you'll probably get
- another chance later on.
- @Review Questions
-
- 1: If Nerd on the planet Nutley starts out in his spaceship at 20
- KPH, and his speed doubles every 3.2 seconds, how long will it
- be before he exceeds the speed of light? How long will it be
- before the Galactic Patrol picks up the pieces of his
- spaceship?
-
- 2: If Roger Rowdy wrecks his car every week, and each week he
- breaks twice as many bones as before, how long will it be
- before he breaks every bone in his body? How long will it be
- before they cut off his insurance? Where does he get a new car
- every week?
-
- 3: If Johnson drinks one beer the first hour (slow start), four
- beers the next hour, nine beers the next, etc., and stacks the
- cans in a pyramid, how soon will Johnson's pyramid be larger
- than King Tut's? When will it fall on him? Will he notice?
- @Rhode's Law:
- When any principle, law, tenet, probability, happening,
- circumstance, or result can in no way be directly, indirectly,
- empirically, or circuitously proven, derived, implied,
- inferred, induced, deducted, estimated, or scientifically
- guessed, it will always for the purpose of convenience,
- expediency, political advantage, material gain, or personal
- comfort, or any combination of the above, or none of the above,
- be unilaterally and unequivocally assumed, proclaimed, and
- adhered to as absolute truth to be undeniably, universally,
- immutably, and infinitely so, until such time as it becomes
- advantageous to assume otherwise, maybe.
- @Rocky's Lemma of Innovation Prevention
- Unless the results are known in advance, funding agencies will
- reject the proposal.
- @ROMEO: Courage, man; the hurt cannot be much.
- MERCUTIO: No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-
- door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve.
- @Rudin's Law:
- If there is a wrong way to do something, most people will
- do it every time.
- @Rule 46, Oxford Union Society, London:
- Any member introducing a dog into the Society's premises shall
- be liable to a fine of one pound. Any animal leading a blind
- person shall be deemed to be a cat.
- @Rule of Creative Research:
- 1) Never draw what you can copy.
- 2) Never copy what you can trace.
- 3) Never trace what you can cut out and paste down.
- @Rule of Defactualization:
- Information deteriorates upward through bureaucracies.
- @Rule of Feline Frustration:
- When your cat has fallen asleep on your lap and looks utterly
- content and adorable, you will suddenly have to go to the
- bathroom.
- @Rule of the Great:
- When people you greatly admire appear to be thinking deep
- thoughts, they probably are thinking about lunch.
- @Rules for driving in New York:
- 1) Anything done while honking your horn is legal.
- 2) You may park anywhere if you turn your four-way flashers on.
- 3) A red light means the next six cars may go through the intersection.
- @RULES OF EATING -- THE BRONX DIETER'S CREED
- 1. Never eat on an empty stomach.
- 2. Never leave the table hungry.
- 3. When traveling, never leave a country hungry.
- 4. Enjoy your food.
- 5. Enjoy your companion's food.
- 6. Really taste your food. It may take several portions to
- accomplish this, especially if subtly seasoned.
- 7. Really feel your food. Texture is important. Compare, for
- example, the texture of a turnip to that of a brownie.
- Which feels better against your cheeks?
- 8. Never eat between snacks, unless it's a meal.
- 9. Don't feel you must finish everything on your plate. You
- can always eat it later.
- 10. Avoid any wine with a childproof cap.
- 11. Avoid blue food.
- -- Richard Smit, "The Bronx Diet"
- @Safety Tips for the Post-Nuclear Existence
- Tip #1: How to tell when you are dead.
-
- 1. Little things start bothering you: little things like
- worms, bugs, ants.
- 2. Something is missing in your personal relationships.
- 3. Your dog becomes overly affectionate.
- 4. You have a hard time getting a waiter.
- 5. Exotic birds flock around you.
- 6. People ignore you at parties.
- 7. You have a hard time getting up in the morning.
- 8. You no longer get off on cocaine.
- @Safety Tips for the Post-Nuclear Existence
- 1. Never use an elevator in a building that has been hit by a nuclear
- bomb; use the stairs.
- 2. When you're flying through the air, remember to roll when you hit
- the ground.
- 3. If you're on fire, avoid gasoline and other flammable materials.
- 4. Don't attempt communication with dead people; it will only lead to
- psychological problems.
- 5. Food will be scarce; you will have to scavenge. Learn to recognize
- foods that will be available after the bomb: mashed potatoes,
- shredded wheat, tossed salad, ground beef, etc.
- 6. Put your hand over your mouth when you sneeze; internal organs will
- be scarce in the post-nuclear age.
- 7. Try to be neat; fall only in designated piles.
- 8. Drive carefully in "Heavy Fallout" areas; people could be
- staggering illegally.
- 9. Nutritionally, hundred dollar bills are equal to ones, but more
- sanitary due to limited circulation.
- 10. Accumulate mannequins now; spare parts will be in short supply on
- D-Day.
- @SAGITTARIUS (Nov 22 - Dec 21)
- You are optimistic and enthusiastic. You have a reckless tendency to
- rely on luck since you lack talent. The majority of Sagittarians are
- drunks or dope fiends or both. People laugh at you a great deal.
- @San Francisco isn't what it used to be, and it never was.
- -- Herb Caen
- @San Francisco, n.:
- Marcel Proust editing an issue of Penthouse.
- @Santa Claus wears a Red Suit,
- He must be a communist.
- And a beard and long hair,
- Must be a pacifist.
-
- What's in that pipe that he's smoking?
- -- Arlo Guthrie
- @Satellite Safety Tip #14:
- If you see a bright streak in the sky coming at you, duck.
- @Sattinger's Law:
- It works better if you plug it in.
- @Saturday night in Toledo Ohio,
- Is like being nowhere at all,
- All through the day how the hours rush by,
- You sit in the park and you watch the grass die.
- -- John Denver, "Saturday Night in Toledo Ohio"
- @Save energy: be apathetic.
- @Save the whales. Collect the whole set.
- @SCCS, the source motel! Programs check in and never check out!
- -- Ken Thompson
- @Schapiro's Explanation:
- The grass is always greener on the other side -- but that's
- because they use more manure.
- @Schizophrenia beats being alone.
- @Science is what happens when preconception meets verification.
- @SCORPIO (Oct 23 - Nov 21)
- You are shrewd in business and cannot be trusted. You will achieve the
- pinnacle of success because of your total lack of ethics. Most Scorpio
- people are murdered.
- @Scott's first Law:
- No matter what goes wrong, it will probably look right.
- @Scott's second Law:
- When an error has been detected and corrected, it will be found
- to have been wrong in the first place.
- Corollary:
- After the correction has been found in error, it will be
- impossible to fit the original quantity back into the equation.
- @Scotty: Captain, we din' can reference it!
- Kirk: Analysis, Mr. Spock?
- Spock: Captain, it doesn't appear in the symbol table.
- Kirk: Then it's of external origin?
- Spock: Affirmative.
- Kirk: Mr. Sulu, go to pass two.
- Sulu: Aye aye, sir, going to pass two.
- @Screw up your courage! You've screwed up everything else.
- @Second Law of Business Meetings:
- If there are two possible ways to spell a person's name, you
- will pick the wrong one.
-
- Corollary:
- If there is only one way to spell a name, you will spell it
- wrong, anyway.
- @Security check: INTRUDER ALERT!
- @Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
- She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
- Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
- Silently scheming,
- Sightlessly seeking
- Some savage, spectacular suicide.
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @Self Test for Paranoia:
- You know you have it when you can't think of anything that's
- your own fault.
- @Seminars, n.:
- From "semi" and "arse", hence, any half-assed discussion.
- @Serocki's Stricture:
- Marriage is always a bachelor's last option.
- @Serving coffee on aircraft causes turbulence.
- @"Seven years and six months!" Humpty Dumpty repeated
- thoughtfully. "An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you'd asked MY
- advice, I'd have said `Leave off at seven' -- but it's too late now."
-
- "I never ask advice about growing," Alice said indignantly.
-
- "Too proud?" the other enquired.
-
- Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. "I mean,"
- she said, "that one can't help growing older."
-
- "ONE can't, perhaps," said Humpty Dumpty; "but TWO can. With
- proper assistance, you might have left off at seven."
- -- Lewis Carroll
- @Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. "Yes" is the answer.
- -- Swami X
- @Sex is the mathematics urge sublimated.
- -- M. C. Reed.
- @Sex without love is an empty experience, but, as empty experiences go,
- it's one of the best.
- -- Woody Allen
- @Shamus, n.:
- A shamus is a guy who takes care of handyman tasks around the
- temple, and makes sure everything is in working order.
-
- A shamus is at the bottom of the pecking order of synagog
- functionaries, and there's a joke about that:
-
- A rabbi, to show his humility before God, cries out in the
- middle of a service, "Oh, Lord, I am nobody!" The cantor, not to be
- bested, also cries out, "Oh, Lord, I am nobody!"
-
- The shamus, deeply moved, follows suit and cries, "Oh, Lord, I
- am nobody!" The rabbi turns to the cantor and says, "Look who thinks
- he's nobody!"
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @Shaw's Principle:
- Build a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will
- want to use it.
- @"She is descended from a long line that her mother listened to."
- -- Gypsy Rose Lee
- @She is not refined. She is not unrefined. She keeps a parrot.
- -- Mark Twain
- @She missed an invaluable opportunity to give him a look that you could
- have poured on a waffle ...
- @She's genuinely bogus.
- @"Sherry [Thomas Sheridan] is dull, naturally dull; but it must have
- taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an
- excess of stupidity, sir, is not in Nature."
- -- Samuel Johnson
- @SHIFT TO THE LEFT! SHIFT TO THE RIGHT!
- POP UP, PUSH DOWN, BYTE, BYTE, BYTE!
- @Show me a man who is a good loser and I'll show you a man who is
- playing golf with his boss.
- @Show respect for age. Drink good Scotch for a change.
- @Signs of crime: screaming or cries for help.
- -- from the Brown Security Crime Prevention Pamphlet
- @Silverman's Law:
- If Murphy's Law can go wrong, it will.
- @Simon's Law:
- Everything put together falls apart sooner or later.
- @Since I hurt my pendulum
- My life is all erratic.
- My parrot, who was cordial,
- Is now transmitting static.
- The carpet died, a palm collapsed,
- The cat keeps doing poo.
- The only thing that keeps me sane
- Is talking to my shoe.
- -- My Shoe
- @Since we're all here, we must not be all there.
- -- Bob "Mountain" Beck
- @[Sir Stafford Cripps] has all the virtues I dislike and none of the
- vices I admire.
- -- Winston Churchill
- @Sixtus V, Pope from 1585 to 1590 authorized a printing of the Vulgate
- Bible. Taking no chances, the pope issued a papal bull automatically
- excommunicating any printer who might make an alteration in the text.
- This he ordered printed at the beginning of the Bible. He personally
- examined every sheet as it came off the press. Yet the published
- Vulgate Bible contained so many errors that corrected scraps had to be
- printed and pasted over them in every copy. The result provoked wry
- comments on the rather patchy papal infallibility, and Pope Sixtus had
- no recourse but to order the return and destruction of every copy.
- @Skinner's Constant (or Flannagan's Finagling Factor):
- That quantity which, when multiplied by, divided by, added to,
- or subtracted from the answer you get, gives you the answer you
- should have gotten.
- @Slang is language that takes off its coat, spits on its hands, and goes
- to work.
- @Slick's Three Laws of the Universe:
- 1. Nothing in the known universe travels faster than a bad check.
- 2. A quarter-ounce of chocolate = four pounds of fat.
- 3. There are two types of dirt: the dark kind, which is attracted to
- light objects, and the light kind, which is attracted to dark objects.
- @Slurm, n.:
- The slime that accumulates on the underside of a soap bar when
- it sits in the dish too long.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @Snacktrek, n.:
- The peculiar habit, when searching for a snack, of constantly
- returning to the refrigerator in hopes that something new will have
- materialized.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in
- praise of intelligence.
- -- Bertrand Russell
- @"So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage leaf to make an apple
- pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming up the street pops
- its head into the shop. "What! no soap?" So he died, and she very
- imprudently married the barber; and there were present the Picninnies,
- and the Grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top,
- and they all fell to playing the game of catch as catch can, till the
- gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots."
- -- Samuel Foote
- @Sodd's Second Law:
- Sooner or later, the worst possible set of circumstances is
- bound to occur.
- @SOFTWARE -- formal evening attire for female computer analysts.
- @Some of you ... may have decided that, this year, you're going to
- celebrate it the old-fashioned way, with your family sitting around
- stringing cranberries and exchanging humble, handmade gifts, like on
- "The Waltons". Well, you can forget it. If everybody pulled that kind
- of subversive stunt, the economy would collapse overnight. The
- government would have to intervene: it would form a cabinet-level
- Department of Holiday Gift-Giving, which would spend billions and
- billions of tax dollars to buy Barbie dolls and electronic games, which
- it would drop on the populace from Air Force jets, killing and maiming
- thousands. So, for the good of the nation, you should go along with
- the Holiday Program. This means you should get a large sum of money
- and go to a mall.
- -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- @Some people are born mediocre, some people achieve mediocrity, and some
- people have mediocrity thrust upon them.
- -- Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
- @Some people in this department wouldn't recognize subtlety if it hit
- them on the head.
- @Some points to remember [about animals]:
-
- 1. Don't go to sleep under big animals, e.g., elephants,
- rhinoceri, hippopotamuses;
- 2. Don't put animals with sharp teeth or poisonous fangs down the
- front of your clothes;
- 3. Don't pat certain animals, e.g., crocodiles and scorpions or
- dogs you have just kicked.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @Somebody ought to cross ball point pens with coat hangers so that the
- pens will multiply instead of disappear.
- @Someone will try to honk your nose today.
- @"Sometimes I simply feel that the whole world is a cigarette and I'm
- the only ashtray."
- @Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.
- -- Lily Tomlin
- @"Somewhere", said Father Vittorini, "did Blake not speak of the
- Machineries of Joy? That is, did not God promote environments, then
- intimidate these Natures by provoking the existence of flesh, toy men
- and women, such as are we all? And thus happily sent forth, at our
- best, with good grace and fine wit, on calm noons, in fair climes, are
- we not God's Machineries of Joy?"
-
- "If Blake said that", said Father Brian, "he never lived in Dublin."
- -- R. Bradbury, "The Machineries of Joy"
- @Sooner or later you must pay for your sins. (Those who have already
- paid may disregard this fortune).
- @Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-
- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the
- road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space.
- -- "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
- @Spark's Sixth Rule for Managers:
- If a subordinate asks you a pertinent question, look at him as
- if he had lost his senses. When he looks down, paraphrase the
- question back at him.
- @Speak roughly to your little boy,
- And beat him when he sneezes:
- He only does it to annoy
- Because he knows it teases.
-
- Wow! wow! wow!
-
- I speak severely to my boy,
- And beat him when he sneezes:
- For he can thoroughly enjoy
- The pepper when he pleases!
-
- Wow! wow! wow!
- -- Lewis Carrol, "Alice in Wonderland"
- @Speak roughly to your little VAX,
- And boot it when it crashes;
- It knows that one cannot relax
- Because the paging thrashes!
-
- Wow! Wow! Wow!
-
- I speak severely to my VAX,
- And boot it when it crashes;
- In spite of all my favorite hacks
- My jobs it always thrashes!
-
- Wow! Wow! Wow!
- @Speak softly and carry a +6 two-handed sword.
- @Speaking as someone who has delved into the intricacies of PL/I, I am
- sure that only Real Men could have written such a machine-hogging,
- cycle-grabbing, all-encompassing monster. Allocate an array and free
- the middle third? Sure! Why not? Multiply a character string times a
- bit string and assign the result to a float decimal? Go ahead! Free a
- controlled variable procedure parameter and reallocate it before
- passing it back? Overlay three different types of variable on the same
- memory location? Anything you say! Write a recursive macro? Well,
- no, but Real Men use rescan. How could a language so obviously
- designed and written by Real Men not be intended for Real Man use?
- @Speaking of love, one problem that recurs more and more frequently
- these days, in books and plays and movies, is the inability of people
- to communicate with the people they love; Husbands and wives who can't
- communicate, children who can't communicate with their parents, and so
- on. And the characters in these books and plays and so on (and in real
- life, I might add) spend hours bemoaning the fact that they can't
- communicate. I feel that if a person can't communicate, the very least
- he can do is to Shut Up!
- -- Tom Lehrer, "That Was the Year that Was"
- @Spend extra time on hobby. Get plenty of rolling papers.
- @Spirtle, n.:
- The fine stream from a grapefruit that always lands right in
- your eye.
- -- Sniglets, "Rich Hall & Friends"
- @Spouse, n.:
- Someone who'll stand by you through all the trouble you
- wouldn't have had if you'd stayed single.
- @Stay away from flying saucers today.
- @Stay away from hurricanes for a while.
- @"Stealing a rhinoceros should not be attempted lightly."
- @Steele's Plagiarism of Somebody's Philosophy:
- Everybody should believe in something -- I believe I'll have
- another drink.
- @Steinbach's Guideline for Systems Programming
- Never test for an error condition you don't know how to
- handle.
- @Stop searching. Happiness is right next to you.
- @Stop searching. Happiness is right next to you. Now, if they'd only
- take a bath ...
- @Stult's Report:
- Our problems are mostly behind us. What we have to do now is
- fight the solutions.
- @Stupid, n.:
- Losing $25 on the game and $25 on the instant replay.
- @Sturgeon's Law:
- 90% of everything is crud.
- @Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your
- editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
- -- Mark Twain
- @Succumb to natural tendencies. Be hateful and boring.
- @(Sung to the tune of "The Impossible Dream" from MAN OF LA MANCHA)
-
- To code the impossible code,
- To bring up a virgin machine,
- To pop out of endless recursion,
- To grok what appears on the screen,
-
- To right the unrightable bug,
- To endlessly twiddle and thrash,
- To mount the unmountable magtape,
- To stop the unstoppable crash!
- @Support bacteria -- it's the only culture some people have!
- @Surprise due today. Also the rent.
- @Surprise your boss. Get to work on time.
- @Surprise! You are the lucky winner of random I.R.S. Audit! Just mail
- in your name and social security number. Please remember that leaving
- the room is punishable under law.
- @Sweater, n.:
- A garment worn by a child when its mother feels chilly.
- @Swipple's Rule of Order:
- He who shouts the loudest has the floor.
- @System/3! System/3!
- See how it runs! See how it runs!
- Its monitor loses so totally!
- It runs all its programs in RPG!
- It's made by our favorite monopoly!
- System/3!
- @Tact is the ability to tell a man he has an open mind when he has a
- hole in his head.
- @Tact, n.:
- The unsaid part of what you're thinking.
- @Take everything in stride. Trample anyone who gets in your way.
- @Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog is finally getting
- enough cheese
- -- National Lampoon, "Deteriorada"
- @Take it easy, we're in a hurry.
- @Take my word for it, the silliest woman can manage a clever man, but it
- needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.
- -- Kipling
- @Take the folks at Coca-Cola. For many years, they were content
- to sit back and make the same old carbonated beverage. It was a good
- beverage, no question about it; generations of people had grown up
- drinking it and doing the experiment in sixth grade where you put a
- nail into a glass of Coke and after a couple of days the nail dissolves
- and the teacher says: "Imagine what it does to your TEETH!" So
- Coca-Cola was solidly entrenched in the market, and the management saw
- no need to improve ...
- -- Dave Barry, "In Search of Excellence"
- @Take your dying with some seriousness, however. Laughing on the way to
- your execution is not generally understood by less advanced life forms,
- and they'll call you crazy.
- -- "Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul"
- @Take your dying with some seriousness, however. Laughing on the way to
- your execution is not generally understood by less-advanced life-forms,
- and they'll call you crazy.
- -- Messiah's Handbook: Reminders for the Advanced Soul
- @Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.
- -- Euripides
- @Talkers are no good doers.
- -- William Shakespeare, "Henry VI"
- @Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.
- -- Friedrich Nietzsche
- @TAURUS (Apr 20 - May 20)
- You are practical and persistent. You have a dogged determination and
- work like hell. Most people think you are stubborn and bull headed.
- You are a Communist.
- @Tax reform means "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax that fellow behind
- the tree."
- -- Russell Long
- @Taxes, n.:
- Of life's two certainties, the only one for which you can get
- an extension.
- @Teach children to be polite and courteous in the home, and, when he
- grows up, he will never be able to edge his car onto a freeway.
- @Teamwork is essential -- it allows you to blame someone else.
- @Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means
- for going backwards.
- -- Aldous Huxley
- @Ten years of rejection slips is nature's way of telling you to stop
- writing.
- -- R. Geis
- @"Terence, this is stupid stuff:
- You eat your victuals fast enough;
- There can't be much amiss, 'tis clear,
- To see the rate you drink your beer.
- But oh, good Lord, the verse you make,
- It gives a chap the belly-ache.
- The cow, the old cow, she is dead;
- It sleeps well the horned head:
- We poor lads, 'tis our turn now
- To hear such tunes as killed the cow.
- Pretty friendship 'tis to rhyme
- Your friends to death before their time.
- Moping, melancholy mad:
- Come, pipe a tune to dance to, lad."
- -- A. E. Housman
- @Tertullian was born in Carthage somewhere about 160 A.D. He was a
- pagan, and he abandoned himself to the lascivious life of his city
- until about his 35th year, when he became a Christian .... To him is
- ascribed the sublime confession: Credo quia absurdum est (I believe
- because it is absurd). This does not altogether accord with historical
- fact, for he merely said:
-
- "And the Son of God died, which is immediately credible because
- it is absurd. And buried he rose again, which is certain
- because it is impossible."
-
- Thanks to the acuteness of his mind, he saw through the poverty of
- philosophical and Gnostic knowledge, and contemptuously rejected it.
- -- C. G. Jung, in Psychological Types
- (Teruillian was one of the founders of the Catholic Church).
- @Test-tube babies shouldn't throw stones.
- @"Text processing has made it possible to right-justify any idea, even
- one which cannot be justified on any other grounds."
- -- J. Finnegan, USC.
- @"That must be wonderful! I don't understand it at all."
- @That secret you've been guarding, isn't.
- @That woman speaks eight languages and can't say "no" in any of them.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @The [Ford Foundation] is a large body of money completely surrounded by
- people who want some.
- -- Dwight MacDonald
- @The Abrams' Principle:
- The shortest distance between two points is off the wall.
- @The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper
- -- Thomas Jefferson
- @... The Anarchists' [national] anthem is an international anthem that
- consists of 365 raspberries blown in very quick succession to the tune
- of "Camptown Races". Nobody has to stand up for it, nobody has to
- listen to it, and, even better, nobody has to play it.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @The Army has carried the American ... ideal to its logical conclusion.
- Not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed
- and color, but also on ability.
- -- T. Lehrer
- @The Army needs leaders the way a foot needs a big toe.
- -- Bill Murray
- @The average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the
- average man can see better than he can think.
- @The basic idea behind malls is that they are more convenient than
- cities. Cities contain streets, which are dangerous and crowded and
- difficult to park in. Malls, on the other hand, have parking lots,
- which are also dangerous and crowded and difficult to park in, but --
- here is the big difference -- in mall parking lots, THERE ARE NO
- RULES. You're allowed to do anything. You can drive as fast as you
- want in any direction you want. I was once driving in a mall parking
- lot when my car was struck by a pickup truck being driven backward by a
- squat man with a tattoo that said "Charlie" on his forearm, who got out
- and explained to me, in great detail, why the accident was my fault,
- his reasoning being that he was violent and muscular, whereas I was
- neither. This kind of reasoning is legally valid in mall parking
- lots.
- -- Dave Barry, "Christmas Shopping: A Survivor's Guide"
- @The best book on programming for the layman is "Alice in Wonderland";
- but that's because it's the best book on anything for the layman.
- @The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.
- -- W. C. Fields
- @The best defense against logic is ignorance.
- @The best thing about growing older is that it takes such a long time.
- @The biggest difference between time and space is that you can't reuse
- time.
- -- Merrick Furst
- @The birds are singing, the flowers are budding, and it is time for Miss
- Manners to tell young lovers to stop necking in public.
-
- It's not that Miss Manners is immune to romance. Miss Manners has been
- known to squeeze a gentleman's arm while being helped over a curb, and,
- in her wild youth, even to press a dainty slipper against a foot or two
- under the dinner table. Miss Manners also believes that the sight of
- people strolling hand in hand or arm in arm or arm in hand dresses up a
- city considerably more than the more familiar sight of people shaking
- umbrellas at one another. What Miss Manners objects to is the kind of
- activity that frightens the horses on the street ...
- @"The bland leadeth the bland and they both shall fall into the kitsch."
- @The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up
- in the morning, and does not stop until you get to school.
- @The Briggs/Chase Law of Program Development:
- To determine how long it will take to write and debug a
- program, take your best estimate, multiply that by two, add
- one, and convert to the next higher units.
- @"The C Programming Language -- A language which combines the
- flexibility of assembly language with the power of assembly language."
- @The chicken that clucks the loudest is the one most likely to show up
- at the steam fitters' picnic.
- @The chief cause of problems is solutions.
- @"The climate of Bombay is such that its inhabitants have to live
- elsewhere."
- @The computing field is always in need of new cliches.
- -- Alan Perlis
- @The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: "Of course it is
- none of my business, but --" is to place a period after the word "but."
- Don't use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period.
- Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you
- talked about.
- -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
- @The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.
- @The cost of living is going up, and the chance of living is going
- down.
- @The cow is nothing but a machine with makes grass fit for us people to
- eat.
- -- John McNulty
- @The Crown is full of it!
- -- Nate Harris, 1775
- @The day-to-day travails of the IBM programmer are so amusing to most of
- us who are fortunate enough never to have been one -- like watching
- Charlie Chaplin trying to cook a shoe.
- @The debate rages on: Is PL/I Bachtrian or Dromedary?
- @The devil finds work for idle circuits to do.
- @"The difference between a misfortune and a calamity? If Gladstone fell
- into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him
- out again, it would be a calamity."
- -- Benjamin Disraeli
- @The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science
- requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require
- scholarship.
- -- Robert Heinlein
- @The duck hunter trained his retriever to walk on water. Eager to show
- off this amazing accomplishment, he asked a friend to go along on his
- next hunting trip. Saying nothing, he fired his first shot and, as the
- duck fell, the dog walked on the surface of the water, retrieved the
- duck and returned it to his master.
-
- "Notice anything?" the owner asked eagerly.
-
- "Yes," said his friend, "I see that fool dog of yours can't
- swim."
- @The earth is like a tiny grain of sand, only much, much heavier.
- @The end of the world will occur at 3:00 p.m., this Friday, with
- symposium to follow.
- @The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach
- their children to speak it.
- -- G. B. Shaw
- @The fact that it works is immaterial.
- -- L. Ogborn
- @The Fifth Rule:
- You have taken yourself too seriously.
- @The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
- -- Abbie Hoffman
- @The first Great Steward, Parrafin the Climber, was employed in King
- Chloroplast's kitchen as second scullery boy when the old King met a
- tragic death. He apparently fell backward by accident on a dozen salad
- forks. Simultaneously the true heir, his son Carotene, mysteriously
- fled the city, complaining of some sort of plot and a lot of
- threatening notes left on his breakfast tray. At the time, this looked
- suspicious what with his father's death, and Carotene was suspected of
- foul play. Then the rest of the King's relatives began to drop dead
- one after the other in an odd fashion. Some were found strangled with
- dishrags and some succumbed to food poisoning. A few were found
- drowned in the soup vats, and one was attacked by assailants unknown
- and beaten to death with a pot roast. At least three appear to have
- thrown themselves backward on salad forks, perhaps in a noble gesture
- of grief over the King's untimely end. Finally there was no one left
- in Minas Troney who was either eligible or willing to wear the accursed
- crown, and the rule of Twodor was up for grabs. The scullery slave
- Parrafin bravely accepted the Stewardship of Twodor until that day when
- a lineal descendant of Carotene's returns to reclaim his rightful
- throne, conquer Twodor's enemies, and revamp the postal system.
- -- Harvard Lampoon, "Bored of the Rings"
- @The first riddle I ever heard, one familiar to almost every Jewish
- child, was propounded to me by my father:
-
- "What is it that hangs on the wall, is green, wet -- and
- whistles?"
-
- I knit my brow and thought and thought, and in final perplexity
- gave up.
-
- "A herring," said my father.
-
- "A herring," I echoed. "A herring doesn't hang on the wall!"
-
- "So hang it there."
-
- "But a herring isn't green!" I protested.
-
- "Paint it."
-
- "But a herring isn't wet."
-
- "If its just painted its still wet."
-
- "But -- " I sputtered, summoning all my outrage, "-- a herring
- doesn't whistle!!"
-
- "Right, " smiled my father. "I just put that in to make it
- hard."
- -- Leo Rosten, "The Joys of Yiddish"
- @The First Rule of Program Optimization:
- Don't do it.
-
- The Second Rule of Program Optimization (for experts only!):
- Don't do it yet.
- -- Michael Jackson
- @The Quip program is supported, in part, by user contributions and by
- a major grant from the National Endowment for the Inanities.
- @The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to
- chance.
- @The geographical center of Boston is in Roxbury. Due north of the
- center we find the South End. This is not to be confused with South
- Boston which lies directly east from the South End. North of the South
- End is East Boston and southwest of East Boston is the North End.
- @The goal of Computer Science is to build something that will last at
- least until we've finished building it.
- @The goal of science is to build better mousetraps.
- The goal of nature is to build better mice.
- @The gods gave man fire and he invented fire engines. They gave him
- love and he invented marriage.
- @THE GOLDEN RULE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
- The one who has the gold makes the rules.
- @The Great Bald Swamp Hedgehog:
-
- The Gerat Bald Swamp Hedgehog of Billericay displays, in
- courtship, his single prickle and does impressions of Holiday Inn desk
- clerks. Since this means him standing motionless for enormous periods
- of time he is often eaten in full display by The Great Bald Swamp
- Hedgehog Eater.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
- -- Albert Einstein
- @The hearing ear is always found close to the speaking tongue,
- a custom whereof the memory of man runneth not howsomever to
- the contrary, nohow.
- @The Heineken Uncertainty Principle:
- You can never be sure how many beers you had last night.
- @The herd instinct among economists makes sheep look like independent
- thinkers.
- @The human animal differs from the lesser primates in his passion for
- lists of "Ten Best".
- -- H. Allen Smith
- @The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity
- -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.
- @The human mind treats a new idea the way the body treats a strange
- protein -- it rejects it.
- -- P. Medawar
- @The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
- -- Mark Twain
- @"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit
- longer."
- -- Henry Kissinger
- @The individual choice of garnishment of a burger can be an important
- point to the consumer in this day when individualism is an increasingly
- important thing to people.
- -- Donald N. Smith, president of Burger King
- @The IQ of the group is the lowest IQ of a member of the group divided
- by the number of people in the group.
- @The IRS spends God knows how much of your tax money on these toll-free
- information hot lines staffed by IRS employees, whose idea of a
- dynamite tax tip is that you should print neatly. If you ask them a
- real tax question, such as how you can cheat, they're useless.
-
- So, for guidance, you want to look to big business. Big business never
- pays a nickel in taxes, according to Ralph Nader, who represents a big
- consumer organization that never pays a nickel in taxes...
- -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes"
- @The Kennedy Constant:
- Don't get mad -- get even.
- @The Killer Ducks are coming!!!
- @The ladies men admire, I've heard,
- Would shudder at a wicked word.
- Their candle gives a single light;
- They'd rather stay at home at night.
- They do not keep awake till three,
- Nor read erotic poetry.
- They never sanction the impure,
- Nor recognize an overture.
- They shrink from powders and from paints ...
- So far, I've had no complaints.
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @The Law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich, as well as the
- poor, to sleep under the bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal
- bread.
- -- Anatole France
- @THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #10 -- SIMPLE
-
- SIMPLE is an acronym for Sheer Idiot's Monopurpose Programming Language
- Environment. This language, developed at the Hanover College for
- Technological Misfits, was designed to make it impossible to write code
- with errors in it. The statements are, therefore, confined to BEGIN,
- END and STOP. No matter how you arrange the statements, you can't make
- a syntax error. Programs written in SIMPLE do nothing useful. Thus
- they achieve the results of programs written in other languages without
- the tedious, frustrating process of testing and debugging.
- @THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #12 -- LITHP
-
- This otherwise unremarkable language is distinguished by the absence of
- an "S" in its character set; users must substitute "TH". LITHP is said
- to be useful in protheththing lithtth.
- @THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #13 -- SLOBOL
-
- SLOBOL is best known for the speed, or lack of it, of its compiler.
- Although many compilers allow you to take a coffee break while they
- compile, SLOBOL compilers allow you to travel to Bolivia to pick the
- coffee. Forty-three programmers are known to have died of boredom
- sitting at their terminals while waiting for a SLOBOL program to
- compile. Weary SLOBOL programmers often turn to a related (but
- infinitely faster) language, COCAINE.
- @THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #17 -- SARTRE
-
- Named after the late existential philosopher, SARTRE is an
- extremely unstructured language. Statements in SARTRE have no purpose;
- they just are. Thus SARTRE programs are left to define their own
- functions. SARTRE programmers tend to be boring and depressed, and are
- no fun at parties.
- @THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #18 -- C-
-
- This language was named for the grade received by its creator when he
- submitted it as a class project in a graduate programming class. C- is
- best described as a "low-level" programming language. In fact, the
- language generally requires more C- statements than machine-code
- statements to execute a given task. In this respect, it is very
- similar to COBOL.
- @THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #18 -- FIFTH
-
- FIFTH is a precision mathematical language in which the data types
- refer to quantity. The data types range from CC, OUNCE, SHOT, and
- JIGGER to FIFTH (hence the name of the language), LITER, MAGNUM and
- BLOTTO. Commands refer to ingredients such as CHABLIS, CHARDONNAY,
- CABERNET, GIN, VERMOUTH, VODKA, SCOTCH, and WHATEVERSAROUND.
-
- The many versions of the FIFTH language reflect the sophistication and
- financial status of its users. Commands in the ELITE dialect include
- VSOP and LAFITE, while commands in the GUTTER dialect include HOOTCH
- and RIPPLE. The latter is a favorite of frustrated FORTH programmers
- who end up using this language.
- @The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an approaching
- train.
- @The lion and the calf shall lie down together but the calf won't get
- much sleep.
- -- Woody Allen
- @The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.
- -- Henry Kissinger
- @"The Lord gave us farmers two strong hands so we could grab as much as
- we could with both of them."
- -- Joseph Heller, "Catch-22"
- @The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the
- crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no
- one has ever been.
- -- Alan Ashley-Pitt
- @The marvels of today's modern technology include the development of a
- soda can, when discarded will last forever ... and a $7,000 car which
- when properly cared for will rust out in two or three years.
- @The meek shall inherit the earth -- they are too weak to refuse.
- @The men sat sipping their tea in silence. After a while the
- klutz said, "Life is like a bowl of sour cream."
-
- "Like a bowl of sour cream?" asked the other. "Why?"
-
- "How should I know? What am I, a philosopher?"
- @The moon may be smaller than Earth, but it's further away.
- @The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and
- robbers there will be.
- -- Lao Tsu
- @The more things change, the more they stay insane.
- @The more we disagree, the more chance there is that at least one of us
- is right.
- @The mosquito is the state bird of New Jersey.
- -- Andy Warhol
- @The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
- discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..."
- -- Isaac Asimov
- @The moving cursor writes, and having written, blinks on.
- @The National Short-Sleeved Shirt Association says:
- Support your right to bare arms!
- @The new Congressmen say they're going to turn the government around. I
- hope I don't get run over again.
- @The New Testament offers the basis for modern computer coding theory,
- in the form of an affirmation of the binary number system:
-
- But let your communication be Yea, yea; nay, nay: for
- whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
- -- Matthew 5:37
- @The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to
- choose from.
- -- Andrew S. Tanenbaum
- @The notion of a "record" is an obsolete remnant of the days of the
- 80-column card.
- -- Dennis M. Ritchie
- @The objective of all dedicated employees should be to thoroughly
- analyze all situations, anticipate all problems prior to their
- occurrence, have answers for these problems, and move swiftly to solve
- these problems when called upon.
-
- However, When you are up to your ass in alligators it is difficult to
- remind yourself your initial objective was to drain the swamp.
- @The Official MBA Handbook on business cards:
-
- Avoid overly pretentious job titles such as "Lord of the Realm,
- Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India" or "Director of
- Corporate Planning."
- @The older a man gets, the farther he had to walk to school as a boy.
- @The one good thing about repeating your mistakes is that you know when
- to cringe.
- @The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the
- `social sciences' is: some do, some don't.
- -- Ernest Rutherford
- @The only problem with being a man of leisure is that you can never stop
- and take a rest.
- @The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any
- use to oneself.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @The opossum is a very sophisticated animal. It doesn't even get up
- until 5 or 6 pm.
- @The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
- -- Bohr
- @The optimum committee has no members.
- -- Norman Augustine
- @The owner of a large furniture store in the mid-west arrived in France
- on a buying trip. As he was checking into a hotel he struck up an
- acquaintance with a beautiful young lady. However, she only spoke
- French and he only spoke English, so each couldn't understand a word
- the other spoke. He took out a pencil and a notebook and drew a
- picture of a taxi. She smiled, nodded her head and they went for a
- ride in the park. Later, he drew a picture of a table in a restaurant
- with a question mark and she nodded, so they went to dinner. After
- dinner he sketched two dancers and she was delighted. They went to
- several nightclubs, drank champagne, danced and had a glorious
- evening. It had gotten quite late when she motioned for the pencil and
- drew a picture of a four-poster bed. He was dumbfounded, and has never
- be able to understand how she knew he was in the furniture business.
- @The past always looks better than it was. It's only pleasant because
- it isn't here.
- -- Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Dooley)
- @The people of Halifax invented the trampoline. During the
- Victorian period the tripe-dressers of Halifax stretched tripe across a
- large wooden frame and jumped up and down on it to `tender and dress'
- it. The tripoline, as they called it, degenerated into becoming the
- apparatus for a spectator sport.
-
- The people of Halifax also invented the harmonium, a device for
- castrating pigs during Sunday service.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @The Pig, if I am not mistaken,
- Gives us ham and pork and Bacon.
- Let others think his heart is big,
- I think it stupid of the Pig.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @The pitcher wound up and he flang the ball at the batter. The batter
- swang and missed. The pitcher flang the ball again and this time the
- batter connected. He hit a high fly right to the center fielder. The
- center fielder was all set to catch the ball, but at the last minute
- his eyes were blound by the sun and he dropped it.
- -- Dizzy Dean
- @The pitcher wound up and he flang the ball at the batter. The batter
- swang and missed. The pitcher flang the ball again and this time the
- batter connected. He hit a high fly right to the center fielder. The
- center fielder was all set to catch the ball, but at the last minute
- his eyes were blound by the sun and he dropped it.
- -- Dizzy Dean
- @The Preacher, the Politicain, the Teacher,
- Were each of them once a kiddie.
- A child, indeed, is a wonderful creature.
- Do I want one? God Forbiddie!
- -- Ogden Nash
- @The primary purpose of the DATA statement is to give names to
- constants; instead of referring to pi as 3.141592653589793 at every
- appearance, the variable PI can be given that value with a DATA
- statement and used instead of the longer form of the constant. This
- also simplifies modifying the program, should the value of pi change.
- -- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers
- @The probability of someone watching you is proportional to the
- stupidity of your action.
- @The problem ... is that we have run out of dinosaurs to form oil with.
- Scientists working for the Department of Energy have tried to form oil
- using other animals; they've piled thousands of tons of sand and Middle
- Eastern countries on top of cows, raccoons, haddock, laboratory rats,
- etc., but so far all they have managed to do is run up an enormous
- bulldozer-rental bill and anger a lot of Middle Eastern persons. None
- of the animals turned into oil, although most of the laboratory rats
- developed cancer.
- -- Dave Barry, "Postpetroleum Guzzler"
- @The problem with any unwritten law is that you don't know where to go
- to erase it.
- -- Glaser and Way
- @The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be
- pretty sure they're going to have some pretty annoying virtues.
- -- Elizabeth Taylor
- @The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
- @The Psblurtex is an 18-inch long anaconda that hides in the gentlemen's
- outfitting departments of Amazonian stores and is often bought by
- mistake since its colors are those of the London Reform Club. Once
- tied around its victim's neck, it strangles him gently and then claims
- the insurance before running off to Germany where it lives in hiding.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @"The pyramid is opening!"
- "Which one?"
- "The one with the ever-widening hole in it!"
- -- Firesign Theater, "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not
- Anywhere At All"
- @The rain it raineth on the just
- And also on the unjust fella,
- But chiefly on the just, because
- The unjust steals the just's umbrella.
- @The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much.
- @The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
- persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
- progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
- @The revolution will not be televised.
- @The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
- -- Emerson
- @The right half of the brain controls the left half of the body.
- This means that only left handed people are in their right mind.
- @The Roman Rule
- The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the
- one who is doing it.
- @The Ruffed Pandanga of Borneo and Rotherham spreads out his feathers in
- his courtship dance and imitates Winston Churchill and Tommy Cooper on
- one leg. The padanga is dying out because the female padanga doesn't
- take it too seriously.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @The Schwine-Kitzenger Institute study of 47 men over the age of 100
- showed that all had these things in common:
-
- 1. They all had moderate appetites.
- 2. They all came from middle class homes
- 3. All but two of them were dead.
- @The seven eyes of Ningauble the Wizard floated back to his hood
- as he reported to Fafhrd: "I have seen much, yet cannot explain all.
- The Gray Mouser is exactly twenty-five feet below the deepest cellar in
- the palace of Gilpkerio Kistomerces. Even though twenty-four parts in
- twenty-five of him are dead, he is alive.
-
- "Now about Lankhmar. She's been invaded, her walls breached
- everywhere and desperate fighting is going on in the streets, by a
- fierce host which out-numbers Lankhamar's inhabitants by fifty to one;
- and equipped with all modern weapons. Yet you can save the city."
-
- "How?" demanded Fafhrd.
-
- Ningauble shrugged. "You're a hero. You should know."
- -- Fritz Leiber, from "The Swords of Lankhmar"
- @The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
- -- Noelie Altito
- @"The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity
- and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exaulted
- activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy ...
- neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."
- @"The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up!"
- @The STAR WARS Song
- Sung to the tune of "Lola", by the Kinks:
-
- I met him in a swamp down in Dagobah
- Where it bubbles all the time like a giant cabinet soda
- S-O-D-A soda
- I saw the little runt sitting there on a log
- I asked him his name and in a raspy voice he said Yoda
- Y-O-D-A Yoda, Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo Yoda
-
- Well I've been around but I ain't never seen
- A guy who looks like a Muppet but he's wrinkled and green
- Oh my Yoda, Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo Yoda
- Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand
- How he can raise me in the air just by raising his hand
- Oh my Yoda, Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo Yoda, Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo Yoda
- -- "Weird Al" Yankovitch
- @The steady state of disks is full.
- --Ken Thompson
- @THE STORY OF CREATION
- or
- THE MYTH OF URK
-
- In the beginning there was data. The data was without form and null,
- and darkness was upon the face of the console; and the Spirit of IBM
- was moving over the face of the market. And DEC said, "Let there be
- registers"; and there were registers. And DEC saw that they carried;
- and DEC separated the data from the instructions. DEC called the data
- Stack, and the instructions they called Code. And there was evening
- and there was morning, one interrupt ...
- -- Rico Tudor
- @The sun was shining on the sea,
- Shining with all his might:
- He did his very best to make
- The billows smooth and bright --
- And this was very odd, because it was
- The middle of the night.
- -- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
- @The superfluous is very necessary.
- -- Voltaire
- @The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed. Our
- authority is Isaiah 30:26, "Moreover, the light of the Moon shall be as
- the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold, as
- the light of seven days." Thus Heaven receives from the Moon as much
- radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition 7*7 (49) times as much
- as the Earth does from the Sun, or 50 times in all. The light we
- receive from the Moon is one 1/10,000 of the light we receive from the
- Sun, so we can ignore that ... The radiation falling on Heaven will
- heat it to the point where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to
- the heat received by radiation, i.e., Heaven loses 50 times as much
- heat as the Earth by radiation. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for
- radiation, (H/E)^4 = 50, where E is the absolute temperature of the
- earth (-300K), gives H as 798K (525C). The exact temperature of Hell
- cannot be computed ... [However] Revelations 21:8 says "But the
- fearful, and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which
- burneth with fire and brimstone." A lake of molten brimstone means
- that its temperature must be at or below the boiling point, 444.6C. We
- have, then, that Heaven, at 525C is hotter than Hell at 445C.
- -- From "Applied Optics" vol. 11, A14, 1972
- @The Third Law of Photography:
- If you did manage to get any good shots, they will be ruined
- when someone inadvertently opens the darkroom door and all of
- the dark leaks out.
- @The three laws of thermodynamics:
-
- The First Law: You can't get anything without working for it.
- The Second Law: The most you can accomplish by working is to break
- even.
- The Third Law: You can only break even at absolute zero.
- @The trouble with a kitten is that
- When it grows up, it's always a cat
- -- Ogden Nash.
- @The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.
- @The trouble with being punctual is that people think you have nothing
- more important to do.
- @The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody
- appreciates how difficult it was.
- @The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And
- vice versa.
- @The turtle lives 'twixt plated decks
- Which practically conceal its sex.
- I think it clever of the turtle
- In such a fix to be so fertile.
- -- Ogden Nash
- @The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more
- annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @The University of California Bears announced the signing of Reggie
- Philbin to a letter of intent to attend Cal next Fall. Philbin is said
- to make up for no talent by cheating well. Says Philbin of his
- decision to attend Cal, "I'm in it for the free ride."
- @The USA is so enormous, and so numerous are its schools, colleges and
- religious seminaries, many devoted to special religious beliefs ranging
- from the unorthodox to the dotty, that we can hardly wonder at its
- yielding a more bounteous harvest of gobbledegook than the rest of the
- world put together.
- -- Sir Peter Medawar
- @The USA is so enormous, and so numerous are its schools, colleges and
- religious seminaries, many devoted to special religious beliefs ranging
- from the unorthodox to the dotty, that we can hardly wonder at its
- yielding a more bounteous harvest of gobbledygook than the rest of the
- world put together.
- -- Sir Peter Medawar
- @The use of COBOL cripples the mind; its teaching should, therefore, be
- regarded as a criminal offense.
- -- E. W. Dijkstra
- @"The voters have spoken, the bastards ..."
- @"The warning message we sent the Russians was a calculated ambiguity
- that would be clearly understood."
- -- Alexander Haig
- @"The way to make a small fortune in the commodities market is to start
- with a large fortune."
- @THE WOMBAT
-
- The wombat lives across the seas,
- Among the far Antipodes.
- He may exist on nuts and berries,
- Or then again, on missionaries;
- His distant habitat precludes
- Conclusive knowledge of his moods.
- But I would not engage the wombat
- In any form of mortal combat.
- @The world is coming to an end! Repent and return those library books!
- @The world is coming to an end. Please log off.
- @The world's as ugly as sin,
- And almost as delightful
- -- Frederick Locker-Lampson
- @The years of peak mental activity are undoubtedly between the ages of
- four and eighteen. At four we know all the questions, at eighteen all
- the answers.
- @Then a man said: Speak to us of Expectations.
-
- He then said: If a man does not see or hear the waters of the Jordan,
- then he should not taste the pomegranate or ply his wares in an open
- market.
-
- If a man would not labour in the salt and rock quarries then he should
- not accept of the Earth that which he refuses to give of himself.
-
- Such a man would expect a pear of a peach tree.
- Such a man would expect a stone to lay an egg.
- Such a man would expect Sears to assemble a lawnmower.
- -- Kehlog Albran, "The Profit"
- @THEORY
-
- Into love and out again,
- Thus I went and thus I go.
- Spare your voice, and hold your pen:
- Well and bitterly I know
- All the songs were ever sung,
- All the words were ever said;
- Could it be, when I was young,
- Someone dropped me on my head?
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable,
- and praiseworthy ...
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @There are really not many jobs that actually require a penis or a
- vagina, and all other occupations should be open to everyone.
- -- Gloria Steinem
- @There are some goyisha names that just about guarantee that
- someone isn't Jewish. For example, you'll never meet a Jew named
- Johnson or Wright or Jones or Sinclair or Ricks or Stevenson or Reid or
- Larsen or Jenks. But some goyisha names just about guarantee that
- every other person you meet with that name will be Jewish. Why is
- this?
-
- Who knows? Learned rabbis have pondered this question for
- centuries and have failed to come up with an answer, and you think you
- can find one? Get serious. You don't even understand why it's
- forbidden to eat crab -- fresh cold crab with mayonnaise -- or lobster
- -- soft tender morsels of lobster dipped in melted butter. You don't
- even understand a simple thing like that, and yet you hope to discover
- why there are more Jews named Miller than Katz? Fat Chance.
- -- Arthur Naiman, "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish"
- @There are some micro-organisms that exhibit characteristics of both
- plants and animals. When exposed to light they undergo photosynthesis;
- and when the lights go out, they turn into animals. But then again,
- don't we all?
- @There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics.
- -- Disraeli
- @"There are three possibilities: Pioneer's solar panel has turned away
- from the sun; there's a large meteor blocking transmission; or someone
- loaded Star Trek 3.2 into our video processor."
- @There are three possible parts to a date, of which at least two must be
- offered: entertainment, food, and affection. It is customary to begin
- a series of dates with a great deal of entertainment, a moderate amount
- of food, and the merest suggestion of affection. As the amount of
- affection increases, the entertainment can be reduced proportionately.
- When the affection IS the entertainment, we no longer call it dating.
- Under no circumstances can the food be omitted.
- -- Miss Manners' Guide to Excruciatingly Correct Behaviour
- @There are three ways to get something done:
- 1. Do it yourself.
- 2. Hire someone to do it for you.
- 3. Forbid your kids to do it.
- @There are three ways to get something done: do it yourself, hire
- someone, or forbid your kids to do it.
- @There are two kinds of solar-heat systems: "passive" systems collect
- the sunlight that hits your home, and "active" systems collect the
- sunlight that hits your neighbors' homes, too.
- -- Dave Barry, "Postpetroleum Guzzler"
- @"There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the
- other is to read Pope."
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @There are two ways to write error-free programs. Only the third one
- works.
- @There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a
- suitable application of high explosives.
- @There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
- -- Henry Kissinger
- @There has been an alarming increase in the number of things you know
- nothing about.
- @There is a great discovery still to be made in Literature: that of
- paying literary men by the quantity they do NOT write.
- @There is a green, multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder.
- @There is a theory that states: "If anyone finds out what the universe
- is for it will disappear and be replaced by something more bazaarly
- inexplicable."
-
- There is another theory that states: "This has already happened ...."
- -- Donald Adams, "Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy"
- @There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly
- what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly
- disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and
- inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has
- already happened.
- -- Donald Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
- @There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
- -- Mark Twain
- @There is no realizable power that man cannot, in time, fashion the
- tools to attain, nor any power so secure that the naked ape will not
- abuse it. So it is written in the genetic cards -- only physics and
- war hold him in check. And also the wife who wants him home by five,
- of course.
- -- Encyclopadia Apocryphia, 1990 ed.
- @There is no satisfaction in hanging a man who does not object to it
- -- G. B. Shaw
- @There is no substitute for good manners, except, perhaps, fast
- reflexes.
- @There is no time like the present for postponing what you ought to be
- doing.
- @There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and
- that is not being talked about.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale
- returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.
- -- Mark Twain
- @There once was a girl named Irene
- Who lived on distilled kerosene
- But she started absorbin'
- A new hydrocarbon
- And since then has never benzene.
- @There once was an old man from Esser,
- Who's knowledge grew lesser and lesser.
- It at last grew so small,
- He knew nothing at all,
- And now he's a College Professor.
- @"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved
- it."
- -- C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
- @There was a plane crash over mid-ocean, and only three survivors were
- left in the life-raft: the Pope, the President, and Mayor Daley.
- Unfortunately, it was a one-man life-raft, and quickly sinking, so they
- started debating who should be allowed to stay.
-
- The Pope pointed out that he was the spiritual leader of millions all
- over the world, the President explained that if he died then America
- would be stuck with the Vice-President, and so forth. Then Mayor Daley
- said, "Look! We're not solving anything like this! The only fair
- thing to do is to vote on it." So they did, and Mayor Daley won by 97
- votes.
- @There was a young lady from Hyde
- Who ate a green apple and died.
- While her lover lamented
- The apple fermented
- And made cider inside her inside.
- @There was a young man who said "God,
- I find it exceedingly odd,
- That the willow oak tree
- Continues to be,
- When there's no one about in the Quad."
-
- "Dear Sir, your astonishment's odd,
- For I'm always about in the Quad;
- And that's why the tree,
- Continues to be,"
- Signed "Yours faithfully, God."
- @There was a young poet named Dan,
- Whose poetry never would scan.
- When told this was so,
- He said, "Yes, I know.
- It's because I try to put every possible syllable into that last line that
- I can."
- @There were in this country two very large monopolies. The larger of
- the two had the following record: the Vietnam War, Watergate, double-
- digit inflation, fuel and energy shortages, bankrupt airlines, and the
- 8-cent postcard. The second was responsible for such things as the
- transistor, the solar cell, lasers, synthetic crystals, high fidelity
- stereo recording, sound motion pictures, radio astronomy, negative
- feedback, magnetic tape, magnetic "bubbles", electronic switching
- systems, microwave radio and TV relay systems, information theory, the
- first electrical digital computer, and the first communications
- satellite. Guess which one got to tell the other how to run the
- telephone business?
- @There's a fine line between courage and foolishness. Too bad its not a
- fence.
- @There's an old proverb that says just about whatever you want it to.
- @There's little in taking or giving,
- There's little in water or wine:
- This living, this living, this living,
- Was never a project of mine.
- Oh, hard is the struggle, and sparse is
- The gain of the one at the top,
- For art is a form of catharsis,
- And love is a permanent flop,
- And work is the province of cattle,
- And rest's for a clam in a shell,
- So I'm thinking of throwing the battle --
- Would you kindly direct me to hell?
- -- Dorothy Parker
- @There's no future in time travel
- @There's no point in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes.
- -- Dr. Who
- @There's no real need to do housework -- after four years it doesn't get
- any worse.
- @There's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn
- what it is I'll get married again.
- -- Clint Eastwood
- @There's so much plastic in this culture that vinyl leopard skin is
- becoming an endangered synthetic.
- -- Lily Tomlin
- @"These are DARK TIMES for all mankind's HIGHEST VALUES!"
- "These are DARK TIMES for FREEDOM and PROSPERITY!"
- "These are GREAT TIMES to put your money on BAD GUY to kick the CRAP
- out of MEGATON MAN!"
- @These days the necessities of life cost you about three times what they
- used to, and half the time they aren't even fit to drink.
- @They also surf who only stand on waves.
- @They spell it "da Vinci" and pronounce it "da Vinchy". Foreigners
- always spell better than they pronounce.
- -- Mark Twain
- @"They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!"
- @They told me you had proven it When they discovered our results
- About a month before. Their hair began to curl
- The proof was valid, more or less Instead of understanding it
- But rather less than more. We'd run the thing through PRL.
-
- He sent them word that we would try Don't tell a soul about all this
- To pass where they had failed For it must ever be
- And after we were done, to them A secret, kept from all the rest
- The new proof would be mailed. Between yourself and me.
-
- My notion was to start again
- Ignoring all they'd done
- We quickly turned it into code
- To see if it would run.
- @They're only trying to make me LOOK paranoid!
- @Things are more like they used to be than they are now.
- @Things will be bright in P.M. A cop will shine a light in your face.
- @Think big. Pollute the Mississippi.
- @Think honk if you're a telepath.
- @Think of it! With VLSI we can pack 100 ENIACs in 1 sq. cm.!
- @Think of your family tonight. Try to crawl home after the
- computer crashes.
- @Think twice before speaking, but don't say "think think click click".
- @This Quip program out of order. For those in desperate need,
- please use the program "randchar". This program generates random
- characters, and, given enough time, will undoubtedly come up with
- something profound. It will, however, take it no time at all to be
- more profound than THIS program has ever been.
- @This quip intentionally not included.
- @This quip is false.
- @"This is a country where people are free to practice their religion,
- regardless of race, creed, color, obesity, or number of dangling
- keys ..."
- @This is for all ill-treated fellows
- Unborn and unbegot,
- For them to read when they're in trouble
- And I am not.
- -- A. E. Housman
- @This is National Non-Dairy Creamer Week.
- @THIS IS PLEDGE WEEK FOR THE QUIP PROGRAM
-
- If you like the Quip program, why not support it now with your
- contribution of a pithy quip, clean or obscene? We cannot continue without
- your support. Less than 14% of all Quip users are contributors. That
- means that 86% of you are getting a free ride. We can't go on like this
- much longer. Federal cutbacks mean less money for Quip, and unless user
- contributions increase to make up the difference, the Quip program will
- have to shut down between midnight and 8 a.m. Don't let this happen. Mail
- your quips right now to "Sysop". Just type in your favorite pithy saying.
- Do it now before you forget. Our target is 300 new quips by the end of the
- week. Don't miss out. All quips will be acknowledged. If you contribute
- 30 quips or more, you will receive a free subscription to "The Quip
- Hunter", our monthly program guide. If you contribute 50 or more, you will
- receive a free "Quip Hunter" coffee mug ....
- @This is the story of the bee
- Whose sex is very hard to see
-
- You cannot tell the he from the she
- But she can tell, and so can he
-
- The little bee is never still
- She has no time to take the pill
-
- And that is why, in times like these
- There are so many sons of bees.
- @This life is a test. It is only a test. Had this been an actual life,
- you would have received further instructions as to what to do and where
- to go.
- @This login session: $13.99, but for you $11.88
- @This planet has -- or rather had -- a problem, which was this: most of
- the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many
- solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were
- largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper,
- which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of
- paper that were unhappy.
- -- Douglas Adams
- @... This striving for excellence extends into people's
- personal lives as well. When '80s people buy something, they buy the
- best one, as determined by (1) price and (2) lack of availability.
- Eighties people buy imported dental floss. They buy gourmet baking
- soda. If an '80s couple goes to a restaurant where they have made a
- reservation three weeks in advance, and they are informed that their
- table is available, they stalk out immediately, because they know it is
- not an excellent restaurant. If it were, it would have an enormous
- crowd of excellence-oriented people like themselves waiting, their
- beepers going off like crickets in the night. An excellent restaurant
- wouldn't have a table ready immediately for anybody below the rank of
- Liza Minnelli.
- -- Dave Barry, "In Search of Excellence"
- @This will be a memorable month -- no matter how hard you try to forget
- it.
- @Thompson, if he is to be believed, has sampled the entire
- rainbow of legal and illegal drugs in heroic efforts to feel better
- than he does.
-
- As for the truth about his health: I have asked around about
- it. I am told that he appears to be strong and rosy, and steadily
- sane. But we will be doing what he wants us to do, I think, if we
- consider his exterior a sort of Dorian Gray facade. Inwardly, he is
- being eaten alive by tinhorn politicians.
-
- The disease is fatal. There is no known cure. The most we can
- do for the poor devil, it seems to me, is to name his disease in his
- honor. From this moment on, let all those who feel that Americans can
- be as easily led to beauty as to ugliness, to truth as to public
- relations, to joy as to bitterness, be said to be suffering from Hunter
- Thompson's disease. I don't have it this morning. It comes and goes.
- This morning I don't have Hunter Thompson's disease.
- -- Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on Dr. Hunter S. Thompson: Excerpt from "A Political
- Disease", Vonnegut's review of "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail
- '72"
- @Those who can't write, write manuals.
- @Those who can, do. Those who can't, simulate.
- @Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents,
- for these only gave life, those the art of living well.
- -- Aristotle
- @Those who in quarrels interpose, must often wipe a bloody nose.
- @Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent
- revolution inevitable.
- -- John F. Kennedy
- @Three great scientific theories of the structure of the universe are
- the molecular, the corpuscular and the atomic. A fourth affirms, with
- Haeckel, the condensation or precipitation of matter from ether --
- whose existence is proved by the condensation or precipitation ... A
- fifth theory is held by idiots, but it is doubtful if they know any
- more about the matter than the others.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Time flies like an arrow
- Fruit flies like a banana
- @Time is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at
- once.
- @(to "The Caissons Go Rolling Along")
- Scratch the disks, dump the core,
- Shut it down, pull the plug
- Roll the tapes across the floor,
- Give the core an extra tug
-
- And the system is going to crash.
- And the system is going to crash.
-
- Teletypes smashed to bits.
- Mem'ry cards, one and all,
- Give the scopes some nasty hits
- Toss out halfway down the hall
-
- And the system is going to crash.
- And the system is going to crash.
-
- And we've also found
- Just flip one switch
- When you turn the power down,
- And the lights will cease to twitch
- You turn the disk readers into trash.
- And the tape drives will crumble in a flash.
- Oh, it's so much fun,
- When the CPU
- Now the CPU won't run
- Can print nothing out but "foo,"
-
- And the system is going to crash.
- And the system is going to crash.
- @To A Quick Young Fox:
- Why jog exquisite bulk, fond crazy vamp,
- Daft buxom jonquil, zephyr's gawky vice?
- Guy fed by work, quiz Jove's xanthic lamp --
- Zow! Qualms by deja vu gyp fox-kin thrice.
- -- Lazy Dog
- @To be intoxicated is to feel sophisticated but not be able to say it.
- @To be is to do.
- -- I. Kant
-
- To do is to be.
- -- A. Sartre
-
- Yabba-Dabba-Doo!
- -- F. Flinstone
- @To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and, whatever you hit,
- call it the target.
- @To err is human, to forgive is Not Company Policy.
- @To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
- -- Thomas Edison
- @To iterate is human, to recurse, divine.
- @To those accustomed to the precise, structured methods of conventional
- system development, exploratory development techniques may seem messy,
- inelegant, and unsatisfying. But it's a question of congruence:
- precision and flexibility may be just as disfunctional in novel,
- uncertain situations as sloppiness and vacillation are in familiar,
- well-defined ones. Those who admire the massive, rigid bone structures
- of dinosaurs should remember that jellyfish still enjoy their very
- secure ecological niche.
- -- Beau Sheil, "Power Tools for Programmers"
- @"To vacillate or not to vacillate, that is the question ... or is it?"
- @"To YOU I'm an atheist; to God, I'm the Loyal Opposition."
- -- Woody Allen
- @Today is a good day to bribe a high-ranking public official.
- @Today is National Existential Ennui Awareness Day.
- @Today is the first day of the rest of the mess
- @Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday
- @Today's scientific question is: What in the world is electricity?
-
- And where does it go after it leaves the toaster?
- -- Dave Barry, "What is Electricity?"
- @Tomorrow will be canceled due to lack of interest.
- @Tonight's the night: Sleep in a eucalyptus tree.
- @Too much of a good thing is WONDERFUL.
- -- Mae West
- @Travel important today; Internal Revenue men arrive tomorrow.
- @Troubled day for virgins over 16 who are beautiful and wealthy and live
- in eucalyptus trees.
- @Truly great madness can not be achieved without significant
- intelligence.
- -- Henrik Tikkanen
- @Truth will be out this morning. (Which may really mess things up.)
- @Truthful, adj.:
- Dumb and illiterate.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Try not to have a good time ... This is supposed to be educational.
- -- Charles Schulz
- @Try to be the best of whatever you are, even if what you are is no
- good.
- @Try to get all of your posthumous medals in advance.
- @Trying to be happy is like trying to build a machine for which the only
- specification is that it should run noiselessly.
- @Turnaucka's Law:
- The attention span of a computer is only as long as its electrical cord.
- @Tussman's Law:
- Nothing is as inevitable as a mistake whose time has come.
- @TV is chewing gum for the eyes.
- -- Frank Lloyd Wright
- @'Twas midnight, and the UNIX hacks
- Did gyre and gimble in their cave
- All mimsy was the CS-VAX
- And Cory raths outgrave.
-
- "Beware the software rot, my son!
- The faults that bite, the jobs that thrash!
- Beware the broken pipe, and shun
- The frumious system crash!"
- @'Twas the Night before Crisis
-
- 'Twas the night before crisis, and all through the house,
- Not a program was working not even a browse.
- The programmers were wrung out too mindless to care,
- Knowing chances of cutover hadn't a prayer.
- The users were nestled all snug in their beds,
- While visions of inquiries danced in their heads.
- When out in the lobby there arose such a clatter,
- I sprang from my tube to see what was the matter.
- And what to my wondering eyes should appear,
- But a Super Programmer, oblivious to fear.
- More rapid than eagles, his programs they came,
- And he whistled and shouted and called them by name;
- On Update! On Add! On Inquiry! On Delete!
- On Batch Jobs! On Closing! On Functions Complete!
- His eyes were glazed over, his fingers were lean,
- From Weekends and nights in front of a screen.
- A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
- Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread...
- @'Twas the nocturnal segment of the diurnal period
- preceding the annual Yuletide celebration, And
- throughout our place of residence,
- Kinetic activity was not in evidence among the
- possessors of this potential, including that
- species of domestic rodent known as Mus musculus.
- Hosiery was meticulously suspended from the forward
- edge of the woodburning caloric apparatus,
- Pursuant to our anticipatory pleasure regarding an
- imminent visitation from an eccentric
- philanthropist among whose folkloric appelations
- is the honorific title of St. Nicklaus ...
- @Two can Live as Cheaply as One for Half as Long.
- -- Howard Kandel
- @Two percent of zero is almost nothing.
- @UFO's are for real: the Air Force doesn't exist.
- @"Uncle Cosmo ... why do they call this a word processor?"
-
- "It's simple, Skyler ... you've seen what food processors do to food,
- right?"
- -- MacNelley, "Shoe"
- @Uncle Ed's Rule of Thumb:
- Never use your thumb for a rule. You'll either hit it with a
- hammer or get a splinter in it.
- @Under deadline pressure for the next week. If you want something, it
- can wait. Unless it's blind screaming paroxysmally hedonistic ...
- @Underlying Principle of Socio-Genetics:
- Superiority is recessive.
- @Unfair animal names:
-
- -- tsetse fly -- bullhead
- -- booby -- duck-billed platypus
- -- sapsucker -- Clarence
- -- Gary Larson
- @United Nations, New York, December 25. The peace and joy of the
- Christmas season was marred by a proclamation of a general strike of
- all the military forces of the world. Panic reigns in the hearts of
- all the patriots of every persuasion.
-
- Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time low over the
- world.
- -- Isaac Asimov
- @Universe, n.:
- The problem.
- @University, n.:
- Like a software house, except the software's free, and it's
- usable, and it works, and if it breaks they'll quickly tell you how to
- fix it, and ...
- @Unnamed Law:
- If it happens, it must be possible.
- @Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out
- twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.
- -- H. L. Mencken
- @Usage: quip <datafile> -fhmopst?#
- @User n.:
- A programmer who will believe anything you tell him.
- @Using TSO is like kicking a dead whale down the beach.
- -- S. C. Johnson
- @Vail's Second Axiom:
- The amount of work to be done increases in proportion to the
- amount of work already completed.
- @Van Roy's Law:
- An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
- @Velilind's Laws of Experimentation:
- 1. If reproducibility may be a problem, conduct the test only once.
- 2. If a straight line fit is required, obtain only two data points.
- @"Verily and forsooth," replied Goodgulf darkly. "In the past
- year strange and fearful wonders I have seen. Fields sown with barley
- reap crabgrass and fungus, and even small gardens reject their
- artichoke hearts. There has been a hot day in December and a blue
- moon. Calendars are made with a month of Sundays and a blue-ribbon
- Holstein bore alive two insurance salesmen. The earth splits and the
- entrails of a goat were found tied in square knots. The face of the
- sun blackens and the skies have rained down soggy potato chips."
-
- "But what do all these things mean?" gasped Frito.
-
- "Beats me," said Goodgulf with a shrug, "but I thought it made
- good copy."
- -- Harvard Lampoon, "Bored of the Rings"
- @Very few profundities can be expressed in less than 80 characters.
- @Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
- -- Salvor Hardin
- @VIRGO (Aug 23 - Sept 22)
- Learn something new today, like how to spell or how to count to
- ten without using your fingers. Be careful dressing this
- morning. You may be hit by a car later in the day and you
- wouldn't want to be taken to the doctor's office in some of
- that old underwear you own.
- @VIRGO (Aug 23 - Sept 22)
- You are the logical type and hate disorder. This nitpicking is
- sickening to your friends. You are cold and unemotional and sometimes
- fall asleep while making love. Virgos make good bus drivers.
- @Virtue is its own punishment.
- @Vital papers will demonstrate their vitality by spontaneously moving
- from where you left them to where you can't find them.
- @Vitamin C deficiency is apauling
- @Vote anarchist
- @"Wagner's music is better than it sounds."
- -- Mark Twain
- @Waiter: "Tea or coffee, gentlemen?"
- 1st customer: "I'll have tea."
- 2nd customer: "Me, too -- and be sure the glass is clean!"
- (Waiter exits, returns)
- Waiter: "Two teas. Which one asked for the clean glass?"
- @War hath no fury like a non-combatant.
- -- Charles Edward Montague
- @WARNING:
- Reading this quip can affect the dimensionality of your
- mind, change the curvature of your spine, cause the growth of
- hair on your palms, and make a difference in the outcome of
- your favorite war.
- @Washington [D.C.] is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
- -- John F. Kennedy
- @Wasting time is an important part of living.
- @Watson's Law:
- The reliability of machinery is inversely proportional to the number and
- significance of any persons watching it.
- @We ARE as gods and might as well get good at it.
- -- Whole Earth Catalog
- @We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.
- -- Walt Kelly, "Pogo"
- @We can defeat gravity. The problem is the paperwork involved.
- @"We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company."
- @We don't understand the software, and sometimes we don't understand the
- hardware, but we can *see* the blinking lights!
- @We have met the enemy, and he is us.
- -- Walt Kelly
- @"We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his
- hands for masturbation."
- -- Lily Tomlin
- @We may not return the affection of those who like us, but we always
- respect their good judgement.
- @We must remember the First Amendment which protects any shrill jackass
- no matter how self-seeking.
- -- F. G. Withington
- @We really don't have any enemies. It's just that some of our best
- friends are trying to kill us.
- @We were young and our happiness dazzled us with its strength.
- But there was also a terrible betrayal that lay within me like a Merle
- Haggard song at a French restaurant. ...
-
- I could not tell the girl about the woman of the tollway, of
- her milk white BMW and her Jordache smile. There had been a fight. I
- had punched her boyfriend, who fought the mechanical bulls. Everyone
- told him, "You ride the bull, senor. You do not fight it." But he was
- lean and tough like a bad rib-eye and he fought the bull. And then he
- fought me. And when we finished there were no winners, just men doing
- what men must do. ...
-
- "Stop the car," the girl said. There was a look of terrible
- sadness in her eyes. She knew about the woman of the tollway. I knew
- not how. I started to speak, but she raised an arm and spoke with a
- quiet and peace I will never forget.
-
- "I do not ask for whom's the tollway belle," she said, "the
- tollway belle's for thee."
-
- The next morning our youth was a memory, and our happiness was
- a lie. Life is like a bad margarita with good tequila, I thought as I
- poured whiskey onto my granola and faced a new day.
- -- Peter Applebome, International Imitation Hemingway Competition
- @We will have solar energy as soon as the utility companies solve one
- technical problem -- how to run a sunbeam through a meter.
- @we will invent new lullabies, new songs, new acts of love,
- we will cry over things we used to laugh &
- our new wisdom will bring tears to eyes of gentile
- creatures from other planets who were afraid of us till then &
- in the end a summer with wild winds &
- new friends will be.
- @We wish you a Hare Krishna
- We wish you a Hare Krishna
- We wish you a Hare Krishna
- And a Sun Myung Moon!
- -- Maxwell Smart
- @"We'll cross out that bridge when we come back to it later."
- @We're deep into the holiday gift-giving season, as you can tell from
- the fact that everywhere you look, you see jolly old St. Nick urging
- you to purchase things, to the point where you want to slug him right
- in his bowl full of jelly.
- -- Dave Barry, "Simple, Homespun Gifts"
- @We've sent a man to the moon, and that's 29,000 miles away. The center
- of the Earth is only 4,000 miles away. You could drive that in a week,
- but for some reason nobody's ever done it.
- -- Andy Rooney
- @Weiler's Law:
- Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself.
- @Weinberg's First Law:
- Progress is made on alternate Fridays.
- @Weinberg's Principle:
- An expert is a person who avoids the small errors while
- sweeping on to the grand fallacy.
- @Weinberg's Second Law:
- If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs,
- then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy
- civilization.
- @Weiner's Law of Libraries:
- There are no answers, only cross references.
- @Well, I would -- if they realized that we -- again if -- if we led them
- back to that stalemate only because our retaliatory power, our seconds,
- or strike at them after our first strike, would be so destructive they
- they couldn't afford it, that would hold them off.
- -- President Ronald Reagan, on the MX missile
- @"Well, if you can't believe what you read in a comic book, what *can*
- you believe?!"
- -- Bullwinkle J. Moose [Jay Ward]
- @Well, my terminal's locked up, and I ain't got any Mail,
- And I can't recall the last time that my program didn't fail;
- I've got stacks in my structs, I've got arrays in my queues,
- I've got the : Segmentation violation -- Core dumped blues.
-
- If you think that it's nice that you get what you C,
- Then go : illogical statement with your whole family,
- 'Cause the Supreme Court ain't the only place with : Bus error views.
- I've got the : Segmentation violation -- Core dumped blues.
-
- On a PDP-11, life should be a breeze,
- But with VAXen in the house even magnetic tapes would freeze.
- Now you might think that unlike VAXen I'd know who I abuse,
- I've got the : Segmentation violation -- Core dumped blues.
- -- Core Dumped Blues
- @Westheimer's Discovery:
- A couple of months in the laboratory can frequently save a
- couple of hours in the library.
- @Wethern's Law:
- Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.
- @"What do you give a man who has everything?" the pretty
- teenager asked her mother.
-
- "Encouragement, dear," she replied.
- @What does it mean if there is no fortune for you?
- @What garlic is to food, insanity is to art.
- @What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.
- @What good is a ticket to the good life, if you can't find the
- entrance?
- @What good is having someone who can walk on water if you don't follow
- in his footsteps?
- @What I tell you three times is true.
- @What I want is all of the power and none of the responsibility.
- @What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I
- definitely overpaid for my carpet.
- -- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
- @What if nothing exists and we're all in somebody's dream? Or what's
- worse, what if only that fat guy in the third row exists?
- -- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
- @What is a magician but a practising theorist?
- -- Obi-Wan Kenobi
- @What is mind? No matter.
- What is matter? Never mind.
- -- Thomas Hewitt Key, 1799-1875
- @What is the difference between a Turing machine and the modern
- computer? It's the same as that between Hillary's ascent of Everest
- and the establishment of a Hilton on its peak.
- @"What is the robbing of a bank compared to the FOUNDING of a bank?"
- -- Bertold Brecht
- @What is worth doing is worth the trouble of asking somebody to do.
- @What makes the Universe so hard to comprehend is that there's nothing
- to compare it with.
- @What publishers are looking for these days isn't radical feminism.
- It's corporate feminism -- a brand of feminism designed to sell books
- and magazines, three-piece suits, airline tickets, Scotch, cigarettes
- and, most important, corporate America's message, which runs: "Yes,
- women were discriminated against in the past, but that unfortunate
- mistake has been remedied; now every woman can attain wealth, prestige
- and power by dint of individual rather than collective effort."
- -- Susan Gordon
- @What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?
- -- Ursula K. LeGuin
- @What the hell, go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket.
- @What the large print giveth, the small print taketh away.
- @What this country needs is a dime that will buy a good five-cent
- bagel.
- @What this country needs is a dime that will buy a good five-cent
- bagel.
- @What this country needs is a good 5 dollar plasma weapon.
- @What this country needs is a good five cent ANYTHING!
- @What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.
- @What use is magic if it can't save a unicorn?
- -- Peter S. Beagle, "The Last Unicorn"
- @What with chromodynamics and electroweak too
- Our Standardized Model should please even you,
- Tho once you did say that of charm there was none
- It took courage to switch as to say Earth moves not Sun.
- Yet your state of the union penultimate large
- Is the last known haunt of the Fractional Charge,
- And as you surf in the hot tub with sourdough roll
- Please ponder the passing of your sole Monopole.
- Your Olympics were fun, you should bring them all back
- For transsexual tennis or Anamalon Track,
- But Hollywood movies remain sinfully crude
- Whether seen on the telly or Remotely Viewed.
- Now fasten your sunbelts, for you've done it once more,
- You said it in Leipzig of the thing we adore,
- That you've built an incredible crystalline sphere
- Whose German attendants spread trembling and fear
- Of the death of our theory by Particle Zeta
- Which I'll bet is not there say your article, later.
- -- Sheldon Glashow, Physics Today, Dec. 1984
- @"What's that thing?"
-
- "Well, it's a highly technical, sensitive instrument we use in
- computer repair. Being a layman, you probably can't grasp exactly what
- it does. We call it a two-by-four."
- -- Jeff MacNelly, "Shoe"
- @Whatever became of eternal truth?
- @Whatever became of Strange de Jim? Well, he found a substitute for
- cocaine: "You cover Q-tips with sandpaper and ram them up your nostrils
- as far as they will go. Then you sniff talcum powder while shredding
- hundred dollar bills."
- -- Herb Caen
- @Whatever is not nailed down is mine. What I can pry loose is not
- nailed down.
- -- Collis P. Huntingdon
- @When a Banker jumps out of a window, jump after him -- that's where the
- money is.
- -- Robespierre
- @When a fellow says, "It ain't the money but the principle of the
- thing," it's the money.
- -- Kim Hubbard
- @When a fly lands on the ceiling, does it do a half roll or a half
- loop?
- @When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is
- not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space
- travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.
- -- Robert Heinlein
- @When a shepherd goes to kill a wolf, and takes his dog along to see the
- sport, he should take care to avoid mistakes. The dog has certain
- relationships to the wolf the shepherd may have forgotten.
- -- Robert Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
- @When all other means of communication fail, try words.
- @When does summertime come to Minnesota, you ask? Well, last year, I
- think it was a Tuesday.
- @When God endowed human beings with brains, He did not intend to
- guarantee them.
- @When I said "we", officer, I was referring to myself, the four young
- ladies, and, of course, the goat.
- @When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now
- I'm beginning to believe it.
- -- Clarence Darrow
- @When I was in school, I cheated on my metaphysics exam: I looked into
- the soul of the boy sitting next to me.
- -- Woody Allen
- @When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened
- or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I
- cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to
- go to pieces like this but we all have to do it.
- -- Mark Twain
- @When in doubt, do what the President does -- guess.
- @"When in doubt, tell the truth."
- -- Mark Twain
- @When in doubt, use brute force.
- -- Ken Thompson
- @When love is gone, there's always justice.
- And when justice is gone, there's always force.
- And when force is gone, there's always Mom.
- Hi, Mom!
- -- Laurie Anderson
- @When Marriage is Outlawed,
- Only Outlaws will have Inlaws.
- @When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment
- results.
- -- Calvin Coolidge
- @When someone says "I want a programming language in which I need only
- say what I wish done," give him a lollipop.
- @"When the going gets tough, the tough get empirical"
- -- Jon Carroll
- @When the government bureau's remedies do not match your problem, you
- modify the problem, not the remedy.
- @When the Ngdanga tribe of West Africa hold their moon love ceremonies,
- the men of the tribe bang their heads on sacred trees until they get a
- nose bleed, which usually cures them of that.
- -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
- @When the Universe was not so out of whack as it is today, and all the
- stars were lined up in their proper places, you could easily count them
- from left to right, or top to bottom, and the larger and bluer ones
- were set apart, and the smaller yellowing types pushed off to the
- corners as bodies of a lower grade ...
- -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
- @When two people are under the influence of the most violent, most
- insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions, they are
- required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and
- exhausting condition continuously until death do them part.
- -- George Bernard Shaw
- @When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is
- not hereditary.
- -- Thomas Paine
- @"When you are in it up to your ears, keep your mouth shut."
- @When you do not know what you are doing, do it neatly.
- @When you have shot and killed a man you have in some measure
- clarified your attitude toward him. You have given a definite answer
- to a definite problem. For better or worse you have acted decisively.
-
- In a way, the next move is up to him.
- -- R. A. Lafferty
- @"When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite."
- -- Winston Curchill, On formal declarations of war
- @When you make your mark in the world, watch out for guys with erasers.
- -- The Wall Street Journal
- @When you're away, I'm restless, lonely,
- Wretched, bored, dejected; only
- Here's the rub, my darling dear
- I feel the same when you are near.
- -- Samuel Hoffenstein, "When You're Away"
- @When you're not looking at it, this quip is written in FORTRAN.
- @Whenever anyone says, "theoretically", they really mean, "not really".
- -- Dave Parnas
- @Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to
- see it tried on him personally.
- -- A. Lincoln
- @Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last
- you are going to see of him until he emerges on the other side of his
- Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.
- -- Mark Twain from "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"
- @Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time
- to reform.
- -- Mark Twain
- @WHERE CAN THE MATTER BE
-
- Oh, dear, where can the matter be
- When it's converted to energy?
- There is a slight loss of parity.
- Johnny's so long at the fair.
- @Where humor is concerned there are no standards -- no one can say what
- is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.
- -- John Kenneth Galbraith
- @Where there's a will, there's an Inheritance Tax.
- @Whether you can hear it or not
- The Universe is laughing behind your back
- -- National Lampoon, "Deteriorada"
- @While anyone can admit to themselves they were wrong, the true test is
- admission to someone else.
- @While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,
- The fate of empires and the fall of kings;
- While quacks of State must each produce his plan,
- And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
- Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
- The Rights of Woman merit some attention.
- -- Robert Burns, Address on "The Rights of Woman", November 26, 1792
- @While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own
- form of misery.
- @While money doesn't buy love, it puts you in a great bargaining
- position.
- @While most peoples' opinions change, the conviction of their
- correctness never does.
- @While you don't greatly need the outside world, it's still very
- reassuring to know that it's still there.
- @While your friend holds you affectionately by both your hands you are
- safe, for you can watch both of his.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Whistler's Law:
- You never know who is right, but you always know who is in charge.
- @"Who cares if it doesn't do anything? It was made with our new
- Triple-Iso-Bifurcated-Krypton-Gate-MOS process ..."
- @Who made the world I cannot tell;
- 'Tis made, and here am I in hell.
- My hand, though now my knuckles bleed,
- I never soiled with such a deed.
- -- A. E. Housman
- @Who needs friends when you can sit alone in your room and drink?
- @Who's on first?
- @Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.
- @"Why be a man when you can be a success?"
- -- Bertold Brecht
- @Why did the Lord give us so much quickness of movement unless it was to
- avoid responsibility with?
- @Why did the Roman Empire collapse? What is the Latin for office
- automation?
- @Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently
- there must be a beverage.
- -- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
- @Why I Can't Go Out With You:
-
- I'd LOVE to, but ...
- -- I have to floss my cat.
- -- I've dedicated my life to linguini.
- -- I need to spend more time with my blender.
- -- it wouldn't be fair to the other Beautiful People.
- -- it's my night to pet the dog/ferret/goldfish.
- -- I'm going downtown to try on some gloves.
- -- I have to check the freshness dates on my dairy products.
- -- I'm going down to the bakery to watch the buns rise.
- -- I have an appointment with a cuticle specialist.
- -- I have some really hard words to look up.
- -- I've got a Friends of the Lowly Rutabaga meeting.
- -- I promised to help a friend fold road maps.
- @"Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is
- because we are not the person involved."
- -- Mark Twain
- @"Why isn't there a special name for the tops of your feet?"
- -- Lily Tomlin
- @Why not have an old-fashioned Christmas for your family this year?
- Just picture the scene in your living room on Christmas morning as your
- children open their old-fashioned presents.
-
- Your 11-year-old son: "What the heck is this?"
-
- You: "A spinning top! You spin it around, and then eventually it
- falls down. What fun! Ha, ha!"
-
- Son: "Is this a joke? Jason Thompson's parents got him a computer
- with two disk drives and 128 kilobytes of random-access memory,
- and I get this cretin TOP?"
-
- Your 8-year-old daughter: "You think that's bad? Look at this."
-
- You: "It's figgy pudding! What a treat!"
-
- Daughter: "It looks like goat barf."
- -- Dave Barry, "Simple, Homespun Gifts"
- @"Why was I born with such contemporaries?"
- -- Oscar Wilde
- @Wiker's Law:
- Government expands to absorb revenue and then some.
- @William Safire's Rules for Writers:
-
- Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never
- be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Verbs have to
- agree with their subjects. Proofread carefully to see if you words
- out. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal
- of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing. A writer must
- not shift your point of view. And don't start a sentence with a
- conjunction. (Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a
- sentence with.) Don't overuse exclamation marks!! Place pronouns as
- close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more
- words, to their antecedents. Writing carefully, dangling participles
- must be avoided. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a
- linking verb is. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing
- metaphors. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky. Everyone should
- be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their
- writing. Always pick on the correct idiom. The adverb always follows
- the verb. Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek
- viable alternatives.
- @Williams and Holland's Law:
- If enough data is collected, anything may be proven by statistical methods.
- @Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as
- it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat.
- @Wit, n.:
- The salt with which the American Humorist spoils his cookery ... by
- leaving it out.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @With a rubber duck, one's never alone.
- -- "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
- @With all the fancy scientists in the world, why can't they just once
- build a nuclear balm?
- @With every passing hour our solar system comes forty-three thousand
- miles closer to globular cluster M13 in the constellation Hercules, and
- still there are some misfits who continue to insist that there is no
- such thing as progress.
- -- Ransom K. Ferm
- @Without ice cream life and fame are meaningless.
- @Wood is highly ecological, since trees are a renewable resource. If
- you cut down a tree, another will grow in its place. And if you cut
- down the new tree, still another will grow. And if you cut down that
- tree, yet another will grow, only this one will be a mutation with
- long, poisonous tentacles and revenge in its heart, and it will sit
- there in the forest, cackling and making elaborate plans for when you
- come back.
-
- Wood heat is not new. It dates back to a day millions of years ago,
- when a group of cavemen were sitting around, watching dinosaurs rot.
- Suddenly, lightning struck a nearby log and set it on fire. One of the
- cavemen stared at the fire for a few minutes, then said: "Hey! Wood
- heat!" The other cavemen, who did not understand English, immediately
- beat him to death with stones. But the key discovery had been made,
- and from that day forward, the cavemen had all the heat they needed,
- although their insurance rates went way up.
- -- Dave Barry, "Postpetroleum Guzzler"
- @Workers of the world, arise! You have nothing to lose but your
- chairs.
- @Worst Month of 1981 for Downhill Skiing:
-
- August. The lines are the shortest, though.
- -- Steve Rubenstein
- @Worst Month of the Year:
-
- February. February has only 28 days in it, which means that if
- you rent an apartment, you are paying for three full days you don't
- get. Try to avoid Februarys whenever possible.
- -- Steve Rubenstein
- @Worst Vegetable of the Year:
-
- The brussels sprout. This is also the worst vegetable of next
- year.
- -- Steve Rubenstein
- @"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
-
- "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat
- -- Lewis Carrol
- @Write-Protect Tab, n.:
-
- A small sticker created to cover the unsightly notch carelessly
- left by disk manufacturers. The use of the tab creates an error
- message once in a while, but its aesthetic value far outweighs the
- momentary inconvenience.
- -- Robb Russon
- @X-rated movies are all alike ... the only thing they leave to the
- imagination is the plot.
- @Xerox does it again and again and again and ...
- @Xerox never comes up with anything original.
- @"Yacc" owes much to a most stimulating collection of users, who have
- goaded me beyond my inclination, and frequently beyond my ability in
- their endless search for "one more feature". Their irritating
- unwillingness to learn how to do things my way has usually led to my
- doing things their way; most of the time, they have been right.
- -- S. C. Johnson, "Yacc guide acknowledgements"
- @Year, n.:
- A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments.
- -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
- @Yes, but every time I try to see things your way, I get a headache.
- @Yes, but which self do you want to be?
- @Yesterday I was a dog. Today I'm a dog. Tomorrow I'll probably still
- be a dog. Sigh! There's so little hope for advancement.
- -- Snoopy
- @Yesterday upon the stair
- I met a man who wasn't there.
- He wasn't there again today --
- I think he's from the CIA.
- @Yield to Temptation ... it may not pass your way again.
- -- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
- @Yinkel, n.:
- A person who combs his hair over his bald spot, hoping no one
- will notice.
- -- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
- @"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
- "All your papers these days look the same;
- Those William's would be better unread --
- Do these facts never fill you with shame?"
-
- "In my youth," Father William replied to his son,
- "I wrote wonderful papers galore;
- But the great reputation I found that I'd won,
- Made it pointless to think any more."
- @"You are old, father William," the young man said,
- "And your hair has become very white;
- And yet you incessantly stand on your head --
- Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
-
- "In my youth," father William replied to his son,
- "I feared it might injure the brain;
- But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
- Why, I do it again and again."
- -- Lewis Carrol
- @"You are old," said the youth, "and I'm told by my peers
- That your lectures bore people to death.
- Yet you talk at one hundred conventions per year --
- Don't you think that you should save your breath?"
-
- "I have answered three questions and that is enough,"
- Said his father, "Don't give yourself airs!
- Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
- Be off, or I'll kick you downstairs!"
- @"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
- For anything tougher than suet;
- Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak --
- Pray, how did you manage to do it?"
-
- "In my youth," said his father, "I took to the law,
- And argued each case with my wife;
- And the muscular strength which it gave to my jaw,
- Has lasted the rest of my life."
- -- Lewis Carrol
- @"You are old," said the youth, "and your programs don't run,
- And there isn't one language you like;
- Yet of useful suggestions for help you have none --
- Have you thought about taking a hike?"
-
- "Since I never write programs," his father replied,
- "Every language looks equally bad;
- Yet the people keep paying to read all my books
- And don't realize that they've been had."
- @"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
- And have grown most uncommonly fat;
- Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door --
- Pray what is the reason of that?"
-
- "In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
- "I kept all my limbs very supple
- By the use of this ointment -- one shilling the box --
- Allow me to sell you a couple?"
- -- Lewis Carrol
- @"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
- And make errors few people could bear;
- You complain about everyone's English but yours --
- Do you really think this is quite fair?"
-
- "I make lots of mistakes," Father William declared,
- "But my stature these days is so great
- That no critic can hurt me -- I've got them all scared,
- And to stop me it's now far too late."
- @"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
- That your eye was as steady as ever;
- Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose --
- What made you so awfully clever?"
-
- "I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
- Said his father. "Don't give yourself airs!
- Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
- Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!"
- -- Lewis Carrol
- @You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.
- @You are wise, witty, and wonderful, but you spend too much time reading
- this sort of trash.
- @You can always tell the Christmas season is here when you start getting
- incredibly dense, tinfoil-and-ribbon- wrapped lumps in the mail.
- Fruitcakes make ideal gifts because the Postal Service has been unable
- to find a way to damage them. They last forever, largely because
- nobody ever eats them. In fact, many smart people save the fruitcakes
- they receive and send them back to the original givers the next year;
- some fruitcakes have been passed back and forth for hundreds of years.
-
- The easiest way to make a fruitcake is to buy a darkish cake, then
- pound some old, hard fruit into it with a mallet. Be sure to wear
- safety glasses.
- -- Dave Barry, "Simple, Homespun Gifts"
- @You can create your own opportunities this week. Blackmail a senior
- executive.
- @You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you
- can with just a kind word.
- -- Bumper Sticker
- @You can make it illegal, but you can't make it unpopular.
- @You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on
- the continuing viability of FORTRAN.
- -- Alan Perlis
- @You can take all the impact that science considerations have on funding
- decisions at NASA, put them in the navel of a flea, and have room left
- over for a caraway seed and Tony Calio's heart.
- -- F. Allen
- @You can tell how far we have to go, when FORTRAN is the language of
- supercomputers.
- -- Steven Feiner
- @You can't carve your way to success without cutting remarks.
- @You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
- @You can't start worrying about what's going to happen. You get spastic
- enough worrying about what's happening now.
- -- Lauren Bacall
- @"You can't teach people to be lazy - either they have it, or they
- don't."
- -- Dagwood Bumstead
- @You cannot achieve the impossible without attempting the absurd.
- @You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.
- @You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.
- @You could get a new lease on life -- if only you didn't need the first
- and last month in advance.
- @You couldn't even prove the White House staff sane beyond a reasonable
- doubt.
- -- Ed Meese, on the Hinckley verdict
- @You don't have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.
- -- J. D. Salinger
- @You don't sew with a fork, so I see no reason to eat with knitting
- needles.
- -- Miss Piggy, on eating Chinese Food
- @You first have to decide whether to use the short or the long form. The
- short form is what the Internal Revenue Service calls "simplified",
- which means it is designed for people who need the help of a Sears
- tax-preparation expert to distinguish between their first and last
- names. Here's the complete text:
-
- "1. How much did you make? (AMOUNT)
- "2. How much did we here at the government take out? (AMOUNT)
- "3. Hey! Sounds like we took too much! So we're going to send an
- official government check for (ONE-FIFTEENTH OF THE AMOUNT WE TOOK)
- directly to the (YOUR LAST NAME) household at (YOUR ADDRESS), for you to
- spend in any way you please! Which just goes to show you, (YOUR FIRST
- NAME), that it pays to file the short form!"
-
- The IRS wants you to use this form because it gets to keep most of your
- money. So unless you have pond silt for brains, you want the long form.
- -- Dave Barry, "Sweating Out Taxes"
- @You have the capacity to learn from mistakes. You'll learn a lot
- today.
- @You know you've been spending too much time on the computer when your
- friend misdates a check, and you suggest adding a "++" to fix it.
- @"You know, it's at times like this when I'm trapped in a Vogon
- airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and about to die of asphyxiation in
- deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me
- when I was young!"
-
- "Why, what did she tell you?"
-
- "I don't know, I didn't listen!"
- -- Douglas Adams, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
- @You may be recognized soon. Hide.
- @You may have heard that a dean is to faculty as a hydrant is to a dog.
- -- Alfred Kahn
- @You men out there probably think you already know how to dress for
- success. You know, for example, that you should not wear leisure suits
- or white plastic belts and shoes, unless you are going to a costume
- party disguised as a pig farmer vacationing at Disney World.
- -- Dave Barry, "How to Dress for Real Success"
- @You might have mail
- @"You must realize that the computer has it in for you. The irrefutable
- proof of this is that the computer always does what you tell it to do."
- @You need no longer worry about the future. This time tomorrow you'll
- be dead.
- @You never know how many friends you have until you rent a house on the
- beach.
- @You or I must yield up his life to Ahrimanes. I would rather it were
- you. I should have no hesitation in sacrificing my own life to spare
- yours, but we take stock next week, and it would not be fair on the
- company.
- -- J. Wellington Wells
- @You possess a mind not merely twisted, but actually sprained.
- @You should emulate your heros, but don't carry it too far. Especially
- if they are dead.
- @You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for
- freedom and liberty.
- -- Henrick Ibson
- @You should not use your fireplace, because scientists now believe that,
- contrary to popular opinion, fireplaces actually remove heat from
- houses. Really, that's what scientists believe. In fact many
- scientists actually use their fireplaces to cool their houses in the
- summer. If you visit a scientist's house on a sultry August day,
- you'll find a cheerful fire roaring on the hearth and the scientist
- sitting nearby, remarking on how cool he is and drinking heavily.
- -- Dave Barry, "Postpetroleum Guzzler"
- @You will be a winner today. Pick a fight with a four-year-old.
- @You will be surprised by a loud noise.
- @You will be Told about it Tomorrow. Go Home and Prepare Thyself.
- @You worry too much about your job. Stop it. You are not paid enough
- to worry.
- @"You'll never be the man your mother was!"
- @You're at the end of the road again.
- @You're being followed. Cut out the hanky-panky for a few days.
- @You're never too old to become younger.
- -- Mae West
- @You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on.
- -- Dean Martin
- @You've been leading a dog's life. Stay off the furniture.
- @Your analyst has you mixed up with another patient. Don't believe a
- thing he tells you.
- @Your conscience never stops you from doing anything. It just stops you
- from enjoying it.
- @Your fault: core dumped
- @Your life would be very empty if you had nothing to regret.
- @Your lucky color has faded.
- @Your lucky number has been disconnected.
- @Your lucky number is 3552664958674928. Watch for it everywhere.
- @Your true value depends entirely on what you are compared with.
- @Youth is when you blame all your troubles on your parents; maturity is
- when you learn that everything is the fault of the younger generation.
- @Zero Defects, n.:
- The result of shutting down a production line.
- @Zounds! I was never so bethumped with words
- since I first called my brother's father dad.
- -- William Shakespeare, "King John"
- @Zymurgy's Law of Volunteer Labor:
- People are always available for work in the past tense.
- @I beg, I pander,
- I let them win at tennis.
- But later I gag.
- -- wolit at mhuxd.att.com [from The George Bush Haiku Competition]
-