Quotation of the day for November 30, 2004

"Surely, if we can produce in such abundance in order to destroy
our enemies, we can produce in equal abundance in order to
provide food, clothing, and shelter for our children."

- Tommy Douglas (1904-1986), Canadian socialist politician, in a
radio speech delivered during World War II. Douglas was a
Member of Parliament, and won five consecutive elections as
Premier of Saskatchewan.

As announced November 29, 2004, Canadians voted Tommy Douglas,
known as the "father of Medicare," the Greatest Canadian of all
time following a nationwide contest. Outside Canada, Douglas
is better known as the grandfather of actor Keifer Sutherland.

[http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Nov. 30, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 29, 2004

"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use
as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how
to use my telephone."

- Bjarne Stroustrup, inventor of the C++ programming language.

Submitted by: dglenn
Oct. 27, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 28, 2004

"Do not pack heavy food items in your checked luggage. Foods
such as fruitcake may cause the airport screening machines to
alarm, thus slowing down the security process."

- from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration "2004
Holiday Season Travel Tips".

[http://www.tsa.gov/public/display?theme=183&content=09000519800e12f4]

Submitted by: Ann Jones
Nov. 23, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 27, 2004

"On Veterans' Day in America, the movie _Saving Private Ryan_ was
dumped by over 60 ABC affiliates and why? Well, apparently, it's
against family values. And so a whole bunch of family values
groups, they got together and they decided because they didn't
want to watch this movie then nobody should be allowed to watch
this movie.

"So they lobbied the FCC and they threatened to boycott any
channel that would dare air this film. And it worked: the movie
was censored in one-third of the country. And why? Because
these people know it is immoral to celebrate Veterans' Day by
watching a war movie if -- get this -- it contains violence,
swearing, or taking the Lord's name in vain.

"None of which, of course, happened in World War II.

"No, because in World War II, people were too busy getting killed
trying to protect America from the type of person that would
definitely tell you what you can and cannot watch. According to
these people, everyone would be much better off celebrating
Veterans' Day by just staying at home and watching another
episode of _Touched By An Angel_.

"Thanks to family values, when it comes to freedom and personal
choice, the wheels are off the bus in America. And let's face it:
it was a pretty short bus to begin with."

- Rick Mercer, _Rick Mercer's Monday Report_, 23 Nov 2004
http://www.cbc.ca/mondayreport/

Submitted by: D. Joseph Creighton
Nov. 23, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 26, 2004

"Perhaps it is a handicap, in writing about the relationship
between men and women, to be conclusive. To be aghast and muddled
and fascinated is at least a good start."

- Rosemary Dinnage

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Aug. 12, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 25, 2004

"Just because it is technically possible to provide misleading
information, doesn't mean you should."

- Gerry McGovern
[http://www.gerrymcgovern.com]

Submitted by: Duffy O'Craven
Nov. 21, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 23, 2004

"What we really need instead of smart classrooms is smart teachers
and smart learners."

- Howard J. Strauss, technology-outreach coordinator at Princeton
University. Quoted in "When Good Technology Means Bad
Teaching", The Chronicle of Higher Education (November 12, 2004).

[http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i12/12a03101.htm]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Nov. 22, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 22, 2004

"The point about verbs is that they commit the speaker. Verbs
cement sentences to their meaning so it's not surprising that
politicians tend to mistrust them."

- John Humphrys, a British political journalist and the author of
a new book, "Lost for Words," about the demise of the English
language. Among other politicians, British Prime Minister Tony
Blair came under attack by Humphrys because of Blair's
"apparent fear of verbs."

[http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=6827888]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Nov. 16, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 21, 2004

"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament],
'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures,
will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly
apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such
a question."

- Charles Babbage, computing pioneer.

[http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Babbage.html]

Submitted by: dglenn
Nov. 8, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 20, 2004

"Have you ever looked at an ape?" Dr. Bramble said. "They have no
buns."

- from a New York Times article by John Noble Wilford, quoting
Dr. Dennis M. Bramble of the University of Utah on what _really_
separates us from the apes.

[Even Couch Potatoes May Have Been Born to Run,
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/health/17cnd-run.html]

Submitted by: Greg Kimberly
Nov. 17, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 19, 2004

"After looking at it a second time, there's nothing to indicate
that the seller isn't willing to give up this cheese sandwich to
the highest bidder."

- Hani Durzy, spokesman for eBay, referring to half of a 10-year-
old grilled cheese sandwich whose owner claimed bore the image
of the Virgin Mary. The item drew bids as high as $22,000
before eBay pulled the item hours before the online auction
was supposed to have ended, claiming the sandwich broke its
policy, which "does not allow listings that are intended as
jokes." On November 16, the Web site allowed bidding to
resume, with the top offer reaching over $16,000. Bidding is
scheduled to end November 22.

[http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/16/ebay.sandwich.ap/]

Submitted by: Bob Bruhin
Nov. 17, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 18, 2004

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents,
more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some
great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach
their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron."

- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Submitted by: nonesuch
Nov. 9, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 17, 2004

"This would not be a time to violate that policy."

- Dale Ingram, spokesman for Acxiom Corporation. Acxiom
distributed a memo to employees who work in a building
overlooking the Clinton presidential library in Little Rock,
Arkansas. The memo reminds deer-hunting employees of its policy
forbidding weapons on company property in advance of the visit
of 4 present and former U.S. Presidents to the library.

[http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=6827730]

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Nov. 16, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 16, 2004

"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero falsely charged
with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures a
class hated for their abominations, people called Christians by
the populace. Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its
origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of
Tiberius [AD 14-37] at the hands of one of our procurators,
Pontius Pilate. But the pernicious superstition, repressed for a
time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief
originated, but through the city of Rome also."

- Cornelius Tacitus AD 52-54, Annals 15.44.

Submitted by: Gordon Joly
Nov. 13, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 15, 2004

"We came here to say to all of you that apathy isn't it. We can
do something. OK, so Flower Power didn't work. So what. We
start again."

- John Lennon, onstage in Ann Arbor, 1971.

Submitted by: John Philbin
Nov. 6, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 14, 2004

"No one ever says to Van Gogh, 'paint Starry Night again, man!'"

- singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell, from a concert recording, on
the demands of fans.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Nov. 1, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 13, 2004

I was shocked at how easy it was to go there. I was thinking we
would have to go through some security -- that the CIA would
have to do some check on me. I found that all you have to do is
buy a plane ticket, land and get off the plane and say, "I am
here to see Baghdad". The officials in Iraq asked "Are you with
some NGO? Are you with the Red Cross? You must be with the UN,
you have dreadlocks." I was like, "No, I'm a tourist." They kind
of looked around and said, "I don't know if we have a stamp for
a tourist visa". They asked a couple of people and they came
back and they stamped my passport and said, "Go in man, you're
the first tourist we had here since the war started."

- hip-hop artist Michael Franti, from an August 2004 interview
about his June 2004 trip to Iraq and Israel.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Nov. 10, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 12, 2004

"To await a computerized Shakespeare is to wait for Godot."

- Margaret Boden, from "The Creative Mind" (1990).

Submitted by: Gordon Joly
Nov. 11, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 11, 2004

Seeking protection from a salvo of screaming rockets, I had
flung myself through the doorway of a ruined stone hut -- to
find it already occupied by a grey-clad German paratrooper.

He was sitting on the floor, his left hand clasping a shattered
stump where his right arm had been severed just below the elbow.
Dark gore was grouting between his fingers and spreading in a
black pool about his outthrust legs. Most dreadful was a great
gash in his side from which protruded a glistening dark mass
that must have been his liver.

Above this wreckage, his eyes on mine were large and luminous.
When he spoke, the sound was barely louder than a whisper.

"Vasser ... Please giff ... vasser."

I had no water. My water bottle was full of issue rum, which I
knew would have been the death of him.

I shook my head and then I thought, "Oh, hell, he's going
anyway. What harm?" I held the water bottle to his lips and he
swallowed in spasmodic gulps until I took it from him and drank
deeply myself.

So, the two of us got drunk together and, in a little
while, he died.

- writer Farley Mowat, recalling his service as an infantry
lieutenant with the Canadian Army in Italy during the Second
World War.

[qotd commemorates Remembrance Day. -eds.]

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Nov. 11, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 10, 2004

"A master aims at economy of operations, not proliferation."

- Roger Zelazny, in _A Night in the Lonesome October_.

Submitted by: Kelly Rollefson
Oct. 24, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 9, 2004

"Before today, people here and abroad could blame the Bush
administration. After today, it is the American people who are
responsible."

- Frank Mitchell, of Columbus, Ohio, writing to the editor of
The New York Times, Nov. 4, 2004 regarding the election of
U.S. President George W. Bush to a second term.

Submitted by: Manavendra Thakur
Nov. 5, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 8, 2004

"How can you love a man who drinks white wine
I go all the way for a Cabernet
That's Sauvignon not Blanc
A thousand dollar bottle of Chardonnay
No way I'll touch that plonk
Even if he's handsome, writes good songs and has the time
I could never love a man who drinks white wine."

- Carolyn Mark, from "The Wine Song", on her album The Pros and
Cons of Collaboration.

Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk
Oct. 31, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 7, 2004

"Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first
time, as if I had never heard it before. Being so inescapably a
part of it, I'll never know what the listener gets, what the
listener feels, and that's too bad."

- John Coltrane (American jazz saxophonist, 1926-1967)

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Nov. 2, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 6, 2004

"It is the fools and the knaves that make the wheels of the
world turn. They are the world; those few who have sense or
honesty sneak up and down single, but never go in herds."

- George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, in Political, Moral and
Miscellaneous Reflections.

Submitted by: Terry Labach
Nov. 3, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 5, 2004

"Facing it--always facing it--that's the way to get through."

- Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), Typhoon.

Submitted by: Michael Reddy
Nov. 5, 2004

Quotation of the day for November 4, 2004

"... So if you want to have gay sex or visit a library, this
might be the last day for you to do so. Personally, I'm going to
kill two birds with one stone."

- Ed Helms of The Daily Show, anticipating the election of George
W. Bush to a second term as U.S. President.

Submitted by: David Kramer
Nov. 4, 2004