Quotation of the day for February 5, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for February 5, 2019 "Like many of my generation, I became a news addict during World War II. Even now, it takes a definite effort of will for me not to switch on the hourly news summaries, and with a truly global service one could spend every waking minute monitoring the amusing, crazy, interesting and tragic things that go on around this planet. I can foresee the rise of even more virulent forms of news addiction, resulting in the evolution of a class of people who can't bear to miss anything that's happening, anywhere, and spend their waking hours glued to the [console]. I've even coined a name for them -- Infomaniacs." - Arthur C. Clarke, writing in the May 1977 issue of Creative Computing. [https://paleotronic.com/2019/01/30/arthur-c-clarke-communications-in-the-second-century-of-the-telephone-1977/] Submitted by: Terry Labach Feb. 4, 2019

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Quotation of the day for February 2, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for February 2, 2019 "When I was introduced into the army at the age of eighteen, I started playing around little towns, just standing on the corner. People asked me to play gospel tunes and complimented me real nicely: 'Son, if you keep it up, you're going to be real good someday.' But the people who asked me to play the blues tunes normally tipped me, many times getting me beer. So that motivated me to play the blues, you might say." - B.B. King, on his start as a blues musician. Submitted by: Terry Labach Feb. 1, 2019

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Quotation of the day for January 26, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for January 26, 2019 "An older woman, probably in her late seventies, came in with a bag of books to sell. They were all erotica, and all photographic books from the 1960s. I checked one or two of them and they were reasonably valuable, so I gave her [50 pounds] for them. Just before she left she picked one of the books up and said, 'See if you can work out which of the models in this book is me.'" - Shaun Bythell, from the August 27 entry in his memoir, The Diary Of A Bookseller. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Jan. 25, 2019

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Quotation of the day for January 24, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for January 24, 2019 "The meal opened with a 1975 Diet Pepsi served in a disposable bottle. Although its bouquet was negligible, its distinct metallic aftertaste evoked memories of tin cans one had licked experimentally in the first flush of childhood's curiosity. "To create the balance of tastes so cherished by the epicurean palate, I followed with a pate de fruites de nuts of Georgia, prepared according to my own recipe. A half-inch layer of creamy-style peanut butter is troweled onto a graham cracker, then half a banana is crudely diced and pressed firmly into the peanut butter and cemented in place as it were by a second graham cracker. "The accompanying drink was cold milk served in a wide-brimmed jelly glass. This is essential to proper consumption of the pate, since the entire confection must be dipped into the milk to soften it for eating. In making the presentation to the mouth, one must beware lest the milk-soaked portion of the sandwich fall onto the necktie. Thus, seasoned gourmandisers follow the old maxim of the Breton chefs and "bring the mouth to the jelly glass."" - Russell Baker, from his 1975 essay Francs and Beans. The humourist and writer died Jan. 21, 2019 at the age of 93. [https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/18/archives/francs-and-beans.html] Submitted by: Terry Labach Jan. 23, 2019

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Quotation of the day for January 19, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for January 19, 2019 "At 93, too weak to speak, he still managed to play the piano this morning, later passing away peacefully in the afternoon." - Dina Pearlman, announcing the death of her father Alan Pearlman, a pioneer of music synthesizers. [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/obituaries/alan-r-pearlman-dead.html] Submitted by: Terry Labach Jan. 18, 2019

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Quotation of the day for January 7, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for January 7, 2019 "Sometimes the ultimate pointlessness of a line of work is so obvious that few involved make much effort to deny it. Most universities in the United Kingdom now have public relations offices with staffs several times larger than would be typical for, say, a bank or an auto manufacturer of roughly the same size. Does Oxford really need to employ a dozen-plus PR specialists to convince the public it's a top-notch university? I'd imagine it would take at least that many PR agents quite a number of years to convince the public Oxford was not a top-notch university, and even then, I suspect the task would prove impossible. Obviously, I am being slightly facetious here: this is not the only thing a PR department does. I'm sure in the case of Oxford much of its day-to-day concerns involve more practical matters such as attracting to the university the children of oil magnates or corrupt politicians from foreign lands who might otherwise have gone to Cambridge." - David Graeber, from his book Bullshit Jobs. Submitted by: Terry Labach Jan. 6, 2019

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Quotation of the day for January 5, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for January 5, 2019 "Bourdieu had produced, in other words, a discourse entirely in keeping with his time, a time that combined, in the words of the editors, the 'orphaned fervor of denouncing the system with the disenchanted certitude of its perpetuity'." - Jacques Ranciere, from "The Ignorant Schoolmaster". Submitted by: Nora Ishibashi Nov. 5, 2018

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Quotation of the day for January 4, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for January 4, 2019 "Books are many things: energy shots, life-jackets, flying carpets, alarm clocks, oxygen masks, weapons, salves. Who needs what and when can't be predicted till it happens." - Jeanette Winterson [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/dec/07/jeanette-winterson-books-that-made-me] Submitted by: Kathleen Magone Jan. 2, 2019

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Quotation of the day for January 3, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for January 3, 2019 "Glass will move as you stand on it, whereas Lego, you'll get one that will sort of stand proud and refuse to go down," says Bell. - Scott Bell, quoted in Smithsonian Magazine, on the problems of walking on Lego. Bell earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest-ever barefoot walk, 250 feet, over hot coals. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-walking-legos-hurts-more-walking-fire-or-ice-180970784/] Submitted by: David Bergman Nov. 28, 2018

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Quotation of the day for January 1, 2019

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Quotation of the Day for January 1, 2019 "The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of the human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticism of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites and says yes. It is, in fact, the great exciter of the 'Yes' function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth." - William James Submitted by: Terry Labach Jan. 1, 2019

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Quotation of the day for November 13, 2018

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Quotation of the Day for November 13, 2018 "Due to his injury, he always had to either wear the iron armor, or an iron chest plate he had fashioned for himself, to keep his heart beating. If that explanation doesn't sound medically correct, hey, he's a comicbook hero and I'm not a cardiologist." - Stan Lee, of Marvel Comics fan, describing Iron Man from his 2002 memoir, "Excelsior!" Lee died Nov. 12, 2018 at age 95. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 12, 2018

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Quotation of the day for November 11, 2018

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Quotation of the Day for November 11, 2018 "The end of the war was so swift and dramatic that no one had time to adjust feelings to changed circumstances. I learned on the morning of November 11, a few hours in advance of the general public, that the armistice was coming. I went out into the street, and told a Belgian soldier, who said: 'Tiens, c'est chic!' I went into a tobacconist's and told the lady who served me. "I am glad of that," she said, "because now we shall be able to get rid of the interned Germans." At eleven o'clock, when the Armistice was announced, I was in Tottenham Court Road. Within two minutes everybody in all the shops and offices had come into the street. They commandeered the buses, and made them go where they liked. I saw a man and a woman, complete strangers to each other, meet in the middle of the road and kiss as they passed. "Late into the night I stayed alone in the streets, watching the temper of the crowd, as I had done in the August days four years before. The crowd was frivolous still, and had learned nothing during the period of horror, except to snatch at pleasure more recklessly than before. I felt strangely solitary amid the rejoicings, like a ghost dropped by accident from some other planet. True, I rejoiced also, but I could find nothing in common between my rejoicing and that of the crowd." - Bertrand Russell, from his Autobiography, recalling the end of the First World War on November 11, 1918. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 9, 2018

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Quotation of the day for November 8, 2018

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Quotation of the Day for November 8, 2018 "We need more weed!" - Trevor Tobin, co-owner of marijuana retailer High North in Labrador City, Newfoundland. Marijuana was legalized for recreational use in Canada this year, but suppliers have had problems keeping up with demand. [http://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/world/canada/canada-marijuana-shortage.html] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 7, 2018

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Quotation of the day for November 7, 2018

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Quotation of the Day for November 7, 2018 "Later, as he sat on his balcony eating the dog, Dr Robert Laing reflected on the unusual events that had taken place within this huge apartment building during the previous three months. Now that everything had returned to normal, he was surprised that there had been no obvious beginning, no point beyond which their lives had moved into a clearly more sinister dimension. With its forty floors and thousand apartments, its supermarket and swimming-pools, bank and junior school - all in effect abandoned in the sky - the high-rise offered more than enough opportunities for violence and confrontation. Certainly his own studio apartment on the 25th floor was the last place Laing would have chosen as an early skirmish-ground. This over-priced cell, slotted almost at random into the cliff face of the apartment building, he had bought after his divorce specifically for its peace, quiet and anonymity. Curiously enough, despite all Laing's efforts to detach himself from his two thousand neighbours and the regime of trivial disputes and irritations that provided their only corporate life, it was here if anywhere that the first significant event had taken place - on this balcony where he now squatted beside a fire of telephone directories, eating the roast hind-quarter of the alsatian before setting off to his lecture at the medical school." - J. G. Ballard, from his 1975 novel High-Rise. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 6, 2018

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Quotation of the day for November 5, 2018

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Quotation of the Day for November 5, 2018 "Mike Myers phoned me up and said, "We've got this thing which we think is great, do you want to hear it?" And I said, "Yeah." And he said, "Do you think Freddie would want to hear it?" Now Freddie was really sick by that time but I said, "Yeah, I'm sure he will." Mike gave me a tape which I took 'round to Freddie and played to him and Freddie loved it, he just laughed and thought it was great, this little video. ... "It's a great scene. The funny thing was, we always regarded ["Bohemian Rhapsody"] tongue in cheek ourselves. If it would come on the radio, we would all be headbanging when it came to the heavy bit as well, us as a group. It was very close to our sense of humor." - Brian May, guitarist of Queen, on the band's song Bohemian Rhapsody being used in the movie Wayne's World. [https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/party-on-queens-brian-may-remembers-bohemian-rhapsody-on-40th-anniversary-67545/] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 2, 2018

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Quotation of the day for November 4, 2018

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Quotation of the Day for November 4, 2018 "People always askin' me, what is the Blues? Well, the Blues is when you ain't got no money. The Blues is when you hot-stepping out the French windows, when you've left your crocodile shoes under another back-door man's bed, the Blues is when you've had enough, you cock your Glock and declare to God and the Devil - "Let the party begin." - Alabama 3, from the itroduction to the band's album, Blues. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk May 1, 2018

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Quotation of the day for November 3, 2018

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Quotation of the Day for November 3, 2018 "If for some reason you were confined to a single adjective to describe Las Vegas, then you would have to settle for the following: un-Islamic. Las Vegas is tremendously un-Islamic. When, at the Sin City airport, I settled into one of the motorised fridges known hereabouts as taxis, I was asked if I wanted "some music". I said I didn't, knowing that I was going to get some music everywhere I went, whether I wanted some music or not. And that's the very least of it. The whoops from the craps tables (all yea and ow and YESSS), the variegated birdsong of mobile phones ("What's good, buddy?") and the madhouse nursery jingles of the slot machines, horribly prolonged and as pleasing to the ear as a defective car alarm, and then the cataract of coins into the acoustically enhanced money trays. And some music." - Martin Amis, from his 2006 essay "Losing Las Vegas," about competing in the World Series of Poker. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 2, 2018

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