aa84159a86
Obtained from: Jan.Hendriks@Compaq.com MFC after: 3 days
16435 lines
575 KiB
Plaintext
16435 lines
575 KiB
Plaintext
This fortune brought to you by:
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$FreeBSD$
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%
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!07/11 PDP a ni deppart m'I !pleH
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%
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(1) Alexander the Great was a great general.
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(2) Great generals are forewarned.
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(3) Forewarned is forearmed.
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(4) Four is an even number.
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(5) Four is certainly an odd number of arms for a man to have.
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(6) The only number that is both even and odd is infinity.
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Therefore, Alexander the Great had an infinite number of arms.
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%
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(1) Everything depends.
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(2) Nothing is always.
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(3) Everything is sometimes.
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%
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1.79 x 10^12 furlongs per fortnight -- it's not just a good idea, it's
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the law!
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%
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10.0 times 0.1 is hardly ever 1.0.
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%
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100 buckets of bits on the bus
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100 buckets of bits
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Take one down, short it to ground
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FF buckets of bits on the bus
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FF buckets of bits on the bus
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FF buckets of bits
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Take one down, short it to ground
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FE buckets of bits on the bus
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ad infinitum...
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%
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$100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at
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which time it will be worth absolutely nothing.
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-- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
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%
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101 USES FOR A DEAD MICROPROCESSOR
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(1) Scarecrow for centipedes
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(2) Dead cat brush
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(3) Hair barrettes
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(4) Cleats
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(5) Self-piercing earrings
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(6) Fungus trellis
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(7) False eyelashes
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(8) Prosthetic dog claws
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.
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.
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.
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(99) Window garden harrow (pulled behind Tonka tractors)
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(100) Killer velcro
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(101) Currency
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%
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186,282 miles per second:
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||
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It isn't just a good idea, it's the law!
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%
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||
2180, U.S. History question:
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||
What 20th Century U.S. President was almost impeached and what
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office did he later hold?
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%
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$3,000,000
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%
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||
"355/113 -- Not the famous irrational number PI, but an incredible
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simulation!"
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%
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||
3 syncs represent the trinity - init, the child and the eternal zombie
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||
process. In doing 3, you're paying homage to each and I think such
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||
traditions are important in this shallow, mercurial business we find
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ourselves in.
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-- Jordan K. Hubbard
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%
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||
43rd Law of Computing:
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Anything that can go wr
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||
fortune: Segmentation violation -- Core dumped
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||
%
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||
77. HO HUM -- The Redundant
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||
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------- (7) This hexagram refers to a situation of extreme
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--- --- (8) boredom. Your programs always bomb off. Your wife
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------- (7) smells bad. Your children have hives. You are working
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---O--- (6) on an accounting system, when you want to develop the
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---X--- (9) GREAT AMERICAN COMPILER. You give up hot dates to
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--- --- (8) nurse sick computers. What you need now is sex.
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||
Nine in the second place means:
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||
The yellow bird approaches the malt shop. Misfortune.
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||
Six in the third place means:
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||
In former times men built altars to honor the Internal Revenue
|
||
Service. Great Dragons! Are you in trouble!
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||
%
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7:30, Channel 5: The Bionic Dog (Action/Adventure)
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The Bionic Dog drinks too much and kicks over the National
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Redwood Forest.
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%
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||
7:30, Channel 5: The Bionic Dog (Action/Adventure)
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The Bionic Dog gets a hormonal short-circuit and violates the
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||
Mann Act with an interstate Greyhound bus.
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%
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||
99 blocks of crud on the disk,
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||
99 blocks of crud!
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||
You patch a bug, and dump it again:
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||
100 blocks of crud on the disk!
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||
|
||
100 blocks of crud on the disk,
|
||
100 blocks of crud!
|
||
You patch a bug, and dump it again:
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||
101 blocks of crud on the disk! ...
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||
%
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||
A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a
|
||
"Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.
|
||
-- Mahatma Ghandi
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||
%
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||
A [golf] ball hitting a tree shall be deemed not to have hit the tree.
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Hitting a tree is simply bad luck and has no place in a scientific
|
||
game. The player should estimate the distance the ball would have
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traveled if it had not hit the tree and play the ball from there,
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preferably atop a nice firm tuft of grass.
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||
-- Donald A. Metz
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%
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A [golf] ball sliced or hooked into the rough shall be lifted and
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placed in the fairway at a point equal to the distance it carried or
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rolled into the rough. Such veering right or left frequently results
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||
from friction between the face of the club and the cover of the ball
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||
and the player should not be penalized for the erratic behavior of the
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ball resulting from such uncontrollable physical
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||
phenomena.
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-- Donald A. Metz
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%
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||
A baby is an alimentary canal with a loud voice at one end and no
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responsibility at the other.
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%
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||
A baby is God's opinion that the world should go on.
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||
-- Carl Sandburg
|
||
%
|
||
A bachelor is a selfish, undeserving guy who has cheated some woman out
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||
of a divorce.
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||
-- Don Quinn
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||
%
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||
A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining
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||
and wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
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||
-- Mark Twain
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%
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||
A billion here, a couple of billion there -- first thing you know it
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adds up to be real money.
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||
-- Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen
|
||
%
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||
A bird in the bush usually has a friend in there with him.
|
||
%
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||
A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.
|
||
%
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||
A bird in the hand makes it awfully hard to blow your nose.
|
||
%
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||
... A booming voice says, "Wrong, cretin!", and you notice that you
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have turned into a pile of dust.
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%
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||
A bore is someone who persists in holding his own views after we have
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enlightened him with ours.
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||
%
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||
A budget is just a method of worrying before you spend money, as well
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as afterward.
|
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%
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||
A candidate is a person who gets money from the rich and votes from the
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poor to protect them from each other.
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||
%
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||
A celebrity is a person who is known for his well-knownness.
|
||
%
|
||
A child can go only so far in life without potty training. It is not
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||
mere coincidence that six of the last seven presidents were potty
|
||
trained, not to mention nearly half of the nation's state legislators.
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||
-- Dave Barry
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||
%
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||
A child of five could understand this! Fetch me a child of five.
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||
%
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||
A chubby man with a white beard and a red suit will approach you soon.
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Avoid him. He's a Commie.
|
||
%
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||
A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but
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||
won't cross the street to vote in a national election.
|
||
-- Bill Vaughan
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||
%
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||
A city is a large community where people are lonesome together
|
||
-- Herbert Prochnow
|
||
%
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||
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody
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wants to read.
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||
-- Mark Twain
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||
%
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||
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
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||
%
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||
A computer, to print out a fact,
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||
Will divide, multiply, and subtract.
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||
But this output can be
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No more than debris,
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If the input was short of exact.
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||
-- Gigo
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||
%
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||
A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired of thinking.
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||
%
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||
A CONS is an object which cares.
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||
-- Bernie Greenberg.
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||
%
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||
A consultant is a person who borrows your watch, tells you what time it
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||
is, pockets the watch, and sends you a bill for it.
|
||
%
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||
A continuing flow of paper is sufficient to continue the flow of paper.
|
||
-- Dyer
|
||
%
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||
A copy of the universe is not what is required of art; one of the
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||
damned things is ample.
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||
-- Rebecca West
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||
%
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||
A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
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||
-- Ben Franklin
|
||
%
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||
A crusader's wife slipped from the garrison
|
||
And had an affair with a Saracen.
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||
She was not oversexed,
|
||
Or jealous or vexed,
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||
She just wanted to make a comparison.
|
||
%
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||
A cynic is a person searching for an honest man, with a stolen
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||
lantern.
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||
-- Edgar A. Shoaff
|
||
%
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||
A day for firm decisions!!!!! Or is it?
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||
%
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||
A day without sunshine is like night.
|
||
%
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||
A diplomat is a man who can convince his wife she'd look stout in a fur
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coat.
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%
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||
A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that
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||
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
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the toaster -- "I wish the toaster to be happy too".
|
||
%
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||
A diva who specializes in risqu'e arias is an off-coloratura soprano ...
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%
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||
A doctor, an architect, and a computer scientist were arguing
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||
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
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||
Garden itself, in the beginning there was chaos and void, and out of
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||
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,
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||
"Yes, but where do you think the chaos came from?"
|
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%
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||
A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
|
||
-- Ogden Nash
|
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%
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||
A dozen, a gross, and a score,
|
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Plus three times the square root of four,
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Divided by seven,
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Plus five times eleven,
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Equals nine squared plus zero, no more.
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%
|
||
A famous Lisp Hacker noticed an Undergraduate sitting in front of a
|
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Xerox 1108, trying to edit a complex Klone network via a browser.
|
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Wanting to help, the Hacker clicked one of the nodes in the network
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with the mouse, and asked "what do you see?" Very earnestly, the
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Undergraduate replied "I see a cursor." The Hacker then quickly
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pressed the boot toggle at the back of the keyboard, while
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simultaneously hitting the Undergraduate over the head with a thick
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Interlisp Manual. The Undergraduate was then Enlightened.
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%
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||
A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the
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subject.
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-- Winston Churchill
|
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%
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||
A fool must now and then be right by chance.
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||
%
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||
A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into
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||
superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.
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-- G. B. Shaw
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%
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||
A fool-proof method for sculpting an elephant: first, get a huge block
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of marble; then you chip away everything that doesn't look like an
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elephant.
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%
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||
A formal parsing algorithm should not always be used.
|
||
-- D. Gries
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%
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||
"A fractal is by definition a set for which the Hausdorff Besicovitch
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||
dimension strictly exceeds the topological dimension."
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||
-- Mandelbrot, "The Fractal Geometry of Nature"
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||
%
|
||
A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
|
||
-- Adlai Stevenson
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||
%
|
||
A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than
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he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men
|
||
favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter
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||
facts of life in bandages of self-illusion.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
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%
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||
A general leading the State Department resembles a dragon commanding
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ducks.
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||
-- New York Times, Jan. 20, 1981
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%
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||
A girl and a boy bump into each other -- surely an accident.
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A girl and a boy bump and her handkerchief drops -- surely another accident.
|
||
But when a girl gives a boy a dead squid -- *____that ___had __to ____mean _________something*.
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||
-- S. Morganstern, "The Silent Gondoliers"
|
||
%
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||
A gleekzorp without a tornpee is like a quop without a fertsneet (sort
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of).
|
||
%
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||
A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened
|
||
into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the
|
||
hope of greening the landscape of idea.
|
||
-- John Ciardi
|
||
%
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||
A good sysadmin always carries around a few feet of fiber. If he ever
|
||
gets lost, he simply drops the fiber on the ground, waits ten minutes,
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then asks the backhoe operator for directions.
|
||
-- Bill Bradford <mrbill@mrbill.net>
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||
%
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A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely
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rearranging their prejudices.
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||
-- William James
|
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%
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A great nation is any mob of people which produces at least one honest
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man a century.
|
||
%
|
||
A hypothetical paradox:
|
||
What would happen in a battle between an Enterprise security
|
||
team, who always get killed soon after appearing, and a squad of
|
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Imperial Stormtroopers, who can't hit the broad side of a planet?
|
||
-- Tom Galloway
|
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%
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||
A is for Amy who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil assaulted by bears.
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||
C is for Clair who wasted away, D is for Desmond thrown out of the sleigh.
|
||
E is for Ernest who choked on a peach, F is for Fanny, sucked dry by a leech.
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G is for George, smothered under a rug, H is for Hector, done in by a thug.
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||
I is for Ida who drowned in the lake, J is for James who took lye, by mistake.
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K is for Kate who was struck with an axe, L is for Leo who swallowed some tacks.
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M is for Maud who was swept out to sea, N is for Nevil who died of enui.
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O is for Olive, run through with an awl, P is for Prue, trampled flat in a brawl
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Q is for Quinton who sank in a mire, R is for Rhoda, consumed by a fire.
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S is for Susan who parished of fits, T is for Titas who flew into bits.
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U is for Una who slipped down a drain, V is for Victor, squashed under a train.
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W is for Winie, embedded in ice, X is for Xercies, devoured by mice.
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Y is for Yoric whose head was bashed in, Z is for Zilla who drank too much gin.
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||
-- Edward Gorey "The Gastly Crumb Tines"
|
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%
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||
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a cash advance.
|
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%
|
||
A jury consists of 12 persons chosen to decide
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who has the better lawyer.
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||
-- Robert Frost
|
||
%
|
||
A lack of leadership is no substitute for inaction.
|
||
%
|
||
A lady with one of her ears applied
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To an open keyhole heard, inside,
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Two female gossips in converse free --
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The subject engaging them was she.
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"I think", said one, "and my husband thinks
|
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That she's a prying, inquisitive minx!"
|
||
As soon as no more of it she could hear
|
||
The lady, indignant, removed her ear.
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||
"I will not stay," she said with a pout,
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||
"To hear my character lied about!"
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||
-- Gopete Sherany
|
||
%
|
||
A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is
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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 little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.
|
||
-- H. H. Munroe
|
||
%
|
||
A long memory is the most subversive idea in America.
|
||
%
|
||
A long-forgotten loved one will appear soon. Buy the negatives at any
|
||
price.
|
||
%
|
||
A Los Angeles judge ruled that "a citizen may snore with immunity in
|
||
his own home, even though he may be in possession of unusual and
|
||
exceptional ability in that particular field."
|
||
%
|
||
A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me. I'm afraid of widths.
|
||
-- Steve Wright
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
"Nu, 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 master was explaining the nature of Tao to one of his
|
||
novices. "The Tao is embodied in all software -- regardless of how
|
||
insignificant," said the master.
|
||
|
||
"Is Tao in a hand-held calculator?" asked the novice.
|
||
|
||
"It is," came the reply.
|
||
|
||
"Is the Tao in a video game?" continued the novice.
|
||
|
||
"It is even in a video game," said the master.
|
||
|
||
"And is the Tao in the DOS for a personal computer?"
|
||
|
||
The master coughed and shifted his position slightly. "The
|
||
lesson is over for today," he said.
|
||
-- "The Tao of Programming"
|
||
%
|
||
A mathematician is a machine for converting coffee into theorems.
|
||
%
|
||
A Mexican newspaper reports that bored Royal Air Force pilots stationed
|
||
on the Falkland Islands have devised what they consider a marvelous new
|
||
game. Noting that the local penguins are fascinated by airplanes, the
|
||
pilots search out a beach where the birds are gathered and fly slowly
|
||
along it at the water's edge. Perhaps ten thousand penguins turn their
|
||
heads in unison watching the planes go by, and when the pilots turn
|
||
around and fly back, the birds turn their heads in the opposite
|
||
direction, like spectators at a slow-motion tennis match. Then, the
|
||
paper reports, "The pilots fly out to sea and directly to the penguin
|
||
colony and overfly it. Heads go up, up, up, and ten thousand penguins
|
||
fall over gently onto their backs.
|
||
-- Audobon Society Magazine
|
||
|
||
2001-02-02, from http://new.bbc.co.uk:
|
||
|
||
For five weeks, a team from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS)
|
||
monitored 1,000 king penguins on the island of South Georgia as
|
||
Lynx helicopters passed overhead.
|
||
|
||
"Not one king penguin fell over when the helicopters came over,"
|
||
said team leader Dr Richard Stone.
|
||
|
||
"As the aircraft approached, the birds went quiet and stopped
|
||
calling to each other, and adolescent birds that were not associated
|
||
with nests began walking away from the noise. Pure animal instinct,
|
||
really."
|
||
|
||
The conclusion, said Dr Stone, is that flights over 305 metres
|
||
(1,000 feet) caused "only minor and transitory ecological effects"
|
||
on king penguins.
|
||
%
|
||
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 neighbor came to Nasrudin, asking to borrow his donkey. "It is out
|
||
on loan," the teacher replied. At that moment, the donkey brayed
|
||
loudly inside the stable. "But I can hear it bray, over there." "Whom
|
||
do you believe," asked Nasrudin, "me or a donkey?"
|
||
%
|
||
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 New York City judge ruled that if two women behind you at the movies
|
||
insist on discussing the probable outcome of the film, you have the
|
||
right to turn around and blow a Bronx cheer at them.
|
||
%
|
||
A New York City ordinance prohibits the shooting of rabbits from the
|
||
rear of a Third Avenue street car -- if the car is in motion.
|
||
%
|
||
A novel approach is to remove all power from the system, which
|
||
removes most system overhead so that resources can be fully devoted to
|
||
doing nothing. Benchmarks on this technique are promising; tremendous
|
||
amounts of nothing can be produced in this manner. Certain hardware
|
||
limitations can limit the speed of this method, especially in the
|
||
larger systems which require a more involved & less efficient
|
||
power-down sequence.
|
||
An alternate approach is to pull the main breaker for the
|
||
building, which seems to provide even more nothing, but in truth has
|
||
bugs in it, since it usually inhibits the systems which keep the beer
|
||
cool.
|
||
%
|
||
A novice was trying to fix a broken Lisp machine by turning the power
|
||
off and on. Knight, seeing what the student was doing spoke sternly:
|
||
"You can not fix a machine by just power-cycling it with no
|
||
understanding of what is going wrong." Knight turned the machine off
|
||
and on. The machine worked.
|
||
%
|
||
A nuclear war can ruin your whole day.
|
||
%
|
||
A pedestal is as much a prison as any small, confined space.
|
||
-- Gloria Steinem
|
||
%
|
||
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 power so great, it can only be used for Good or Evil!"
|
||
-- Firesign Theatre, "The Giant Rat of Summatra"
|
||
%
|
||
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 news magazine
|
||
%
|
||
A psychiatrist is a person who will give you expensive answers that
|
||
your wife will give you for free.
|
||
%
|
||
A public debt is a kind of anchor in the storm; but if the anchor be
|
||
too heavy for the vessel, she will be sunk by that very weight which
|
||
was intended for her preservation.
|
||
-- Colton
|
||
%
|
||
A putt that stops close enough to the cup to inspire such comments as
|
||
"you could blow it in" may be blown in. This rule does not apply if
|
||
the ball is more than three inches from the hole, because no one wants
|
||
to make a travesty of the game.
|
||
-- Donald A. Metz
|
||
%
|
||
"A raccoon tangled with a 23,000 volt line today. The results blacked
|
||
out 1400 homes and, of course, one raccoon."
|
||
-- Steel City News
|
||
%
|
||
"A radioactive cat has eighteen half-lives."
|
||
%
|
||
A reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:
|
||
|
||
Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying,
|
||
"Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny
|
||
bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the
|
||
lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and
|
||
breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the
|
||
Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of
|
||
the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt
|
||
thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then
|
||
proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being
|
||
the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand
|
||
Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight,
|
||
shall snuff it."
|
||
-- Monty Python, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
|
||
%
|
||
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 Riverside, California, health ordinance states that two persons may
|
||
not kiss each other without first wiping their lips with carbolized
|
||
rosewater.
|
||
%
|
||
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 sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will
|
||
keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those
|
||
that are worth committing.
|
||
-- Samuel Butler
|
||
%
|
||
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 strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many
|
||
bad measures.
|
||
-- Daniel Webster
|
||
%
|
||
A student who changes the course of history is probably taking an
|
||
exam.
|
||
%
|
||
A student, in hopes of understanding the Lambda-nature, came to
|
||
Greenblatt. As they spoke a Multics system hacker walked by. "Is it
|
||
true," asked the student, "that PL-1 has many of the same data types as
|
||
Lisp?" Almost before the student had finished his question, Greenblatt
|
||
shouted, "FOO!", and hit the student with a stick.
|
||
%
|
||
A successful [software] tool is one that was used to do something
|
||
undreamed of by its author.
|
||
-- S. C. Johnson
|
||
%
|
||
A system admin's life is a sorry one. The only advantage he has over
|
||
Emergency Room doctors is that malpractice suits are rare. On the
|
||
other hand, ER doctors never have to deal with patients installing
|
||
new versions of their own innards!
|
||
-- Michael O'Brien
|
||
%
|
||
A tautology is a thing which is tautological.
|
||
%
|
||
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 triangle which has an angle of 135 degrees is called an obscene
|
||
triangle.
|
||
%
|
||
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 University without students is like an ointment without a fly."
|
||
-- Ed Nather, professor of astronomy at UT Austin
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
-- Tennessee 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, but saying something pointless gets
|
||
people's attention.
|
||
%
|
||
"A witty saying proves nothing."
|
||
-- Voltaire
|
||
%
|
||
"A wizard cannot do everything; a fact most magicians are reticent to
|
||
admit, let alone discuss with prospective clients. Still, the fact
|
||
remains that there are certain objects, and people, that are, for one
|
||
reason or another, completely immune to any direct magical spell. It
|
||
is for this group of beings that the magician learns the subtleties of
|
||
using indirect spells. It also does no harm, in dealing with these
|
||
matters, to carry a large club near your person at all times."
|
||
-- The Teachings of Ebenezum, Volume VIII
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics,
|
||
because the stakes are so low.
|
||
-- Wallace Sayre
|
||
%
|
||
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 Arkansas law, Section 4761, Pope's Digest: "No person
|
||
shall be permitted under any pretext whatever, to come nearer than
|
||
fifty feet of any door or window of any polling room, from the opening
|
||
of the polls until the completion of the count and the certification of
|
||
the returns."
|
||
%
|
||
According to Kentucky state law, every person must take a bath at least
|
||
once a year.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
According to the obituary notices, a mean and unimportant person never
|
||
dies.
|
||
%
|
||
"According to the Rand McNally Places-Rated Almanac, the best place to
|
||
live in America is the city of Pittsburgh. The city of New York came
|
||
in twenty-fifth. Here in New York we really don't care too much.
|
||
Because we know that we could beat up their city anytime."
|
||
-- David Letterman
|
||
%
|
||
Accordion, n.:
|
||
A bagpipe with pleats.
|
||
%
|
||
Accuracy, n.:
|
||
The vice of being right
|
||
%
|
||
ACHTUNG!!!
|
||
|
||
Das machine is nicht fur gefingerpoken und mittengrabben. Ist easy
|
||
schnappen der springenwerk, blowenfusen und corkenpoppen mit
|
||
spitzensparken. Ist nicht fur gewerken by das dummkopfen. Das
|
||
rubbernecken sightseeren keepen hands in das pockets. Relaxen und
|
||
vatch das blinkenlights!!!
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Actors will happen even in the best-regulated families.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Advertising is a valuable economic factor because it is the cheapest
|
||
way of selling goods, particularly if the goods are worthless.
|
||
-- Sinclair Lewis
|
||
%
|
||
Advice to young men: Be ascetic, and if you can't be ascetic,
|
||
then at least be asceptic.
|
||
%
|
||
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 a few boring years, socially meaningful rock 'n' roll died out.
|
||
It was replaced by disco, which offers no guidance to any form of life
|
||
more advanced than the lichen family.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Kids Today: They Don't Know Dum Diddly
|
||
Do"
|
||
%
|
||
After a number of decimal places, nobody gives a damn.
|
||
%
|
||
"... 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 asked him what he meant, he replied that freedom consisted of
|
||
the unimpeded right to get rich, to use his ability, no matter what the
|
||
cost to others, to win advancement."
|
||
-- Norman Thomas
|
||
%
|
||
After I run your program, let's make love like crazed weasels, OK?
|
||
%
|
||
After living in New York, you trust nobody, but you believe
|
||
everything. Just in case.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Age before beauty; and pearls before swine.
|
||
-- Dorothy Parker
|
||
%
|
||
Age, n.:
|
||
That period of life in which we compound for the vices that we
|
||
still cherish by reviling those that we no longer have the enterprise
|
||
to commit.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
Ah say, son, you're about as sharp as a bowlin' ball.
|
||
%
|
||
Ah, but the choice of dreams to live,
|
||
there's the rub.
|
||
|
||
For all dreams are not equal,
|
||
some exit to nightmare
|
||
most end with the dreamer
|
||
|
||
But at least one must be lived ... and died.
|
||
%
|
||
"Ah, you know the type. They like to blame it all on the Jews or the
|
||
Blacks, 'cause if they couldn't, they'd have to wake up to the fact
|
||
that life's one big, scary, glorious, complex and ultimately
|
||
unfathomable crapshoot -- and the only reason THEY can't seem to keep
|
||
up is they're a bunch of misfits and losers."
|
||
-- A analysis of Neo-Nazis, from "The Badger" comic
|
||
%
|
||
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."
|
||
%
|
||
Alden's Laws:
|
||
(1) Giving away baby clothes and furniture is the major cause
|
||
of pregnancy.
|
||
(2) Always be backlit.
|
||
(3) Sit down whenever possible.
|
||
%
|
||
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 [zoos] actually offer to the public in return for the taxes spent
|
||
upon them is a form of idle and witless amusement, compared to which a
|
||
visit to a penitentiary, or even to a State legislature in session, is
|
||
informing, stimulating and ennobling.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
All bridge hands are equally likely, but some are more equally likely
|
||
than others.
|
||
-- Alan Truscott
|
||
%
|
||
All extremists should be taken out and shot.
|
||
%
|
||
All Finagle Laws may be bypassed by learning the simple art of doing
|
||
without thinking.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 I can think of is a platter of organic PRUNE CRISPS being trampled
|
||
by an army of swarthy, Italian LOUNGE SINGERS ...
|
||
%
|
||
All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power
|
||
-- Ashleigh Brilliant
|
||
%
|
||
All men are mortal. Socrates was mortal. Therefore, all men are
|
||
Socrates.
|
||
-- Woody Allen
|
||
%
|
||
"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 of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies.
|
||
-- The Book of Bokonon / Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
|
||
%
|
||
All other things being equal, a bald man cannot be elected President of
|
||
the United States.
|
||
-- Vic Gold
|
||
%
|
||
All power corrupts, but we need electricity.
|
||
%
|
||
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 snakes who wish to remain in Ireland will please raise their right
|
||
hands."
|
||
-- Saint Patrick
|
||
%
|
||
All syllogisms have three parts, therefore this is not a syllogism.
|
||
%
|
||
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 passions make us commit faults; love makes us commit the most
|
||
ridiculous ones.
|
||
-- La Rochefoucauld
|
||
%
|
||
All the taxes paid over a lifetime by the average American are spent by
|
||
the government in less than a second.
|
||
-- Jim Fiebig
|
||
%
|
||
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 theoretical chemistry is really physics;
|
||
and all theoretical chemists know it.
|
||
-- Richard P. Feynman
|
||
%
|
||
All things are possible, except skiing thru a revolving door.
|
||
%
|
||
All this wheeling and dealing around, why, it isn't for money, it's for
|
||
fun. Money's just the way we keep score.
|
||
%
|
||
All true wisdom is found on T-shirts.
|
||
%
|
||
All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers ... Each one owes
|
||
infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in
|
||
which he was born.
|
||
-- Francois Fenelon
|
||
%
|
||
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 golf was originally restricted to wealthy, overweight
|
||
Protestants, today it's open to anybody who owns hideous clothing.
|
||
-- Dave Barry
|
||
%
|
||
Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.
|
||
%
|
||
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?"
|
||
%
|
||
Although written many years ago, Lady Chatterley's Lover has just been
|
||
reissued by the Grove Press, and this pictorial account of the
|
||
day-to-day life of an English gamekeeper is full of considerable
|
||
interest to outdoor minded readers, as it contains many passages on
|
||
pheasant-raising, the apprehending of poachers, ways to control vermin,
|
||
and other chores and duties of the professional gamekeeper.
|
||
Unfortunately, one is obliged to wade through many pages of extraneous
|
||
material in order to discover and savour those sidelights on the
|
||
management of a midland shooting estate, and in this reviewer's opinion
|
||
the book cannot take the place of J. R. Miller's "Practical
|
||
Gamekeeping."
|
||
-- Ed Zern, "Field and Stream" (Nov. 1959)
|
||
%
|
||
Always borrow money from a pessimist; he doesn't expect to be paid
|
||
back.
|
||
%
|
||
Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.
|
||
%
|
||
"Always try to do things in chronological order; it's less confusing
|
||
that way."
|
||
%
|
||
Am I ranting? I hope so. My ranting gets raves.
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
American business long ago gave up on demanding that prospective
|
||
employees be honest and hardworking. It has even stopped hoping for
|
||
employees who are educated enough that they can tell the difference
|
||
between the men's room and the women's room without having little
|
||
pictures on the doors.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Urine Trouble, Mister"
|
||
%
|
||
"Amnesia used to be my favorite word, but then I forgot it."
|
||
%
|
||
An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because
|
||
people refuse to see it.
|
||
-- James Michener, "Space"
|
||
%
|
||
An American's a person who isn't afraid to criticize the President but
|
||
is always polite to traffic cops.
|
||
%
|
||
"An anthropologist at Tulane has just come back from a field trip to
|
||
New Guinea with reports of a tribe so primitive that they have Tide but
|
||
not new Tide with lemon-fresh Borax."
|
||
-- David Letterman
|
||
%
|
||
An apple every eight hours will keep three doctors away.
|
||
%
|
||
An architect's first work is apt to be spare and clean. He
|
||
knows he doesn't know what he's doing, so he does it carefully and with
|
||
great restraint.
|
||
As he designs the first work, frill after frill and
|
||
embellishment after embellishment occur to him. These get stored away
|
||
to be used "next time". Sooner or later the first system is finished,
|
||
and the architect, with firm confidence and a demonstrated mastery of
|
||
that class of systems, is ready to build a second system.
|
||
This second is the most dangerous system a man ever designs.
|
||
When he does his third and later ones, his prior experiences will
|
||
confirm each other as to the general characteristics of such systems,
|
||
and their differences will identify those parts of his experience that
|
||
are particular and not generalizable.
|
||
The general tendency is to over-design the second system, using
|
||
all the ideas and frills that were cautiously sidetracked on the first
|
||
one. The result, as Ovid says, is a "big pile".
|
||
-- Frederick Brooks, "The Mythical Man Month"
|
||
%
|
||
An artist should be fit for the best society and keep out of it.
|
||
%
|
||
An attorney was defending his client against a charge of first-degree
|
||
murder. "Your Honor, my client is accused of stuffing his lover's
|
||
mutilated body into a suitcase and heading for the Mexican border.
|
||
Just north of Tijuana a cop spotted her hand sticking out of the
|
||
suitcase. Now, I would like to stress that my client is *not* a
|
||
murderer. A sloppy packer, maybe..."
|
||
%
|
||
An authority is a person who can tell you more about something than you
|
||
really care to know.
|
||
%
|
||
An effective way to deal with predators is to taste terrible.
|
||
%
|
||
An elephant is a mouse with an operating system.
|
||
%
|
||
An English judge, growing weary of the barrister's long-winded
|
||
summation, leaned over the bench and remarked, "I've heard your
|
||
arguments, Sir Geoffrey, and I'm none the wiser!" Sir Geoffrey
|
||
responded, "That may be, Milord, but at least you're better informed!"
|
||
%
|
||
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 exotic journey in downtown Newark is in your future.
|
||
%
|
||
"... an experienced, industrious, ambitious, and often quite often
|
||
picturesque liar."
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
An idea is an eye given by God for the seeing of God. Some of these
|
||
eyes we cannot bear to look out of, we blind them as quickly as
|
||
possible.
|
||
-- Russell Hoban, "Pilgermann"
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of purge."
|
||
%
|
||
Anarchy may not be the best form of government, but it's better than no
|
||
government at all.
|
||
%
|
||
And as we stand on the edge of darkness
|
||
Let our chant fill the void
|
||
That others may know
|
||
|
||
In the land of the night
|
||
The ship of the sun
|
||
Is drawn by
|
||
The grateful dead.
|
||
|
||
-- Tibetan "Book of the Dead," ca. 4000 BC.
|
||
%
|
||
... and furthermore ... I don't like your trousers.
|
||
%
|
||
And I heard Jeff exclaim,
|
||
As they strolled out of sight,
|
||
"Merry Christmas to all --
|
||
You take credit cards, right?"
|
||
-- "Outsiders" comic
|
||
%
|
||
... 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 remember: if you don't like the news, go out and make some of
|
||
your own."
|
||
-- "Scoop" Nisker, KFOG radio reporter
|
||
Preposterous Words
|
||
%
|
||
And so, men, we can see that human skin is an even more complex and
|
||
fascinating organ than we thought it was, and if we want to keep it
|
||
looking good, we have to care for it as though it were our own. One
|
||
approach is to undergo a painful surgical procedure wherein your skin
|
||
is turned inside-out, so the young cells are on the outside, but then
|
||
of course you have the unpleasant side effect that your insides
|
||
gradually fill up with dead old cells and you explode. So this
|
||
procedure is pretty much limited to top Hollywood stars for whom
|
||
youthful beauty is a career necessity, such as Elizabeth Taylor and
|
||
Orson Welles.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Saving Face"
|
||
%
|
||
"...and the fully armed nuclear warheads, are, of course, merely a
|
||
courtesy detail."
|
||
%
|
||
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."
|
||
%
|
||
And yet, seasons must be taken with a grain of salt, for they too have
|
||
a sense of humor, as does history. Corn stalks comedy, comedy stalks
|
||
tragedy, and this too is historic. And yet, still, when corn meets
|
||
tragedy face to face, we have politics.
|
||
-- Dalglish, Larsen and Sutherland, "Root Crops and
|
||
Ground Cover"
|
||
%
|
||
Andrea: Unhappy the land that has no heroes.
|
||
Galileo: No, unhappy the land that _____needs heroes.
|
||
-- Bertolt Brecht, "Life of Galileo"
|
||
%
|
||
Angels we have heard on High
|
||
Tell us to go out and Buy.
|
||
-- Tom Lehrer
|
||
%
|
||
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 recent 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.
|
||
%
|
||
Another possible source of guidance for teenagers is television, but
|
||
television's message has always been that the need for truth, wisdom
|
||
and world peace pales by comparison with the need for a toothpaste that
|
||
offers whiter teeth *___and* fresher breath.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Kids Today: They Don't Know Dum Diddly
|
||
Do"
|
||
%
|
||
Answers to Last Fortune'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 dramatic series the producers want us to take seriously as a
|
||
representation of contemporary reality cannot be taken seriously as a
|
||
representation of anything -- except a show to be ignored by anyone
|
||
capable of sitting upright in a chair and chewing gum simultaneously.
|
||
-- Richard Schickel
|
||
%
|
||
Any excuse will serve a tyrant.
|
||
-- Aesop
|
||
%
|
||
Any father who thinks he's all important should remind himself that
|
||
this country honors fathers only one day a year while pickles get a
|
||
whole week.
|
||
%
|
||
Any fool can paint a picture, but it takes a wise person to be able to
|
||
sell it.
|
||
%
|
||
Any great truth can -- and eventually will -- be expressed as a cliche
|
||
-- a cliche is a sure and certain way to dilute an idea. For instance,
|
||
my grandmother used to say, "The black cat is always the last one off
|
||
the fence." I have no idea what she meant, but at one time, it was
|
||
undoubtedly true.
|
||
-- Solomon Short
|
||
%
|
||
Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.
|
||
-- Sydney J. Harris
|
||
%
|
||
Any small object that is accidentally dropped will hide under a larger
|
||
object.
|
||
%
|
||
Any stone in your boot always migrates against the pressure gradient to
|
||
exactly the point of most pressure.
|
||
-- Milt Barber
|
||
%
|
||
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
|
||
-- Rich Kulawiec
|
||
%
|
||
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged
|
||
demo.
|
||
%
|
||
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
|
||
-- Arthur C. Clarke
|
||
%
|
||
Any time things appear to be going better, you have overlooked
|
||
something.
|
||
%
|
||
Any two philosophers can tell each other all they know in two hours.
|
||
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
|
||
%
|
||
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 do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is
|
||
supposed to be doing at the moment.
|
||
-- Robert Benchley
|
||
%
|
||
Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.
|
||
-- Publius Syrus
|
||
%
|
||
Anyone can make an omelet with eggs. The trick is to make one with
|
||
none.
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Anyone who uses the phrase "easy as taking candy from a baby" has never
|
||
tried taking candy from a baby.
|
||
-- Robin Hood
|
||
%
|
||
Anything free is worth what you pay for it.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
"Apathy is not the problem, it's the solution"
|
||
%
|
||
Aphorism, n.:
|
||
A concise, clever statement.
|
||
Afterism, n.:
|
||
A concise, clever statement you don't think of until too late.
|
||
-- James Alexander Thom
|
||
%
|
||
APL is a mistake, carried through to perfection. It is the language of
|
||
the future for the problems of the past: it creates a new generation of
|
||
coding bums.
|
||
%
|
||
"APL is a write-only language. I can write programs in APL, but I
|
||
can't read any of them."
|
||
-- Roy Keir
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Arbitrary systems, pl.n.:
|
||
Systems about which nothing general can be said, save "nothing
|
||
general can be said."
|
||
%
|
||
ARCHDUKE FERDINAND FOUND ALIVE --
|
||
FIRST WORLD WAR A MISTAKE
|
||
%
|
||
Are you a turtle?
|
||
%
|
||
"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.
|
||
%
|
||
Around computers it is difficult to find the correct unit of time to
|
||
measure progress. Some cathedrals took a century to complete. Can you
|
||
imagine the grandeur and scope of a program that would take as long?
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
Art is anything you can get away with.
|
||
-- Marshall McLuhan.
|
||
%
|
||
Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
|
||
-- Paul Gauguin
|
||
%
|
||
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 a professional humorist, I often get letters from readers who are
|
||
interested in the basic nature of humor. "What kind of a sick
|
||
perverted disgusting person are you," these letters typically ask,
|
||
"that you make jokes about setting fire to a goat?" ...
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Why Humor is Funny"
|
||
%
|
||
"As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual
|
||
certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life -- so I
|
||
became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can
|
||
meet girls."
|
||
-- Matt Cartmill
|
||
%
|
||
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 going up Punch Card Hill,
|
||
Feeling worse and worser,
|
||
There I met a C.R.T.
|
||
And it drop't me a cursor.
|
||
|
||
C.R.T., C.R.T.,
|
||
Phosphors light on you!
|
||
If I had fifty hours a day
|
||
I'd spend them all at you.
|
||
|
||
-- Uncle Colonel's Cursory Rhymes
|
||
%
|
||
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 I am mayor of this city [Jersey City, New Jersey] the great
|
||
industries are secure. We hear about constitutional rights, free
|
||
speech and the free press. Every time I hear these words I say to
|
||
myself, "That man is a Red, that man is a Communist". You never hear a
|
||
real American talk like that.
|
||
-- Frank Hague (1896-1956)
|
||
%
|
||
As long as the answer is right, who cares if the question is wrong?
|
||
%
|
||
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, "Deteriorata"
|
||
%
|
||
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 you know, birds do not have sexual organs because they would
|
||
interfere with flight. [In fact, this was the big breakthrough for the
|
||
Wright Brothers. They were watching birds one day, trying to figure
|
||
out how to get their crude machine to fly, when suddenly it dawned on
|
||
Wilbur. "Orville," he said, "all we have to do is remove the sexual
|
||
organs!" You should have seen their original design.] As a result,
|
||
birds are very, very difficult to arouse sexually. You almost never
|
||
see an aroused bird. So when they want to reproduce, birds fly up and
|
||
stand on telephone lines, where they monitor telephone conversations
|
||
with their feet. When they find a conversation in which people are
|
||
talking dirty, they grip the line very tightly until they are both
|
||
highly aroused, at which point the female gets pregnant.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Sex and the Single Amoeba: What Every
|
||
Teen Should Know"
|
||
%
|
||
As you reach for the web, a venomous spider appears. Unable to pull
|
||
your hand away in time, the spider promptly, but politely, bites you.
|
||
The venom takes affect quickly causing your lips to turn plaid along
|
||
with your complexion. You become dazed, and in your stupor you fall
|
||
from the limbs of the tree. Snap! Your head falls off and rolls all
|
||
over the ground. The instant before you croak, you hear the whoosh of
|
||
a vacuum being filled by the air surrounding your head. Worse yet, the
|
||
spider is suing you for damages.
|
||
%
|
||
As Zeus said to Narcissus, "Watch yourself."
|
||
%
|
||
ASHes to ASHes, DOS to DOS.
|
||
%
|
||
Ask five economists and you'll get five different explanations (six if
|
||
one went to Harvard).
|
||
-- Edgar R. Fiedler
|
||
%
|
||
Ask not for whom the <CONTROL-G> tolls.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Asked by reporters about his upcoming marriage to a forty-two-year-old
|
||
woman, director Roman Polanski told reporters, `The way I look at it,
|
||
she's the equivalent of three fourteen-year-olds.'"
|
||
-- David Letterman
|
||
%
|
||
Ass, n.:
|
||
The masculine of "lass".
|
||
%
|
||
Associate with well-mannered persons and your manners will improve.
|
||
Run with decent folk and your own decent instincts will be
|
||
strengthened. Keep the company of bums and you will become a bum.
|
||
Hang around with rich people and you will end by picking up the check
|
||
and dying broke.
|
||
-- Stanley Walker
|
||
%
|
||
"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 any given moment, an arrow must be either where it is or where it is
|
||
not. But obviously it cannot be where it is not. And if it is where
|
||
it is, that is equivalent to saying that it is at rest.
|
||
-- Zeno's paradox of the moving (still?) arrow
|
||
%
|
||
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 least they're ___________EXPERIENCED incompetents"
|
||
%
|
||
At no time is freedom of speech more precious than when a man hits his
|
||
thumb with a hammer.
|
||
-- Marshall Lumsden
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Atlanta makes it against the law to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole
|
||
or street lamp.
|
||
%
|
||
Atlee is a very modest man. And with reason.
|
||
-- Winston Churchill
|
||
%
|
||
Authors (and perhaps columnists) eventually rise to the top of whatever
|
||
depths they were once able to plumb.
|
||
-- Stanley Kaufman
|
||
%
|
||
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, "Deteriorata"
|
||
%
|
||
Avoid reality at all costs.
|
||
%
|
||
"Avoid revolution or expect to get shot. Mother and I will grieve, but
|
||
we will gladly buy a dinner for the National Guardsman who shot you."
|
||
-- Dr. Paul Williamson, father of a Kent State student
|
||
%
|
||
Bacchus, n.:
|
||
A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for
|
||
getting drunk.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
Bagbiter:
|
||
1. n.; Equipment or program that fails, usually
|
||
intermittently. 2. adj.: Failing hardware or software. "This
|
||
bagbiting system won't let me get out of spacewar." Usage: verges on
|
||
obscenity. Grammatically separable; one may speak of "biting the
|
||
bag". Synonyms: LOSER, LOSING, CRETINOUS, BLETCHEROUS, BARFUCIOUS,
|
||
CHOMPER, CHOMPING.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Banectomy, n.:
|
||
The removal of bruises on a banana.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Bank error in your favor. Collect $200.
|
||
%
|
||
Barach's Rule:
|
||
An alcoholic is a person who drinks more than his own
|
||
physician.
|
||
%
|
||
Bare feet magnetize sharp metal objects so they point upward from the
|
||
floor -- especially in the dark.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Baseball is a skilled game. It's America's game -- it, and high
|
||
taxes.
|
||
-- Will Rogers
|
||
%
|
||
Basic is a high level languish.
|
||
APL is a high level anguish.
|
||
%
|
||
"BASIC is the Computer Science equivalent of `Scientific Creationism'."
|
||
%
|
||
Basic, n.:
|
||
A programming language. Related to certain social diseases in
|
||
that those who have it will not admit it in polite company.
|
||
%
|
||
Bathquake, n.:
|
||
The violent quake that rattles the entire house when the water
|
||
faucet is turned on to a certain point.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
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, "Deteriorata"
|
||
%
|
||
Be braver -- you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
|
||
%
|
||
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 security conscious -- National defense is at stake.
|
||
%
|
||
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and
|
||
miss
|
||
-- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
|
||
%
|
||
Bees are very busy souls
|
||
They have no time for birth controls
|
||
And that is why in times like these
|
||
There are so many Sons of Bees.
|
||
%
|
||
Before he became a hermit, Zarathud was a young Priest, and
|
||
took great delight in making fools of his opponents in front of his
|
||
followers.
|
||
One day Zarathud took his students to a pleasant pasture and
|
||
there he confronted The Sacred Chao while She was contentedly grazing.
|
||
"Tell me, you dumb beast," demanded the Priest in his
|
||
commanding voice, "why don't you do something worthwhile? What is your
|
||
Purpose in Life, anyway?"
|
||
Munching the tasty grass, The Sacred Chao replied "MU". (The
|
||
Chinese ideogram for NO-THING.)
|
||
Upon hearing this, absolutely nobody was enlightened.
|
||
Primarily because nobody understood Chinese.
|
||
-- Camden Benares, "Zen Without Zen Masters"
|
||
%
|
||
Before Xerox, five carbons were the maximum extension of anybody's
|
||
ego.
|
||
%
|
||
Begathon, n.:
|
||
A multi-day event on public television, used to raise money so
|
||
you won't have to watch commercials.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Being disintegrated makes me ve-ry an-gry!" <huff, huff>
|
||
%
|
||
Bell Labs Unix -- Reach out and grep someone.
|
||
%
|
||
Bennett's Laws of Horticulture:
|
||
(1) Houses are for people to live in.
|
||
(2) Gardens are for plants to live in.
|
||
(3) There is no such thing as a houseplant.
|
||
%
|
||
"Benson, you are so free of the ravages of intelligence"
|
||
-- Time Bandits
|
||
%
|
||
Berkeley had what we called "copycenter," which is "take it down
|
||
to the copy center and make as many copies as you want."
|
||
-- Kirk McKusick
|
||
%
|
||
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!"
|
||
%
|
||
Best of all is never to have been born. Second best is to die soon.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
}
|
||
%
|
||
Better dead than mellow.
|
||
%
|
||
Between 1950 and 1952, a bored weatherman, stationed north of Hudson
|
||
Bay, left a monument that neither government nor time can eradicate.
|
||
Using a bulldozer abandoned by the Air Force, he spent two years and
|
||
great effort pushing boulders into a single word.
|
||
|
||
It can be seen from 10,000 feet, silhouetted against the snow.
|
||
Government officials exchanged memos full of circumlocutions (no Latin
|
||
equivalent exists) but failed to word an appropriation bill for the
|
||
destruction of this cairn, that wouldn't alert the press and embarrass
|
||
both Parliament and Party.
|
||
|
||
It stands today, a monument to human spirit. If life exists on other
|
||
planets, this may be the first message received from us.
|
||
-- The Realist, November, 1964.
|
||
%
|
||
"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
|
||
tried it."
|
||
-- Donald Knuth
|
||
%
|
||
Beware of computerized fortune-tellers!
|
||
%
|
||
Beware of low-flying butterflies.
|
||
%
|
||
Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers.
|
||
-- Leonard Brandwein
|
||
%
|
||
Beware of self-styled experts: an ex is a has-been, and a spurt is a
|
||
drip under pressure.
|
||
%
|
||
"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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Biology is the only science in which multiplication means the same
|
||
thing as division."
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Bizoos, n.:
|
||
The millions of tiny individual bumps that make up a
|
||
basketball.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
... bleakness ... desolation ... plastic forks ...
|
||
%
|
||
Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.
|
||
%
|
||
Blessed are they who Go Around in Circles, for they Shall be Known as
|
||
Wheels.
|
||
%
|
||
BLISS is ignorance
|
||
%
|
||
Blood flows down one leg and up the other.
|
||
%
|
||
Blood is thicker than water, and much tastier.
|
||
%
|
||
Blore's Razor:
|
||
Given a choice between two theories, take the one which is
|
||
funnier.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
BOO! We changed Coke again! BLEAH! BLEAH!
|
||
%
|
||
Boob's Law:
|
||
You always find something in the last place you look.
|
||
%
|
||
Bore, n.:
|
||
A guy who wraps up a two-minute idea in a two-hour vocabulary.
|
||
-- Walter Winchell
|
||
%
|
||
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 State House is the hub of the Solar System. You couldn't pry
|
||
that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation
|
||
straightened out for a crowbar.
|
||
-- O. W. Holmes
|
||
%
|
||
Boston, n.:
|
||
Ludwig van Beethoven being jeered by 50,000 sports fans for
|
||
finishing second in the Irish jig competition.
|
||
%
|
||
Boy, life takes a long time to live
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
Boy, n.:
|
||
A noise with dirt on it.
|
||
%
|
||
Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least
|
||
when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years.
|
||
-- James Thurber
|
||
%
|
||
Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men.
|
||
-- Kin Hubbard
|
||
%
|
||
Brace yourselves. We're about to try something that borders on the
|
||
unique: an actually rather serious technical book which is not only
|
||
(gasp) vehemently anti-Solemn, but also (shudder) takes sides. I tend
|
||
to think of it as `Constructive Snottiness.'
|
||
-- Mike Padlipsky, Foreword to "Elements of Networking
|
||
Style"
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Brontosaurus Principle:
|
||
Organizations can grow faster than their brains can manage them
|
||
in relation to their environment and to their own physiology: when
|
||
this occurs, they are an endangered species.
|
||
-- Thomas K. Connellan
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Brucify, v:
|
||
1: Kill by nailing onto style(9); "David O'Brien was brucified"
|
||
2: Annoy constantly by reminding of potential improvements
|
||
[syn: {torment}, {rag}, {tantalize}, {bedevil}, {dun},
|
||
{frustrate}]
|
||
3: Fix problems that were indicated in an earlier brucification
|
||
(of one of the two other meanings).
|
||
The word 'brucify' originally comes from the style-reviews of Bruce
|
||
Evans of the FreeBSD project, but is now also sometimes used for
|
||
reviews just done in his spirit.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Bugs, pl. n.:
|
||
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 person who cuts red tape sideways.
|
||
-- J. McCabe
|
||
%
|
||
Bureaucrat, n.:
|
||
A politician who has tenure.
|
||
%
|
||
Bureaucrats cut red tape -- lengthwise.
|
||
%
|
||
Burn's Hog Weighing Method:
|
||
(1) Get a perfectly symmetrical plank and balance it across a
|
||
sawhorse.
|
||
(2) Put the hog on one end of the plank.
|
||
(3) Pile rocks on the other end until the plank is again
|
||
perfectly balanced.
|
||
(4) Carefully guess the weight of the rocks.
|
||
-- Robert Burns
|
||
%
|
||
... 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 don't you worry, its for a cause -- feeding global corporations
|
||
paws."
|
||
%
|
||
"But I don't like Spam!!!!"
|
||
%
|
||
... 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 officer, I was only trying to gain enough speed so I could coast
|
||
to the nearest gas station."
|
||
%
|
||
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 we've only fondled the surface of that subject.
|
||
-- Virginia Masters
|
||
%
|
||
"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?!?"]
|
||
%
|
||
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began
|
||
to suspect 'Hungry' ..."
|
||
-- Gary Larson, "The Far Side"
|
||
%
|
||
By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another man's, I
|
||
mean.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
"Cable is not a luxury, since many areas have poor TV reception."
|
||
-- The mayor of Tucson, Arizona, 1989
|
||
%
|
||
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 missile 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
|
||
%
|
||
Campus sidewalks never exist as the straightest line between two
|
||
points.
|
||
-- M. M. Johnston
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Canonical, adj.:
|
||
The usual or standard state or manner of something. A true
|
||
story: One Bob Sjoberg, new at the MIT AI Lab, expressed some
|
||
annoyance at the use of jargon. Over his loud objections, we made a
|
||
point of using jargon as much as possible in his presence, and
|
||
eventually it began to sink in. Finally, in one conversation, he used
|
||
the word "canonical" in jargon-like fashion without thinking.
|
||
Steele: "Aha! We've finally got you talking jargon too!"
|
||
Stallman: "What did he say?"
|
||
Steele: "He just used `canonical' in the canonical way."
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Carmel, New York, has an ordinance forbidding men to wear coats and
|
||
trousers that don't match.
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Cat, n.:
|
||
Lapwarmer with built-in buzzer.
|
||
%
|
||
Cauliflower is nothing but Cabbage with a College Education.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
Caution: breathing may be hazardous to your health.
|
||
%
|
||
CChheecckk yyoouurr dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh..
|
||
%
|
||
Cecil, you're my final hope
|
||
Of finding out the true Straight Dope
|
||
For I have been reading of Schrodinger's cat
|
||
But none of my cats are at all like that.
|
||
This unusual animal (so it is said)
|
||
Is simultaneously alive and dead!
|
||
What I don't understand is just why he
|
||
Can't be one or the other, unquestionably.
|
||
My future now hangs in between eigenstates.
|
||
In one I'm enlightened, in the other I ain't.
|
||
If *you* understand, Cecil, then show me the way
|
||
And rescue my psyche from quantum decay.
|
||
But if this queer thing has perplexed even you,
|
||
Then I will *___and* I won't see you in Schrodinger's zoo.
|
||
-- Randy F., Chicago, "The Straight Dope, a compendium
|
||
of human knowledge" by Cecil Adams
|
||
%
|
||
Celebrate Hannibal Day this year. Take an elephant to lunch.
|
||
%
|
||
Celestial navigation is based on the premise that the Earth is the
|
||
center of the universe. The premise is wrong, but the navigation
|
||
works. An incorrect model can be a useful tool.
|
||
-- Kelvin Throop III
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Chapter 1
|
||
|
||
The story so far:
|
||
|
||
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot
|
||
of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
|
||
%
|
||
Character Density, n.:
|
||
The number of very weird people in the office.
|
||
%
|
||
Checkuary, n.:
|
||
The thirteenth month of the year. Begins New Year's Day and
|
||
ends when a person stops absentmindedly writing the old year on his
|
||
checks.
|
||
%
|
||
Chef, n.:
|
||
Any cook who swears in French.
|
||
%
|
||
Chemicals, n.:
|
||
Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.
|
||
%
|
||
Chemistry is applied theology.
|
||
-- Augustus Stanley Owsley III
|
||
%
|
||
Chicago law prohibits eating in a place that is on fire.
|
||
%
|
||
Chicago Transit Authority Rider's Rule #36:
|
||
Never ever ask the tough looking gentleman wearing El Rukn
|
||
headgear where he got his "pyramid powered pizza warmer".
|
||
-- Chicago Reader 3/27/81
|
||
%
|
||
Chicago Transit Authority Rider's Rule #84:
|
||
The CTA has complimentary pop-up timers available on request
|
||
for overheated passengers. When your timer pops up, the driver will
|
||
cheerfully baste you.
|
||
-- Chicago Reader 5/28/82
|
||
%
|
||
Chicago, n.:
|
||
Where the dead still vote ... early and often!
|
||
%
|
||
Chicken Little only has to be right once.
|
||
%
|
||
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 are unpredictable. You never know what inconsistency they're
|
||
going to catch you in next.
|
||
-- Franklin P. Jones
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Chivalry, Schmivalry!
|
||
Roger the thief has a
|
||
method he uses for
|
||
sneaky attacks:
|
||
Folks who are reading are
|
||
Characteristically
|
||
Always Forgetting to
|
||
Guard their own bac ...
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Clairvoyant, n.:
|
||
A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that
|
||
which is invisible to her patron -- namely, that he is a blockhead.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like
|
||
shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.
|
||
-- Phyllis Diller
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
COBOL programs are an exercise in Artificial Inelegance.
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
"Cogito ergo I'm right and you're wrong."
|
||
-- Blair Houghton
|
||
%
|
||
Coincidence, n.:
|
||
You weren't paying attention to the other half of what was
|
||
going on.
|
||
%
|
||
Coincidences are spiritual puns.
|
||
-- G. K. Chesterton
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Committee Rules:
|
||
(1) Never arrive on time, or you will be stamped a beginner.
|
||
(2) Don't say anything until the meeting is half over; this
|
||
stamps you as being wise.
|
||
(3) Be as vague as possible; this prevents irritating the
|
||
others.
|
||
(4) When in doubt, suggest that a subcommittee be appointed.
|
||
(5) Be the first to move for adjournment; this will make you
|
||
popular -- it's what everyone is waiting for.
|
||
%
|
||
Committee, n.:
|
||
A group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group
|
||
decide that nothing can be done.
|
||
-- Fred Allen
|
||
%
|
||
Committees have become so important nowadays that subcommittees have to
|
||
be appointed to do the work.
|
||
%
|
||
Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at
|
||
different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.
|
||
-- Clive James
|
||
%
|
||
Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.
|
||
-- Josh Billings
|
||
%
|
||
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
|
||
-- Albert Einstein
|
||
%
|
||
Comparing information and knowledge is like asking whether the fatness
|
||
of a pig is more or less green than the designated hitter rule."
|
||
-- David Guaspari
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
|
||
-- Pablo Picasso
|
||
%
|
||
Computers can figure out all kinds of problems, except the things in
|
||
the world that just don't add up.
|
||
%
|
||
Computers will not be perfected until they can compute how much more
|
||
than the estimate the job will cost.
|
||
%
|
||
Conceit causes more conversation than wit.
|
||
-- LaRouchefoucauld
|
||
%
|
||
Concept, n.:
|
||
Any "idea" for which an outside consultant billed you more than
|
||
$25,000.
|
||
%
|
||
... [concerning quotation marks] even if we *___did* quote anybody in this
|
||
business, it probably would be gibberish.
|
||
-- Thom McLeod
|
||
%
|
||
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 RECORDER AND
|
||
SET IT ON "FAST FORWARD", THIS CHILD ALSO IS FIDDLING WITH THE 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!"
|
||
%
|
||
Connector Conspiracy, n:
|
||
[probably came into prominence with the appearance of the
|
||
KL-10, none of whose connectors match anything else] The tendency of
|
||
manufacturers (or, by extension, programmers or purveyors of anything)
|
||
to come up with new products which don't fit together with the old
|
||
stuff, thereby making you buy either all new stuff or expensive
|
||
interface devices.
|
||
%
|
||
Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.
|
||
%
|
||
Conscious is when you are aware of something and conscience is when you
|
||
wish you weren't.
|
||
%
|
||
"Consequences, Schmonsequences, as long as I'm rich."
|
||
-- "Ali Baba Bunny" [1957, Chuck Jones]
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
"Contrary to popular belief, penguins are not the salvation of modern
|
||
technology. Neither do they throw parties for the urban proletariat."
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Corrupt, stupid grasping functionaries will make at least as big a
|
||
muddle of socialism as stupid, selfish and acquisitive employers can
|
||
make of capitalism.
|
||
-- Walter Lippmann
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Court, n.:
|
||
A place where they dispense with justice.
|
||
-- Arthur Train
|
||
%
|
||
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. Neuman
|
||
%
|
||
Critic, n.:
|
||
A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobody tries
|
||
to please him.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
Croll's Query:
|
||
If tin whistles are made of tin, what are foghorns made of?
|
||
%
|
||
cursor address, n:
|
||
"Hello, cursor!"
|
||
-- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Devil's DP Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
"Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity. It
|
||
eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the
|
||
business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation."
|
||
-- Johnny Hart
|
||
%
|
||
"Cutting the space budget really restores my faith in humanity. It
|
||
eliminates dreams, goals, and ideals and lets us get straight to the
|
||
business of hate, debauchery, and self-annihilation."
|
||
-- Johnny Hart
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Dare to be naive.
|
||
-- R. Buckminster Fuller
|
||
%
|
||
Darth Vader sleeps with a Teddywookie.
|
||
%
|
||
Dave Mack: "Your stupidity, Allen, is simply not up to par."
|
||
Allen Gwinn: "Yours is."
|
||
%
|
||
Dawn, n.:
|
||
The time when men of reason go to bed.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
Day of inquiry. You will be subpoenaed.
|
||
%
|
||
%DCL-E-MEMBAD, bad memory
|
||
-SYSTEM-F-VMSPDGERS, pudding between the ears
|
||
%
|
||
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 ...
|
||
%
|
||
Dear Mister Language Person: I am curious about the expression, "Part
|
||
of this complete breakfast". The way it comes up is, my 5-year-old
|
||
will be watching TV cartoon shows in the morning, and they'll show a
|
||
commercial for a children's compressed breakfast compound such as
|
||
"Froot Loops" or "Lucky Charms", and they always show it sitting on a
|
||
table next to some actual food such as eggs, and the announcer always
|
||
says: "Part of this complete breakfast". Don't that really mean,
|
||
"Adjacent to this complete breakfast", or "On the same table as this
|
||
complete breakfast"? And couldn't they make essentially the same claim
|
||
if, instead of Froot Loops, they put a can of shaving cream there, or a
|
||
dead bat?
|
||
|
||
Answer: Yes.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Tips for Writer's"
|
||
%
|
||
Dear Mister Language Person: What is the purpose of the apostrophe?
|
||
|
||
Answer: The apostrophe is used mainly in hand-lettered small business
|
||
signs to alert the reader than an "S" is coming up at the end of a
|
||
word, as in: WE DO NOT EXCEPT PERSONAL CHECK'S, or: NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR
|
||
ANY ITEM'S. Another important grammar concept to bear in mind when
|
||
creating hand- lettered small-business signs is that you should put
|
||
quotation marks around random words for decoration, as in "TRY" OUR HOT
|
||
DOG'S, or even TRY "OUR" HOT DOG'S.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Tips for Writer's"
|
||
%
|
||
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 saying `Howdy'".
|
||
%
|
||
Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down
|
||
%
|
||
Death is only a state of mind.
|
||
|
||
Only it doesn't leave you much time to think about anything else.
|
||
%
|
||
Death to all fanatics!
|
||
%
|
||
Decision maker, 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
|
||
%
|
||
default, n.:
|
||
[Possibly from Black English "De fault wid dis system is you,
|
||
mon."] The vain attempt to avoid errors by inactivity. "Nothing will
|
||
come of nothing: speak again." -- King Lear.
|
||
-- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Devil's DP Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
#define BITCOUNT(x) (((BX_(x)+(BX_(x)>>4)) & 0x0F0F0F0F) % 255)
|
||
#define BX_(x) ((x) - (((x)>>1)&0x77777777) \
|
||
- (((x)>>2)&0x33333333) \
|
||
- (((x)>>3)&0x11111111))
|
||
|
||
-- really weird C code to count the number of bits in a word
|
||
%
|
||
Definitions of hardware and software for dummies:
|
||
|
||
Hardware is what you kick;
|
||
Software is what you curse.
|
||
%
|
||
DELETE A FORTUNE!
|
||
|
||
Don't some of these fortunes just drive you nuts?! Wouldn't you like
|
||
to see some of them deleted from the system? You can! Just mail to
|
||
"fortune" with the fortune 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."
|
||
%
|
||
Demand the establishment of the government
|
||
in its rightful home at Disneyland.
|
||
%
|
||
Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than
|
||
we deserve.
|
||
-- George Bernard Shaw
|
||
%
|
||
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 a government where you can say what you think even if you
|
||
don't think.
|
||
%
|
||
Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by
|
||
Jackasses.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.
|
||
-- Jawaharlal Nehru
|
||
%
|
||
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people
|
||
are right more than half of the time.
|
||
-- E. B. White
|
||
%
|
||
Democracy, n.:
|
||
A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass
|
||
meeting or any other form of direct expression. Results in mobocracy.
|
||
Attitude toward property is communistic... negating property rights.
|
||
Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate,
|
||
whether it is based upon deliberation or governed by passion,
|
||
prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences.
|
||
Result is demagogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.
|
||
-- U. S. Army Training Manual No. 2000-25 (1928-1932),
|
||
since withdrawn.
|
||
%
|
||
Demographic polls show that you have lost credibility across the
|
||
board. Especially with those 14 year-old Valley girls.
|
||
%
|
||
Dentist, n.:
|
||
A Prestidigitator who, putting metal in one's mouth, pulls
|
||
coins out of one's pockets.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
Despising machines to a man,
|
||
The Luddites joined up with the Klan,
|
||
And ride out by night
|
||
In a sheeting of white
|
||
To lynch all the robots they can.
|
||
-- C. M. and G. A. Maxson
|
||
%
|
||
Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal, since it will
|
||
be the last thing your guests remember before they pass out all over
|
||
the table.
|
||
-- The Anarchist Cookbook
|
||
%
|
||
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 I say 2? I lied.
|
||
%
|
||
Did you know ...
|
||
|
||
That no-one ever reads these things?
|
||
%
|
||
Did you know that clones never use mirrors?
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
Did you know that if you took all the economists in the world and lined
|
||
them up end to end, they'd still point in the wrong direction?
|
||
%
|
||
Did you know that the voice tapes easily identify the Russian pilot
|
||
that shot down the Korean jet? At one point he definitely states:
|
||
|
||
"Natasha! First we shoot jet, then we go after moose and
|
||
squirrel."
|
||
|
||
-- ihuxw!tommyo
|
||
%
|
||
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!
|
||
%
|
||
Disclaimer: "These opinions are my own, though for a small fee they be
|
||
yours too."
|
||
-- Dave Haynie
|
||
%
|
||
Disclaimer: 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.)
|
||
%
|
||
Disco is to music what Etch-A-Sketch is to art.
|
||
%
|
||
Distinctive, adj.:
|
||
A different color or shape than our competitors.
|
||
%
|
||
Distress, n.:
|
||
A disease incurred by exposure to the prosperity of a friend.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
District of Columbia pedestrians who leap over passing autos to escape
|
||
injury, and then strike the car as they come down, are liable for any
|
||
damage inflicted on the vehicle.
|
||
%
|
||
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 meddle in the affairs of wizards, for you are crunchy and good
|
||
with ketchup."
|
||
%
|
||
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 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 have lysdexia?
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
|
||
%
|
||
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 change the reason, just change the excuses!
|
||
-- Joe Cointment
|
||
%
|
||
"Don't come back until you have him", the Tick-Tock Man said quietly,
|
||
sincerely, extremely dangerously.
|
||
|
||
They used dogs. They used probes. They used cardio plate crossoffs.
|
||
They used teepers. They used bribery. They used stick tites. They
|
||
used intimidation. They used torment. They used torture. They used
|
||
finks. They used cops. They used search and seizure. They used
|
||
fallaron. They used betterment incentives. They used finger prints.
|
||
They used the bertillion system. They used cunning. They used guile.
|
||
They used treachery. They used Raoul-Mitgong but he wasn't much help.
|
||
They used applied physics. They used techniques of criminology. And
|
||
what the hell, they caught him.
|
||
|
||
-- Harlan Ellison, "Repent, Harlequin, said the
|
||
Tick-Tock Man"
|
||
%
|
||
Don't cook tonight -- starve a rat today!
|
||
%
|
||
Don't feed the bats tonight.
|
||
%
|
||
Don't get even -- get odd!
|
||
%
|
||
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 hit a man when he's down -- kick him; it's easier.
|
||
%
|
||
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 let your mind wander -- it's too little to be let out alone.
|
||
%
|
||
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 steal; thou'lt never thus compete successfully in business.
|
||
Cheat.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
Don't suspect your friends -- turn them in!
|
||
-- "Brazil"
|
||
%
|
||
Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent.
|
||
-- Walt Kelly
|
||
%
|
||
Don't take life too seriously -- you'll never get out of 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 avoiding temptation -- as you grow older, it starts
|
||
avoiding you.
|
||
-- The Old Farmer's Almanac
|
||
%
|
||
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any
|
||
good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
|
||
-- Howard Aiken
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Double Bucky
|
||
(Sung to the tune of "Rubber Duckie")
|
||
|
||
Double bucky, you're the one!
|
||
You make my keyboard lots of fun
|
||
Double bucky, an additional bit or two:
|
||
(Vo-vo-de-o!)
|
||
Control and Meta side by side,
|
||
Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide!
|
||
Double bucky, a half a thousand glyphs, plus a few!
|
||
|
||
Double bucky, left and right
|
||
OR'd together, outta sight!
|
||
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of
|
||
Double bucky, I'm happy I heard of
|
||
Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of you!
|
||
|
||
-- (C) 1978 by Guy L. Steele, Jr.
|
||
%
|
||
Double-Blind Experiment, n.:
|
||
An experiment in which the chief researcher believes he is
|
||
fooling both the subject and the lab assistant. Often accompanied by a
|
||
belief in the tooth fairy.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Drink Canada Dry! You might not succeed, but it *__is* fun trying.
|
||
%
|
||
Drive defensively. Buy a tank.
|
||
%
|
||
Drugs may be the road to nowhere, but at least they're the scenic
|
||
route!
|
||
%
|
||
Ducharme'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.
|
||
%
|
||
Due to lack of disk space, this fortune database has been
|
||
discontinued.
|
||
%
|
||
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 system will be going up and down several
|
||
times, often with lin~po_~{po ~poz~ppo\~{ o n~po_~{o[po ~y oodsou>#w4k**n~po_~{ol;lkld;f;g;dd;po\~{o
|
||
%
|
||
"Dying is a very dull, dreary affair. And my advice to you is to have
|
||
nothing whatever to do with it."
|
||
-- W. Somerset Maugham
|
||
%
|
||
E Pluribus Unix
|
||
%
|
||
Eagleson's Law:
|
||
Any code of your own that you haven't looked at for six or more
|
||
months, might as well have been written by someone else. (Eagleson is
|
||
an optimist, the real number is more like three weeks.)
|
||
%
|
||
Earn cash in your spare time -- blackmail your friends
|
||
%
|
||
/earth is 98% full ... please delete anyone you can.
|
||
%
|
||
Earth is a beta site.
|
||
%
|
||
"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
|
||
%
|
||
Eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow they may make it illegal.
|
||
%
|
||
"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may work."
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Economists can certainly disappoint you. One said that the economy
|
||
would turn up by the last quarter. Well, I'm down to mine and it
|
||
hasn't.
|
||
-- Robert Orben
|
||
%
|
||
Economists state their GNP growth projections to the nearest tenth of a
|
||
percentage point to prove they have a sense of humor.
|
||
-- Edgar R. Fiedler
|
||
%
|
||
Ed Sullivan will be around as long as someone else has talent.
|
||
-- Fred Allen
|
||
%
|
||
Education is the process of casting false pearls before real swine.
|
||
-- Irsin Edman
|
||
%
|
||
Eeny, Meeny, Jelly Beanie, the spirits are about to speak!
|
||
-- Bullwinkle Moose
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Electricity is actually made up of extremely tiny particles,
|
||
called electrons, that you cannot see with the naked eye unless you
|
||
have been drinking. Electrons travel at the speed of light, which in
|
||
most American homes is 110 volts per hour. This is very fast. In the
|
||
time it has taken you to read this sentence so far, an electron could
|
||
have traveled all the way from San Francisco to Hackensack, New Jersey,
|
||
although God alone knows why it would want to.
|
||
The five main kinds of electricity are alternating current,
|
||
direct current, lightning, static, and European. Most American homes
|
||
have alternating current, which means that the electricity goes in one
|
||
direction for a while, then goes in the other direction. This prevents
|
||
harmful electron buildup in the wires.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
Electrocution, n.:
|
||
Burning at the stake with all the modern improvements.
|
||
%
|
||
Elevators smell different to midgets
|
||
%
|
||
Emerson's 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
|
||
%
|
||
Epperson's law:
|
||
When a man says it's a silly, childish game, it's probably
|
||
something his wife can beat him at.
|
||
%
|
||
Equal bytes for women.
|
||
%
|
||
Error in operator: add beer
|
||
%
|
||
Es brilig war. Die schlichte Toven
|
||
Wirrten und wimmelten in Waben;
|
||
Und aller-m"umsige Burggoven
|
||
Dir mohmen R"ath ausgraben.
|
||
-- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
|
||
%
|
||
Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.
|
||
-- Woody Allen
|
||
%
|
||
Etymology, n.:
|
||
Some early etymological scholars came 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 if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit
|
||
there."
|
||
-- Will Rogers
|
||
%
|
||
"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 two cents a
|
||
day.
|
||
%
|
||
Ever notice that even the busiest people are never too busy to tell you
|
||
just how busy they are.
|
||
%
|
||
Ever since prehistoric times, wise men have tried to understand what,
|
||
exactly, make people laugh. That's why they were called "wise men."
|
||
All the other prehistoric people were out puncturing each other with
|
||
spears, and the wise men were back in the cave saying: "How about:
|
||
Would you please take my wife? No. How about: Here is my wife, please
|
||
take her right now. No How about: Would you like to take something?
|
||
My wife is available. No. How about ..."
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Why Humor is Funny"
|
||
%
|
||
Every absurdity has a champion who will defend it.
|
||
%
|
||
Every creature has within him the wild, uncontrollable urge to punt.
|
||
%
|
||
Every four seconds a woman has a baby. Our problem is to find this
|
||
woman and stop her.
|
||
%
|
||
"Every group has a couple of experts. And every group has at least one
|
||
idiot. Thus are balance and harmony (and discord) maintained. It's
|
||
sometimes hard to remember this in the bulk of the flamewars that all
|
||
of the hassle and pain is generally caused by one or two
|
||
highly-motivated, caustic twits."
|
||
-- Chuq Von Rospach, about Usenet
|
||
%
|
||
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 improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible.
|
||
-- Frank Moore Colby
|
||
%
|
||
Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.
|
||
%
|
||
Every little picofarad has a nanohenry all its own.
|
||
-- Don Vonada
|
||
%
|
||
"Every man has his price. Mine is $3.95."
|
||
%
|
||
Every man is as God made him, ay, and often worse.
|
||
-- Miguel de Cervantes
|
||
%
|
||
"Every morning, I get up and look through the 'Forbes' list of the
|
||
richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work"
|
||
-- Robert Orben
|
||
%
|
||
Every nonzero finite dimensional inner product space has an orthonormal basis.
|
||
|
||
It makes sense, when you don't think about it.
|
||
%
|
||
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 -- one for which it was 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 is a genius. It's just that some people are too stupid to
|
||
realize it.
|
||
%
|
||
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 is worth precisely as much as a belch, the difference being
|
||
that a belch is more satisfying.
|
||
-- Ingmar Bergman
|
||
%
|
||
Everything journalists write is true, except when they write about
|
||
something you know.
|
||
-- Dag-Erling Smorgrav,
|
||
June 1999, FreeBSD-Stable Mailing List
|
||
%
|
||
Everything should be built top-down, except the first time.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
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 for putting Slinkies on an escalator.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Executive ability is deciding quickly and getting somebody else to do
|
||
the work.
|
||
-- John G. Pollard
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Expert, n.:
|
||
Someone who comes from out of town and shows slides.
|
||
%
|
||
Extract from Official Sweepstakes Rules:
|
||
|
||
NO PURCHASE REQUIRED TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE
|
||
|
||
To claim your prize without purchase, do the following: (a) Carefully
|
||
cut out your computer-printed name and address from upper right hand
|
||
corner of the Prize Claim Form. (b) Affix computer-printed name and
|
||
address -- with glue or cellophane tape (no staples or paper clips) --
|
||
to a 3x5 inch index card. (c) Also cut out the "No" paragraph (lower
|
||
left hand corner of Prize Claim Form) and affix it to the 3x5 card
|
||
below your address label. (d) Then print on your 3x5 card, above your
|
||
computer-printed name and address the words "CARTER & VAN PEEL
|
||
SWEEPSTAKES" (Use all capital letters.) (e) Finally place 3x5 card
|
||
(without bending) into a plain envelope [NOTE: do NOT use the the
|
||
Official Prize Claim and CVP Perfume Reply Envelope or you may be
|
||
disqualified], and mail to: CVP, Box 1320, Westbury, NY 11595. Print
|
||
this address correctly. Comply with above instructions carefully and
|
||
completely or you may be disqualified from receiving your prize.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
F: When into a room I plunge, I
|
||
Sometimes find some VIOLET FUNGI.
|
||
Then I linger, darkly brooding
|
||
On the poison they're exuding.
|
||
-- The Roguelet's ABC
|
||
%
|
||
Facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Famous, adj.:
|
||
Conspicuously miserable.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Fifty flippant frogs
|
||
Walked by on flippered feet
|
||
And with their slime they made the time
|
||
Unnaturally fleet.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Fights between cats and dogs are prohibited by statute in Barber, North
|
||
Carolina.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Finding out what goes on in the C.I.A. is like performing acupuncture
|
||
on a rock.
|
||
-- New York Times, Jan. 20, 1981
|
||
%
|
||
Fine day to throw a party. Throw him as far as you can.
|
||
%
|
||
Fine day to work off excess energy. Steal something heavy.
|
||
%
|
||
Fine's Corollary:
|
||
Functionality breeds Contempt.
|
||
%
|
||
Finish the sentence below in 25 words or less:
|
||
|
||
"Love is what you feel just before you give someone a good ..."
|
||
|
||
Mail your answer along with the top half of your supervisor to:
|
||
|
||
P.O. Box 35
|
||
Baffled Greek, Michigan
|
||
%
|
||
First Corollary of Taber's Second Law:
|
||
Machines that piss people off get murdered.
|
||
-- Pat Taber
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
|
||
-- Dr. Who, "Doctor Who"
|
||
%
|
||
First, a few words about tools.
|
||
|
||
Basically, a tool is an object that enables you to take advantage of
|
||
the laws of physics and mechanics in such a way that you can seriously
|
||
injure yourself. Today, people tend to take tools for granted. If
|
||
you're ever walking down the street and you notice some people who look
|
||
particularly smug, the odds are that they are taking tools for
|
||
granted. If I were you, I'd walk right up and smack them in the face.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
Five is a sufficiently close approximation to infinity.
|
||
-- Robert Firth
|
||
%
|
||
Flappity, floppity, flip
|
||
The mouse on the m"obius 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.
|
||
%
|
||
Florence Flask was ... dressing for the opera when she turned to her
|
||
husband and screamed, "Erlenmeyer! My joules! Someone has stolen my
|
||
joules!"
|
||
|
||
"Now, now, my dear," replied her husband, "keep your balance and reflux
|
||
a moment. Perhaps they're mislead."
|
||
|
||
"No, I know they're stolen," cried Florence. "I remember putting them
|
||
in my burette ... We must call a copper."
|
||
|
||
Erlenmeyer did so, and the flatfoot who turned up, one Sherlock Ohms,
|
||
said the outrage looked like the work of an arch-criminal by the name
|
||
of Lawrence Ium.
|
||
|
||
"We must be careful -- he's a free radical, ultraviolet, and
|
||
dangerous. His girlfriend is a chlorine at the Palladium. Maybe I can
|
||
catch him there." With that, he jumped on his carbon cycle in an
|
||
activated state and sped off along the reaction pathway ...
|
||
-- Daniel B. Murphy, "Precipitations"
|
||
%
|
||
flowchart, n. & v.:
|
||
[From flow "to ripple down in rich profusion, as hair" + chart
|
||
"a cryptic hidden-treasure map designed to mislead the uninitiated."]
|
||
1. n. The solution, if any, to a class of Mascheroni construction
|
||
problems in which given algorithms require geometrical representation
|
||
using only the 35 basic ideograms of the ANSI template. 2. n. Neronic
|
||
doodling while the system burns. 3. n. A low-cost substitute for
|
||
wallpaper. 4. n. The innumerate misleading the illiterate. "A
|
||
thousand pictures is worth ten lines of code." -- The Programmer's
|
||
Little Red Vade Mecum, Mao Tse T'umps. 5. v.intrans. To produce
|
||
flowcharts with no particular object in mind. 6. v.trans. To obfuscate
|
||
(a problem) with esoteric cartoons.
|
||
-- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Devil's DP Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
Flugg's Law:
|
||
When you need to knock on wood is when you realize that the
|
||
world is composed of vinyl, naugahyde and aluminum.
|
||
%
|
||
Flying saucers on occasion
|
||
Show themselves to human eyes.
|
||
Aliens fume, put off invasion
|
||
While they brand these tales as lies.
|
||
%
|
||
Fog Lamps, n.:
|
||
Excessively (often obnoxiously) bright lamps mounted on the
|
||
fronts of automobiles; used on dry, clear nights to indicate that the
|
||
driver's brain is in a fog.
|
||
|
||
See also "Idiot Lights".
|
||
%
|
||
Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing.
|
||
-- Walt Kelly, "Putluck Pogo"
|
||
%
|
||
For 20 dollars, I'll give you a good fortune next time ...
|
||
%
|
||
For a good time, call (510) 642-9483
|
||
%
|
||
For a man to truly understand rejection, he must first be ignored by a
|
||
cat.
|
||
%
|
||
"For an adequate time call 555-3321"
|
||
%
|
||
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 large values of one, one equals two, for small values of two.
|
||
%
|
||
For my son, Robert, this is proving to be the high-point of his entire
|
||
life to date. He has had his pajamas on for two, maybe three days
|
||
now. He has the sense of joyful independence a 5-year-old child gets
|
||
when he suddenly realizes that he could be operating an acetylene torch
|
||
in the coat closet and neither parent [because of the flu] would have
|
||
the strength to object. He has been foraging for his own food, which
|
||
means his diet consists entirely of "food" substances which are
|
||
advertised only on Saturday-morning cartoon shows; substances that are
|
||
the color of jukebox lights and that, for legal reasons, have their
|
||
names spelled wrong, as in New Creemy Chok-'n'-Cheez Lumps o' Froot
|
||
("part of this complete breakfast").
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Molecular Homicide"
|
||
%
|
||
For perfect happiness, remember two things:
|
||
(1) Be content with what you've got.
|
||
(2) Be sure you've got plenty.
|
||
%
|
||
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 fortune 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 three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but
|
||
phone calls taper off."
|
||
-- Johnny Carson
|
||
%
|
||
For what it's worth, if you -can- get Michelle Pfeiffer to model
|
||
a latex daemon suit for the catalog, I strongly suggest you do.
|
||
Breasts can sell anything. Shiny red latex body suits start
|
||
religions.
|
||
|
||
-- Brian McGroarty <bvmcg@yahoo.com>
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
For your penance, say five Hail Marys and one loud BLAH!
|
||
%
|
||
Forgetfulness, n.:
|
||
A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their
|
||
destitution of conscience.
|
||
%
|
||
Forms follow function, and often obliterate it.
|
||
%
|
||
FORTUNE DISCUSSES THE OBSCURE FILMS! #6
|
||
|
||
RAZORBACK: Paul Harbride, 1984, 2 hours 25 min.
|
||
One of the great Australian films of the early 1980's, and
|
||
arguably the best movie ever made about a large, man-eating
|
||
hog. Some violence. With Gregory Harrison.
|
||
%
|
||
fortune's Contribution of the Month to the Animal Rights Debate:
|
||
|
||
I'll stay out of animals' way if they'll stay out of mine.
|
||
"Hey you, get off my plate"
|
||
-- Roger Midnight
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Fictitious Country Song Title of the Week:
|
||
"How Can I Miss You if You Won't Go Away?"
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's graffito of the week (or maybe even month):
|
||
|
||
Don't Write On Walls!
|
||
|
||
(and underneath)
|
||
|
||
You want I should type?
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Law of the Week (this week, from Kentucky):
|
||
No female shall appear in a bathing suit at any airport in this
|
||
State unless she is escorted by two officers or unless she is armed
|
||
with a club. The provisions of this statute shall not apply to females
|
||
weighing less than 90 pounds nor exceeding 200 pounds, nor shall it
|
||
apply to female horses.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune'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.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Office Door Sign of the Week:
|
||
|
||
Incorrigible punster -- Do not incorrige.
|
||
%
|
||
FORTUNE'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.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #18:
|
||
|
||
Q: Are you married?
|
||
A: No, I'm divorced.
|
||
Q: And what did your husband do before you divorced him?
|
||
A: A lot of things I didn't know about.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #19:
|
||
|
||
Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
|
||
A: All my autopsies have been performed on dead people.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #29:
|
||
|
||
THE JUDGE: Now, as we begin, I must ask you to banish all present
|
||
information and prejudice from your minds, if you have
|
||
any ...
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #32:
|
||
|
||
Q: Do you know how far pregnant you are right now?
|
||
A: I will be three months November 8th.
|
||
Q: Apparently then, the date of conception was August 8th?
|
||
A: Yes.
|
||
Q: What were you and your husband doing at that time?
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #37:
|
||
|
||
Q: Did he pick the dog up by the ears?
|
||
A: No.
|
||
Q: What was he doing with the dog's ears?
|
||
A: Picking them up in the air.
|
||
Q: Where was the dog at this time?
|
||
A: Attached to the ears.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #3:
|
||
|
||
Q: When he went, had you gone and had she, if she wanted to and were
|
||
able, for the time being excluding all the restraints on her not to
|
||
go, gone also, would he have brought you, meaning you and she, with
|
||
him to the station?
|
||
MR. BROOKS: Objection. That question should be taken out and shot.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #41:
|
||
|
||
Q: Now, Mrs. Johnson, how was your first marriage terminated?
|
||
A: By death.
|
||
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #52:
|
||
|
||
Q: What is your name?
|
||
A: Ernestine McDowell.
|
||
Q: And what is your marital status?
|
||
A: Fair.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #7:
|
||
|
||
Q: What happened then?
|
||
A: He told me, he says, "I have to kill you because you can identify
|
||
me."
|
||
Q: Did he kill you?
|
||
A: No.
|
||
%
|
||
fortune: cpu time/usefulness ratio too high -- core dumped.
|
||
%
|
||
Fortune: You will be attacked next Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. by six samuri
|
||
sword wielding purple fish glued to Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
|
||
|
||
Oh, and have a nice day!
|
||
-- Bryce Nesbitt '84
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Fourth Law of Thermodynamics: If the probability of success is not
|
||
almost one, it is damn near zero.
|
||
-- David Ellis
|
||
%
|
||
Frankfort, Kentucky, makes it against the law to shoot off a
|
||
policeman's tie.
|
||
%
|
||
FreeBSD: everything but the fairings
|
||
%
|
||
FreeBSD: Have you had your fairings today?
|
||
%
|
||
FreeBSD: It's 3am at night. Do you know where your fairings are?
|
||
%
|
||
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 Caesar, 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 Caesar. The cool Brutus
|
||
Gave you the message: Caesar had big eyes;
|
||
If that's the sound, someone's copping a plea,
|
||
And, like, old Caesar 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 Caesar'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.
|
||
%
|
||
Frobnitz, pl. Frobnitzem (frob'nitsm) n.:
|
||
An unspecified physical object, a widget. Also refers to
|
||
electronic black boxes. This rare form is usually abbreviated to
|
||
FROTZ, or more commonly to FROB. Also used are FROBNULE, FROBULE, and
|
||
FROBNODULE. Starting perhaps in 1979, FROBBOZ (fruh-bahz'), pl.
|
||
FROBBOTZIM, has also become very popular, largely due to its exposure
|
||
via the Adventure spin-off called Zork (Dungeon). These can also be
|
||
applied to non-physical objects, such as data structures.
|
||
%
|
||
[From an announcement of a congress of the International Ontopsychology
|
||
Association, in Rome]:
|
||
|
||
The Ontopsychological school, availing itself of new research criteria
|
||
and of a new telematic epistemology, maintains that social modes do not
|
||
spring from dialectics of territory or of class, or of consumer goods,
|
||
or of means of power, but rather from dynamic latencies capillarized in
|
||
millions of individuals in system functions which, once they have
|
||
reached the event maturation, burst forth in catastrophic phenomenology
|
||
engaging a suitable stereotype protagonist or duty marionette (general,
|
||
president, political party, etc.) to consummate the act of social
|
||
schizophrenia in mass genocide.
|
||
%
|
||
From the "Guiness Book of World Records", 1973:
|
||
|
||
Certain passages in several laws have always defied interpretation and
|
||
the most inexplicable must be a matter of opinion. A judge of the
|
||
Court of Session of Scotland has sent the editors of this book his
|
||
candidate which reads, "In the Nuts (unground), (other than ground
|
||
nuts) Order, the expression nuts shall have reference to such nuts,
|
||
other than ground nuts, as would but for this amending Order not
|
||
qualify as nuts (unground)(other than ground nuts) by reason of their
|
||
being nuts (unground)."
|
||
%
|
||
From the moment I picked your book up until I put it down I was
|
||
convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
|
||
-- Groucho Marx, from "The Book of Insults"
|
||
%
|
||
[From the operation manual for the CI-300 Dot Matrix Line Printer, made
|
||
in Japan]:
|
||
|
||
The excellent output machine of MODEL CI-300 as extraordinary DOT
|
||
MATRIX LINE PRINTER, built in two MICRO-PROCESSORs as well as EAROM, is
|
||
featured by permitting wonderful co-existence such as; "high quality
|
||
against low cost", "diversified functions with compact design",
|
||
"flexibility in accessibleness and durability of approx. 2000,000,00
|
||
Dot/Head", "being sophisticated in mechanism but possibly agile
|
||
operating under noises being extremely suppressed" etc.
|
||
|
||
And as a matter of course, the final goal is just simply to help
|
||
achieve "super shuttle diplomacy" between cool data, perhaps earned by
|
||
HOST COMPUTER, and warm heart of human being.
|
||
%
|
||
From the Pro 350 Pocket Service Guide, p. 49, Step 5 of the
|
||
instructions on removing an I/O board from the card cage, comes a new
|
||
experience in sound:
|
||
|
||
5. Turn the handle to the right 90 degrees. The pin-spreading
|
||
sound is normal for this type of connector.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Fuch's Warning:
|
||
If you actually look like your passport photo, you aren't well
|
||
enough to travel.
|
||
%
|
||
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 More Science High has an
|
||
extracurricular activity except you."
|
||
"Well, gee, doesn't Louise count?"
|
||
"Only to ten, Mudhead."
|
||
|
||
-- Firesign Theater
|
||
%
|
||
"Gee, Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore."
|
||
%
|
||
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 1984. Northwestern 0.
|
||
-- Chicago Reader 10/15/82
|
||
%
|
||
George Orwell was an optimist.
|
||
%
|
||
George Washington was first in war, first in peace -- and the first to
|
||
have his birthday juggled to make a long weekend.
|
||
-- Ashley Cooper
|
||
%
|
||
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 GUMMed
|
||
--- ------
|
||
The Gurus of Unix Meeting of Minds (GUMM) takes place Wednesday, April
|
||
1, 2076 (check THAT in your perpetual calendar program), 14 feet above
|
||
the ground directly in front of the Milpitas Gumps. Members will grep
|
||
each other by the hand (after intro), yacc a lot, smoke filtered
|
||
chroots in pipes, chown with forks, use the wc (unless uuclean), fseek
|
||
nice zombie processes, strip, and sleep, but not, we hope, od. Three
|
||
days will be devoted to discussion of the ramifications of whodo. Two
|
||
seconds have been allotted for a complete rundown of all the user-
|
||
friendly features of Unix. Seminars include "Everything You Know is
|
||
Wrong", led by Tom Kempson, "Batman or Cat:man?" led by Richie Dennis
|
||
"cc C? Si! Si!" led by Kerwin Bernighan, and "Document Unix, Are You
|
||
Kidding?" led by Jan Yeats. No Reader Service No. is necessary because
|
||
all GUGUs (Gurus of Unix Group of Users) already know everything we
|
||
could tell them.
|
||
-- Dr. Dobb's Journal, June '84
|
||
%
|
||
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 enough medals, and I'll win any war."
|
||
-- Napolean
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Given the choice between accomplishing something and just lying
|
||
around, I'd rather lie around. No contest."
|
||
-- Eric Clapton
|
||
%
|
||
Giving up on assembly language was the apple in our Garden of Eden:
|
||
Languages whose use squanders machine cycles are sinful. The LISP
|
||
machine now permits LISP programmers to abandon bra and fig-leaf.
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Gnagloot, n.:
|
||
A person who leaves all his ski passes on his jacket just to
|
||
impress people.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Go 'way! You're bothering me!
|
||
%
|
||
Go climb a gravity well!
|
||
%
|
||
Go placidly amid the noise and waste, and remember what value there may
|
||
be in owning a piece thereof.
|
||
-- National Lampoon, "Deteriorata"
|
||
%
|
||
//GO.SYSIN DD *, DOODAH, DOODAH
|
||
%
|
||
God did not create the world in seven days; he screwed around for six
|
||
days and then pulled an all-nighter.
|
||
%
|
||
God doesn't play dice.
|
||
-- Albert Einstein
|
||
%
|
||
"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 polytheist.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Gordon's first law:
|
||
If a research project is not worth doing, it is not worth doing
|
||
well.
|
||
%
|
||
Gosh that takes me back... or is it forward? That's the trouble with
|
||
time travel, you never can tell."
|
||
-- Dr. Who, "Androids of Tara"
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Government [is] an illusion the governed should not encourage.
|
||
-- John Updike, "Couples"
|
||
%
|
||
Government lies, and newspapers lie, but in a democracy they are
|
||
different lies.
|
||
%
|
||
Government spending? I don't know what it's all about. I don't know
|
||
any more about this thing than an economist does, and, God knows, he
|
||
doesn't know much.
|
||
-- Will Rogers
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
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 minds run in great circles.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Gurmlish, n.:
|
||
The red warning flag at the top of a club sandwich which
|
||
prevents the person from biting into it and puncturing the roof of his
|
||
mouth.
|
||
-- Rich Hall & Friends, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
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 suffers from the hallucination that he is H. L.
|
||
Mencken -- there is no cure for a disease of that magnitude.
|
||
-- Maxwell Bodenheim
|
||
%
|
||
H. L. Mencken's Law:
|
||
Those who can -- do.
|
||
Those who can't -- teach.
|
||
|
||
Martin's Extension:
|
||
Those who cannot teach -- administrate.
|
||
%
|
||
H: If a 'GOBLIN (HOB) waylays you,
|
||
Slice him up before he slays you.
|
||
Nothing makes you look a slob
|
||
Like running from a HOB'LIN (GOB).
|
||
-- The Roguelet's ABC
|
||
%
|
||
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!
|
||
%
|
||
Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain't that a big
|
||
enough majority in any town?
|
||
-- Mark Twain, "Huckleberry Finn"
|
||
%
|
||
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 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"
|
||
%
|
||
Hard work may not kill you, but why take chances?
|
||
%
|
||
Hardware, n.:
|
||
The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.
|
||
%
|
||
Hark ye, Clinker, you are a most notorious offender. You stand
|
||
convicted of sickness, hunger, wretchedness, and want.
|
||
-- Tobias Smollet
|
||
%
|
||
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 Lehrer
|
||
%
|
||
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 anyone had problems with the computer accounts?"
|
||
"Yes, I don't have one."
|
||
"Okay, you can send mail to one of the tutors ..."
|
||
-- E. D'Azevedo, Computer Science 372
|
||
%
|
||
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 an adequate day.
|
||
%
|
||
Have people realized that the purpose of the fortune cookie program is
|
||
to defuse project tensions? When did you ever see a cheerful cookie, a
|
||
non-cynical, or even an informative cookie?
|
||
|
||
Perhaps inadvertently, we have a channel for our aggressions. This
|
||
still begs the question of whether the cookie releases the pressure or
|
||
only serves to blunt the warning signs.
|
||
|
||
Long live the revolution!
|
||
Have a nice day.
|
||
%
|
||
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 ever wondered what makes Californians so calm? Besides drugs,
|
||
I mean. The answer is hot tubs. A hot tub is a redwood container
|
||
filled with water that you sit in naked with members of the opposite
|
||
sex, none of whom is necessarily your spouse. After a few hours in
|
||
their hot tubs, Californians don't give a damn about earthquakes or
|
||
mass murderers. They don't give a damn about anything , which is why
|
||
they are able to produce "Laverne and Shirley" week after week.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
"Have you lived here all your life?"
|
||
"Oh, twice that long."
|
||
%
|
||
Have you noticed that all you need to grow healthy, vigorous grass is a
|
||
crack in your sidewalk?
|
||
%
|
||
Have you noticed the way people's intelligence capabilities decline
|
||
sharply the minute they start waving guns around?
|
||
-- Dr. Who
|
||
%
|
||
Have you reconsidered a computer career?
|
||
%
|
||
"He did decide, though, that with more time and a great deal of mental
|
||
effort, he could probably turn the activity into an acceptable
|
||
perversion."
|
||
-- Mick Farren, "When Gravity Fails"
|
||
%
|
||
"He flung himself on his horse and rode madly off in all directions"
|
||
%
|
||
He had occasional flashes of silence that made his conversation
|
||
perfectly delightful.
|
||
-- Sydney Smith
|
||
%
|
||
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 a fiddler, and consequently a rogue.
|
||
-- Jonathon Swift
|
||
%
|
||
"He was a modest, good-humored boy. It was Oxford that made him
|
||
insufferable."
|
||
%
|
||
"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.
|
||
%
|
||
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying
|
||
of nothing.
|
||
-- Redd Foxx
|
||
%
|
||
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying
|
||
of nothing.
|
||
-- Redd Foxx
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Hello," he lied.
|
||
-- Don Carpenter quoting a Hollywood agent
|
||
%
|
||
Help a swallow land at Capistrano.
|
||
%
|
||
Help fight continental drift.
|
||
%
|
||
Help me, I'm a prisoner in a Fortune cookie file!
|
||
%
|
||
Help stamp out and abolish redundancy.
|
||
%
|
||
Help! I'm trapped in a PDP 11/70!
|
||
%
|
||
HELP! MY TYPEWRITER IS BROKEN!
|
||
-- E. E. CUMMINGS
|
||
%
|
||
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 Sta"el;
|
||
I'm Salome, moon of the East.
|
||
|
||
Here in my soul I am Sappho;
|
||
Lady Hamilton am I, as well.
|
||
In me R'ecamier 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
|
||
%
|
||
"Here's something to think about: How come you never see a headline like
|
||
`Psychic Wins Lottery'?"
|
||
-- Jay Leno
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Hi, I'm Preston A. Mantis, president of Consumers Retail Law Outlet.
|
||
As you can see by my suit and the fact that I have all these books of
|
||
equal height on the shelves behind me, I am a trained legal attorney.
|
||
Do you have a car or a job? Do you ever walk around? If so, you
|
||
probably have the makings of an excellent legal case. Although of
|
||
course every case is different, I would definitely say that based on my
|
||
experience and training, there's no reason why you shouldn't come out
|
||
of this thing with at least a cabin cruiser.
|
||
|
||
"Remember, at the Preston A. Mantis Consumers Retail Law Outlet, our
|
||
motto is: 'It is very difficult to disprove certain kinds of pain.'"
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Pain and Suffering"
|
||
%
|
||
Hier liegt ein Mann ganz ohnegleich;
|
||
Im Leibe dick, an Suenden reich.
|
||
Wir haben ihn in das Grab gesteckt, Here lies a man with sundry flaws
|
||
Weil es uns duenkt er sei verreckt. And numerous Sins upon his head;
|
||
We buried him today because
|
||
As far as we can tell, he's dead.
|
||
-- PDQ Bach's epitaph, as requested by his cousin Betty
|
||
Sue Bach and written by the local doggerel catcher;
|
||
"The Definitive Biography of PDQ Bach", Peter
|
||
Schickele
|
||
%
|
||
Higgeldy Piggeldy,
|
||
Hamlet of Elsinore
|
||
Ruffled the critics by
|
||
Dropping this bomb:
|
||
"Phooey on Freud and his
|
||
Psychoanalysis --
|
||
Oedipus, Shmoedipus,
|
||
I just love 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 great aim was to escape from civilization, and, as soon as he had
|
||
money, he went to Southern California."
|
||
%
|
||
"His mind is like a steel trap -- full of mice"
|
||
-- Foghorn Leghorn
|
||
%
|
||
"His super power is to turn into a scotch terrier."
|
||
%
|
||
History is curious stuff
|
||
You'd think by now we had enough
|
||
Yet the fact remains I fear
|
||
They make more of it every year.
|
||
%
|
||
History repeats itself. That's one thing wrong with history.
|
||
%
|
||
History, n.:
|
||
Papa Hegel he say that all we learn from history is that we
|
||
learn nothing from history. I know people who can't even learn from
|
||
what happened this morning. Hegel must have been taking the long
|
||
view.
|
||
-- Chad C. Mulligan, "The Hipcrime Vocab"
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Home centers are designed for the do-it-yourselfer who's
|
||
willing to pay higher prices for the convenience of being able to shop
|
||
for lumber, hardware, and toasters all in one location. Notice I say
|
||
"shop for", as opposed to "obtain". This is the major drawback of home
|
||
centers: they are always out of everything except artificial Christmas
|
||
trees. The home center employees have no time to reorder merchandise
|
||
because they are too busy applying little price stickers to every
|
||
object -- every board, washer, nail and screw -- in the entire store ...
|
||
Let's say a piece in your toilet tank breaks, so you remove the
|
||
broken part, take it to the home center, and ask an employee if he has
|
||
a replacement. The employee, who has never is his life even seen the
|
||
inside of a toilet tank, will peer at the broken part in very much the
|
||
same way that a member of a primitive Amazon jungle tribe would look at
|
||
an electronic calculator, and then say, "We're expecting a shipment of
|
||
these sometime around the middle of next week".
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
Home of Doberman Propulsion Laboratories:
|
||
The ultimate in watchdog weaponry.
|
||
-- Chris Shaw
|
||
%
|
||
"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
|
||
%
|
||
Horses are forbidden to eat fire hydrants in Marshalltown, Iowa.
|
||
%
|
||
"Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed."
|
||
-- Neil Armstrong
|
||
%
|
||
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 I love thee? My accumulator overflows."
|
||
%
|
||
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 Carroll, "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 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 all 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 hors d'oeuvres you are allowed to take off a tray being
|
||
carried by a waiter at a nice party?"
|
||
|
||
Two, but there are ways around it, depending on the style of the hors
|
||
d'oeuvre. If they're those little pastry things where you can't tell
|
||
what's inside, you take one, bite off about two-thirds of it, then
|
||
say: "This is cheese! I hate cheese!" Then you put the rest of it
|
||
back on the tray and bite another one and go, "Darn it! Another
|
||
cheese!" and so on.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Stuff of Etiquette"
|
||
%
|
||
How many seconds are there in a year? If I tell you there are
|
||
3.155 x 10^7, you won't even try to remember it. On the other hand,
|
||
who could forget that, to within half a percent, pi seconds is a
|
||
nanocentury.
|
||
-- Tom Duff, Bell Labs
|
||
%
|
||
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 to become a sysop:
|
||
I grew a beard, started wearing only t-shirts and jeans, and
|
||
developed a surly attitude. The group accepted me, and I've never
|
||
worked a full day in my life since then.
|
||
-- rho/slashdot
|
||
%
|
||
How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers.
|
||
%
|
||
HOW YOU CAN TELL THAT IT'S GOING TO BE A ROTTEN DAY:
|
||
#1040 Your income tax refund cheque bounces.
|
||
%
|
||
HOW YOU CAN TELL THAT IT'S GOING TO BE A ROTTEN DAY:
|
||
#15 Your pet rock snaps at you.
|
||
%
|
||
HOW YOU CAN TELL THAT IT'S GOING TO BE A ROTTEN DAY:
|
||
|
||
#32: You call your answering service and they've never heard of
|
||
you.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
HR 3128. Omnibus Budget Reconciliation, Fiscal 1986. Martin, R-Ill.,
|
||
motion that the House recede from its disagreement to the Senate
|
||
amendment making changes in the bill to reduce fiscal 1986 deficits.
|
||
The Senate amendment was an amendment to the House amendment to the
|
||
Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment to the
|
||
bill. The original Senate amendment was the conference agreement on
|
||
the bill. Agreed to.
|
||
-- Albuquerque Journal
|
||
%
|
||
Hug O' War
|
||
|
||
I will not play at tug o' war.
|
||
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
|
||
Where everyone hugs
|
||
Instead of tugs,
|
||
Where everyone giggles
|
||
And rolls on the rug,
|
||
Where everyone kisses,
|
||
And everyone grins,
|
||
And everyone cuddles,
|
||
And everyone wins.
|
||
-- Shel Silverstein
|
||
%
|
||
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 also believe that academic freedom should protect the right of a
|
||
professor or student to advocate Marxism, socialism, communism, or any
|
||
other minority viewpoint -- no matter how distasteful to the majority.
|
||
-- Richard M. Nixon
|
||
|
||
What are our schools for if not indoctrination against Communism?
|
||
-- Richard M. Nixon
|
||
%
|
||
I am a PC technician - however, this has unfortunately caused my
|
||
computer to be running Win98.
|
||
-- seen on a FreeBSD mailing-list
|
||
%
|
||
"I am convinced that the manufacturers of carpet odor removing powder
|
||
have included encapsulated time released cat urine in their products.
|
||
This technology must be what prevented its distribution during my mom's
|
||
reign. My carpet smells like piss, and I don't have a cat. Better go
|
||
buy some more."
|
||
-- timw@zeb.USWest.COM
|
||
%
|
||
I am more bored than you could ever possibly be. Go back to work.
|
||
%
|
||
"I am not an Economist. I am an honest man!"
|
||
-- Paul McCracken
|
||
%
|
||
"I am not now, and never have been, a girlfriend of Henry Kissinger."
|
||
-- Gloria Steinem
|
||
%
|
||
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the demigodic party.
|
||
-- Dennis Ritchie
|
||
%
|
||
"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 so optimistic about beef prices that I've just leased a pot roast
|
||
with an option to buy.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 appreciate the fact that this draft was done in haste, but some of
|
||
the sentences that you are sending out in the world to do your work for
|
||
you are loitering in taverns or asleep beside the highway."
|
||
-- Dr. Dwight Van de Vate, Professor of Philosophy,
|
||
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
|
||
%
|
||
"I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an
|
||
argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and
|
||
steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect,
|
||
they don't even invite me."
|
||
-- Dave Barry
|
||
%
|
||
"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 brake for chezlogs!
|
||
%
|
||
I call them as I see them. If I can't see them, I make them up.
|
||
-- Biff Barf
|
||
%
|
||
I can feel for her because, although I have never been an Alaskan
|
||
prostitute dancing on the bar in a spangled dress, I still get very
|
||
bored with washing and ironing and dishwashing and cooking day after
|
||
relentless day.
|
||
-- Betty MacDonald
|
||
%
|
||
I can read your mind, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
|
||
%
|
||
"I can remember when a good politician had to be 75 percent ability and
|
||
25 percent actor, but I can well see the day when the reverse could be
|
||
true."
|
||
-- Harry Truman
|
||
%
|
||
"I can resist anything but temptation."
|
||
%
|
||
"I can't complain, but sometimes I still do."
|
||
-- Joe Walsh
|
||
%
|
||
"I can't decide whether to commit suicide or go bowling."
|
||
-- Florence Henderson
|
||
%
|
||
I can't understand it. I can't even understand the people who can
|
||
understand it.
|
||
-- Queen Juliana of the Netherlands.
|
||
%
|
||
I can't understand why a person will take a year or two to write a
|
||
novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars.
|
||
-- Fred Allen
|
||
%
|
||
"I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions."
|
||
-- Lillian Hellman
|
||
%
|
||
I cannot conceive that anybody will require multiplications at the rate
|
||
of 40,000 or even 4,000 per hour ...
|
||
-- F. H. Wales (1936)
|
||
%
|
||
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 Frito Bugger in a
|
||
quavering voice.
|
||
"No," said GoodGulf, "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)."
|
||
-- Harvard Lampoon, "Bored of the Rings"
|
||
%
|
||
" I changed my headlights the other day. I put in strobe lights
|
||
instead! Now when I drive at night, it looks like everyone else is
|
||
standing still ..."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
I could dance till the cows come home. On second thought, I'd rather
|
||
dance with the cows till you come home.
|
||
-- Groucho Marx
|
||
%
|
||
"I couldn't remember when I had been so disappointed. Except perhaps
|
||
the time I found out that M&Ms really *do* melt in your hand ..."
|
||
-- Peter Oakley
|
||
%
|
||
"I didn't know it was impossible when I did it."
|
||
%
|
||
I didn't like the play, but I saw it under adverse conditions. The
|
||
curtain was up.
|
||
%
|
||
I disapprove of the F-word, not because it's dirty, but because
|
||
we use it as a substitute for thoughtful insults, and it frequently
|
||
leads to violence. What we ought to do, when we anger each other, say,
|
||
in traffic, is exchange phone numbers, so that later on, when we've had
|
||
time to think of witty and learned insults or look them up in the
|
||
library, we could call each other up:
|
||
|
||
You: Hello? Bob?
|
||
Bob: Yes?
|
||
You: This is Ed. Remember? The person whose parking space you
|
||
took last Thursday? Outside of Sears?
|
||
Bob: Oh yes! Sure! How are you, Ed?
|
||
You: Fine, thanks. Listen, Bob, the reason I'm calling is:
|
||
"Madam, you may be drunk, but I am ugly, and ..." No, wait.
|
||
I mean: "you may be ugly, but I am Winston Churchill
|
||
and ..." No, wait. (Sound of reference book thudding onto
|
||
the floor.) S-word. Excuse me. Look, Bob, I'm going to
|
||
have to get back to you.
|
||
Bob: Fine.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "$#$%#^%!^%&@%@!"
|
||
%
|
||
I do hate sums. There is no greater mistake than to call arithmetic an
|
||
exact science. There are permutations and aberrations discernible to
|
||
minds entirely noble like mine; subtle variations which ordinary
|
||
accountants fail to discover; hidden laws of number which it requires a
|
||
mind like mine to perceive. For instance, if you add a sum from the
|
||
bottom up, and then again from the top down, the result is always
|
||
different.
|
||
-- Mrs. La Touche (19th cent.)
|
||
%
|
||
"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 forego 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 believe there really IS a GAS SHORTAGE.. I think it's all just
|
||
a BIG HOAX on the part of the plastic sign salesmen -- to sell more
|
||
numbers!!
|
||
%
|
||
I don't care for the Sugar Smacks commercial. I don't like the idea of
|
||
a frog jumping on my Breakfast.
|
||
-- Lowell, Chicago Reader 10/15/82
|
||
%
|
||
"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 anything about music. In my line you don't have to.
|
||
-- Elvis Presley
|
||
%
|
||
"I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to."
|
||
-- Elvis Presley
|
||
%
|
||
"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 Carroll, "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 mind going nowhere as long as it's an interesting path."
|
||
-- Ronald Mabbitt
|
||
%
|
||
I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the
|
||
streets and frighten the horses.
|
||
-- Victor Hugo
|
||
%
|
||
"I don't object to sex before marriage, but two minutes before?!?"
|
||
%
|
||
"I don't think so," said Ren'e Descartes. Just then, he vanished.
|
||
%
|
||
"I don't think they could put him in a mental hospital. On the other
|
||
hand, if he were already in, I don't think they'd let him out."
|
||
%
|
||
I don't want to alarm anybody, but there is an excellent chance that
|
||
the Earth will be destroyed in the next several days. Congress is
|
||
thinking about eliminating a federal program under which scientists
|
||
broadcast signals to alien beings. This would be a large mistake.
|
||
Alien beings have nuclear blaster death cannons. You cannot cut off
|
||
their federal programs as if they were merely poor people ...
|
||
-- Davy Barry, "THE ALIENS ARE COMING, THE ALIENS ARE
|
||
COMING!"
|
||
%
|
||
I doubt, therefore I might be.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 fell asleep reading a dull book, and I dreamt that I was reading on,
|
||
so I woke up from sheer boredom.
|
||
%
|
||
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 found out why my car was humming. It had forgotten the words."
|
||
%
|
||
"I gained nothing at all from Supreme Enlightenment, and for that very
|
||
reason it is called Supreme Enlightenment."
|
||
-- Gotama Buddha
|
||
%
|
||
I gave up Smoking, Drinking and Sex. It was the most *__________horrifying* 20
|
||
minutes of my life!
|
||
%
|
||
'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.
|
||
%
|
||
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 had to censor everything my sons watched ... even on the Mary Tyler
|
||
Moore show I heard the word 'damn'!"
|
||
-- Mary Lou Bax
|
||
%
|
||
"I had to hit him -- he was starting to make sense."
|
||
%
|
||
"I hate it when my foot falls asleep during the day cause that means
|
||
it's going to be up all night."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"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 a very firm grasp on reality! I can reach out and strangle it
|
||
any time!"
|
||
%
|
||
"I have come up with a sure-fire concept for a hit television show,
|
||
which would be called `A Live Celebrity Gets Eaten by a Shark'."
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Wonders of Sharks on TV"
|
||
%
|
||
I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I tell them the truth
|
||
and they never believe me.
|
||
-- Camillo Di Cavour
|
||
%
|
||
I have great faith in fools -- self confidence my friends call it.
|
||
-- Edgar Allan Poe
|
||
%
|
||
"I have just read your lousy review buried in the back pages. You
|
||
sound like a frustrated old man who never made a success, an
|
||
eight-ulcer man on a four-ulcer job, and all four ulcers working. I
|
||
have never met you, but if I do you'll need a new nose and plenty of
|
||
beefsteak and perhaps a supporter below. Westbrook Pegler, a
|
||
guttersnipe, is a gentleman compared to you. You can take that as more
|
||
of an insult than as a reflection on your ancestry."
|
||
-- President Harry S Truman
|
||
%
|
||
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 more humility in my little finger than you have in your whole
|
||
____BODY!
|
||
-- from "Cerebus" #82
|
||
%
|
||
"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 have the world's largest collection of seashells. I keep it
|
||
scattered around the beaches of the world ... Perhaps you've seen it.
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"I have to convince you, or at least snow you ..."
|
||
-- Prof. Romas Aleliunas, CS 435
|
||
%
|
||
"I have two very rare photographs: one is a picture of Houdini locking
|
||
his keys in his car; the other is a rare photograph of Norman Rockwell
|
||
beating up a child."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when looked
|
||
at in the right way, did not become still more complicated.
|
||
-- Poul Anderson
|
||
%
|
||
"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 forgot my whole philosophy of life!!!
|
||
%
|
||
"I just need enough to tide me over until I need more."
|
||
-- Bill Hoest
|
||
%
|
||
I know it all. I just can't remember it all at once.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 know the answer! The answer lies within the heart of all mankind!
|
||
The answer is twelve? I think I'm in the wrong building."
|
||
-- Charles Schulz
|
||
%
|
||
"I like being single. I'm always there when I need me."
|
||
-- Art Leo
|
||
%
|
||
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to
|
||
promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want
|
||
peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of
|
||
the way and let them have it.
|
||
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
|
||
%
|
||
"I like work ... I can sit and watch it for hours."
|
||
%
|
||
"I like your game but we have to change the rules."
|
||
%
|
||
"I love Saturday morning cartoons, what classic humour! This is what
|
||
entertainment is all about ... Idiots, explosives and falling anvils."
|
||
-- Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson
|
||
%
|
||
"I love to eat them Smurfies
|
||
Smurfies what I love to eat
|
||
Bite they ugly heads off,
|
||
Nibble on they bluish feet."
|
||
%
|
||
"I may appear to be just sitting here like a bucket of tapioca, but
|
||
don't let appearances fool you. I'm approaching old age ... at the
|
||
speed of light."
|
||
-- Prof. Cosmo Fishhawk
|
||
%
|
||
"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 often quote myself; it adds spice to my conversation.
|
||
-- G. B. Shaw
|
||
%
|
||
"I only touch base with reality on an as-needed basis!"
|
||
-- Royal Floyd Mengot (Klaus)
|
||
%
|
||
"I played lead guitar in a band called The Federal Duck, which is the
|
||
kind of name that was popular in the '60s as a result of controlled
|
||
substances being in widespread use. Back then, there were no
|
||
restrictions, in terms of talent, on who could make an album, so we
|
||
made one, and it sounds like a group of people who have been given
|
||
powerful but unfamiliar instruments as a therapy for a degenerative
|
||
nerve disease."
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Snake"
|
||
%
|
||
I predict that today will be remembered until tomorrow!
|
||
%
|
||
"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 Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland"
|
||
%
|
||
I realize that the MX missile is none of our concern. I realize that
|
||
the whole point of living in a democracy is that we pay professional
|
||
congresspersons to concern themselves with things like the MX missile
|
||
so we can be free to concern ourselves with getting hold of the
|
||
plumber.
|
||
|
||
But from time to time, I feel I must address major public issues such
|
||
as this, because in a free and open society, where the very future of
|
||
the world hinges on decisions made by our elected leaders, you never
|
||
win large cash journalism awards if you stick to the topics I usually
|
||
write about, such as nose-picking.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "At Last, the Ultimate Deterrent Against
|
||
Political Fallout"
|
||
%
|
||
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 a good deal of talk from Washington about lowering taxes. I hope
|
||
they do get 'em lowered enough so people can afford to pay 'em.
|
||
-- Will Rogers
|
||
%
|
||
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 Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
|
||
%
|
||
"I shot an arrow into the air, and it stuck."
|
||
-- Graffito in Los Angeles
|
||
%
|
||
"... I should explain that I was wearing a black velvet cape that was
|
||
supposed to make me look like the dashing, romantic Zorro but which
|
||
actually made me look like a gigantic bat wearing glasses ..."
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Wet Zorro Suit and Other Turning
|
||
Points in l'Amour"
|
||
%
|
||
"I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full
|
||
house and four people died."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to
|
||
see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph."
|
||
-- Shirley Temple
|
||
%
|
||
I suggest you locate your hot tub outside your house, so it won't do
|
||
too much damage if it catches fire or explodes. First you decide which
|
||
direction your hot tub should face for maximum solar energy. After
|
||
much trial and error, I have found that the best direction for a hot
|
||
tub to face is up.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
"I think it is true for all _n. I was just playing it safe with _n >= 3
|
||
because I couldn't remember the proof."
|
||
-- Baker, Pure Math 351a
|
||
%
|
||
"I think sex is better than logic, but I can't prove it."
|
||
%
|
||
I think that all good, right thinking people in this country are sick
|
||
and tired of being told that all good, right thinking people in this
|
||
country are fed up with being told that all good, right thinking people
|
||
in this country are fed up with being sick and tired. I'm certainly
|
||
not, and I'm sick and tired of being told that I am.
|
||
-- Monty Python
|
||
%
|
||
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 think that I shall never see
|
||
A thing as lovely as a tree.
|
||
But as you see the trees have gone
|
||
They went this morning with the dawn.
|
||
A logging firm from out of town
|
||
Came and chopped the trees all down.
|
||
But I will trick those dirty skunks
|
||
And write a brand new poem called 'Trunks'.
|
||
%
|
||
"I think the sky is blue because it's a shift from black through purple
|
||
to blue, and it has to do with where the light is. You know, the
|
||
farther we get into darkness, and there's a shifting of color of light
|
||
into the blueness, and I think as you go farther and farther away from
|
||
the reflected light we have from the sun or the light that's bouncing
|
||
off this earth, uh, the darker it gets ... I think if you look at the
|
||
color scale, you start at black, move it through purple, move it on
|
||
out, it's the shifting of color. We mentioned before about the stars
|
||
singing, and that's one of the effects of the shifting of colors."
|
||
-- Pat Robertson, The 700 Club
|
||
%
|
||
I think the world would be a more peaceful place if people
|
||
could just keep their fingers out of the fortune files.
|
||
-- Jordan K. Hubbard
|
||
%
|
||
I think we can all agree that there is not enough common courtesy shown
|
||
... HEY! PAY ATTENTION WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU DAMMIT! I said I think
|
||
we can all agree that there is not enough common courtesy shown today.
|
||
When we take the time to be courteous to each other, we find that we
|
||
are happier and less likely to engage in nuclear war. This point was
|
||
driven home by the recent summit talks, where Nancy Reagan and Raisa
|
||
Gorbachev, each of whose husband thinks the other's husband is vermin,
|
||
were able to sit down at a high-level tea and engage in courteous
|
||
conversation ...
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Stuff of Etiquette"
|
||
%
|
||
"I thought you were trying to get into shape."
|
||
"I am. The shape I've selected is a triangle."
|
||
%
|
||
" ... I told my doctor I got all the exercise I needed being a
|
||
pallbearer for all my friends who run and do exercises!"
|
||
-- Winston Churchill
|
||
%
|
||
I took a course in speed reading and was able to read War and Peace in
|
||
twenty minutes. It's about Russia.
|
||
-- Woody Allen
|
||
%
|
||
I used to be an agnostic, but now I'm not so sure.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my
|
||
body. Then I realized who was telling me this."
|
||
-- Emo Phillips
|
||
%
|
||
I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere
|
||
near the place.
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
I value kindness to human beings first of all, and kindness to
|
||
animals. I don't respect the law; I have a total irreverence for
|
||
anything connected with society except that which makes the roads
|
||
safer, the beer stronger, the food cheaper, and old men and women
|
||
warmer in the winter, and happier in the summer.
|
||
-- Brendan Behan
|
||
%
|
||
"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 born because it was a habit in those days, people didn't know
|
||
anything else ... I was not a Child Prodigy, because a Child Prodigy is
|
||
a child who knows as much when it is a child as it does when it grows
|
||
up.
|
||
-- Will Rogers
|
||
%
|
||
"I was drunk last night, crawled home across the lawn. By accident I
|
||
put the car key in the door lock. The house started up. So I figured
|
||
what the hell, and drove it around the block a few times. I thought I
|
||
should go park it in the middle of the freeway and yell at everyone to
|
||
get off my driveway."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I
|
||
didn't know."
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending
|
||
their lives doing things they detest to make money they don't want to
|
||
buy things they don't need to impress people they dislike.
|
||
-- Emile Henry Gauvreay
|
||
%
|
||
"I was playing poker the other night ... with Tarot cards. I got a full
|
||
house and four people died."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"I went into a general store, and they wouldn't sell me anything
|
||
specific".
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
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 went to a job interview the other day, the guy asked me if I had any
|
||
questions , I said yes, just one, if you're in a car traveling at the
|
||
speed of light and you turn your headlights on, does anything happen?
|
||
|
||
He said he couldn't answer that, I told him sorry, but I couldn't work
|
||
for him then.
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"I went to the hardware store and bought some used paint. It was in
|
||
the shape of a house. I also bought some batteries, but they weren't
|
||
included."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms from the
|
||
statues that are in all the other museums."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
I went to the race track once and bet on a horse that was so good that
|
||
it took seven others to beat him!
|
||
%
|
||
"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 stay
|
||
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 carry your books, I'll carry a tune, I'll carry on, carry over,
|
||
carry forward, Cary Grant, cash & carry, Carry Me Back To Old Virginia,
|
||
I'll even Hara Kari if you show me how, but I will *not* carry a gun."
|
||
-- Hawkeye, M*A*S*H
|
||
%
|
||
I'll defend to the death your right to say that, but I never said I'd
|
||
listen to it!
|
||
-- Tom Galloway with apologies to Voltaire
|
||
%
|
||
I'll grant thee 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'll rob that rich person and give it to some poor deserving slob.
|
||
That will *prove* I'm Robin Hood."
|
||
-- Daffy Duck, "Robin Hood Daffy", [1958, Chuck Jones]
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm a creationist; I refuse to believe that I could have evolved from
|
||
man."
|
||
%
|
||
I'm a Lisp variable -- bind me!
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm all for computer dating, but I wouldn't want one to marry my
|
||
sister."
|
||
%
|
||
I'm changing my name to Chrysler
|
||
I'm going down to Washington, D.C.
|
||
I'll tell some power broker
|
||
What they did for Iacocca
|
||
Will be perfectly acceptable to me!
|
||
I'm changing my name to Chrysler,
|
||
I'm 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!
|
||
-- Tom Paxton
|
||
%
|
||
I'm defending her honor, which is more than she ever did.
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm defending her honor, which is more than she ever did."
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to
|
||
die in."
|
||
-- George McGovern
|
||
%
|
||
I'm going to Boston to see my doctor. He's a very sick man.
|
||
-- Fred Allen
|
||
%
|
||
I'm going to live forever, or die trying!
|
||
-- Spider Robinson
|
||
%
|
||
... I'm IMAGINING a sensuous GIRAFFE, CAVORTING in the BACK ROOM of a
|
||
KOSHER DELI!!
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm in Pittsburgh. Why am I here?"
|
||
-- Harold Urey, Nobel Laureate
|
||
%
|
||
i'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be
|
||
living apart.
|
||
-- e. e. cummings
|
||
%
|
||
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 proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is
|
||
-- I could be just as proud for half the money.
|
||
-- Arthur Godfrey
|
||
%
|
||
I'm rated PG-34!!
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm really enjoying not talking to you ... Let's not talk again ____REAL
|
||
soon ..."
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm returning this note to you, instead of your paper, because it
|
||
(your paper) presently occupies the bottom of my bird cage."
|
||
-- English Professor, Providence College
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm sorry, but after reading this thread, I'm having a hard time
|
||
coming up with an explanation for this nonsense which doesn't involve
|
||
you being a dumbass."
|
||
-- Bill Paul <wpaul@FreeBSD.org>
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
"I'm willing to sacrifice anything for this cause, even other people's
|
||
lives"
|
||
%
|
||
I've built a better model than the one at Data General
|
||
For data bases vegetable, animal, and mineral
|
||
My OS handles CPUs with multiplexed duality;
|
||
My PL/1 compiler shows impressive functionality.
|
||
My storage system's better than magnetic core polarity,
|
||
You never have to bother checking out a bit for parity;
|
||
There isn't any reason to install non-static floor matting;
|
||
My disk drive has capacity for variable formatting.
|
||
|
||
I feel compelled to mention what I know to be a gloating point:
|
||
There's lots of room in memory for variables floating-point,
|
||
Which shows for input vegetable, animal, and mineral
|
||
I've built a better model than the one at Data General.
|
||
|
||
-- Steve Levine, "A Computer Song" (To the tune of
|
||
"Modern Major General", from "Pirates of Penzance",
|
||
by Gilbert & Sullivan)
|
||
%
|
||
I've enjoyed just about as much of this as I can stand.
|
||
%
|
||
I've found my niche. If you're wondering why I'm not there, there was
|
||
this little hole in the bottom ...
|
||
-- John Croll
|
||
%
|
||
I've given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.
|
||
%
|
||
I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.
|
||
-- Groucho Marx
|
||
%
|
||
I've known him as a man, as an adolescent and as a child -- sometimes
|
||
on the same day.
|
||
%
|
||
"I've seen better heads on half a pint of beer."
|
||
%
|
||
"I've seen, I SAY, I've seen better heads on a mug of beer"
|
||
-- Senator Claghorn
|
||
%
|
||
I've touch'd the highest point of all my greatness;
|
||
And from that full meridian of my glory
|
||
I haste now to my setting. I shall fall,
|
||
Like a bright exhalation in the evening
|
||
And no man see me more.
|
||
-- Shakespeare
|
||
%
|
||
IBM had a PL/I,
|
||
Its syntax worse than JOSS;
|
||
And everywhere this language went,
|
||
It was a total loss.
|
||
%
|
||
Idaho state law makes it illegal for a man to give his sweetheart a box
|
||
of candy weighing less than fifty pounds.
|
||
%
|
||
Ideas don't stay in some minds very long because they don't like
|
||
solitary confinement.
|
||
%
|
||
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 6600 used paper tape instead of core memory, it would use up tape
|
||
at about 30 miles/second.
|
||
-- Grishman, Assembly Language Programming
|
||
%
|
||
If A = B and B = C, then A = C, except where void or prohibited by law.
|
||
-- Roy Santoro
|
||
%
|
||
"If a camel flies, no one laughs if it doesn't get very far."
|
||
-- Paul White
|
||
%
|
||
If a camel is a horse designed by a committee, then a consensus
|
||
forecast is a camel's behind.
|
||
-- Edgar R. Fiedler
|
||
%
|
||
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 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 jury in a criminal trial stays out for more than twenty-four
|
||
hours, it is certain to vote acquittal, save in those instances where
|
||
it votes guilty.
|
||
-- Joseph C. Goulden
|
||
%
|
||
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 a putt passes over the hole without dropping, it is deemed to have
|
||
dropped. The law of gravity holds that any object attempting to
|
||
maintain a position in the atmosphere without something to support it
|
||
must drop. The law of gravity supersedes the law of golf.
|
||
-- Donald A. Metz
|
||
%
|
||
"If a team is in a positive frame of mind, it will have a good
|
||
attitude. If it has a good attitude, it will make a commitment to
|
||
playing the game right. If it plays the game right, it will win --
|
||
unless, of course, it doesn't have enough talent to win, and no manager
|
||
can make goose-liver pate out of goose feathers, so why worry?"
|
||
-- Sparky Anderson
|
||
%
|
||
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 Chinese simultaneously jumped into the Pacific off a 10 foot
|
||
platform erected 10 feet off their coast, it would cause a tidal wave
|
||
that would destroy everything in this country west of Nebraska.
|
||
%
|
||
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 everybody minded their own business, the world would go
|
||
around a deal faster.
|
||
-- The Duchess, "Through the Looking Glass"
|
||
%
|
||
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 didn't mean for us to juggle, tennis balls wouldn't come three
|
||
to a can.
|
||
%
|
||
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 dead, who will save the Queen?
|
||
%
|
||
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 God wanted us to be brave, why did he give us legs?
|
||
-- Marvin Kitman
|
||
%
|
||
"If I am elected, the concrete barriers around the WHITE HOUSE will be
|
||
replaced by tasteful foam replicas of ANN MARGARET!"
|
||
%
|
||
If I could drop dead right now, I'd be the happiest man alive!
|
||
-- Samuel Goldwyn
|
||
%
|
||
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 don't see you in the future, I'll see you in the pasture.
|
||
%
|
||
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 have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the
|
||
shoulders of giants.
|
||
-- Isaac Newton
|
||
|
||
In the sciences, we are now uniquely privileged to sit side by side
|
||
with the giants on whose shoulders we stand.
|
||
-- Gerald Holton
|
||
|
||
If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing
|
||
on my shoulders.
|
||
-- Hal Abelson
|
||
|
||
In computer science, we stand on each other's feet.
|
||
-- Brian K. Reid
|
||
%
|
||
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 just one piece of mail gets lost, well, they'll just think they
|
||
forgot to send it. But if *two* pieces of mail get lost, hell, they'll
|
||
just think the other guy hasn't gotten around to answering his mail.
|
||
And if *fifty* pieces of mail get lost, can you imagine it, if *fifty*
|
||
pieces of mail get lost, why they'll think someone *else* is broken!
|
||
And if 1Gb of mail gets lost, they'll just *know* that Arpa is down and
|
||
think it's a conspiracy to keep them from their God given right to
|
||
receive Net Mail ..."
|
||
-- Leith (Casey) Leedom
|
||
%
|
||
If life is a stage, I want some better lighting.
|
||
%
|
||
If little else, the brain is an educational toy.
|
||
-- Tom Robbins
|
||
%
|
||
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 once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think
|
||
little of robbing; and from robbing he next comes to drinking and
|
||
Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination."
|
||
-- Thomas De Quincey (1785 - 1859)
|
||
%
|
||
If one studies too zealously, one easily loses his pants.
|
||
-- A. Einstein.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad,
|
||
he should see how bad it is with representation.
|
||
%
|
||
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 that makes any sense to you, you have a big problem."
|
||
-- C. Durance, Computer Science 234
|
||
%
|
||
If the aborigine drafted an IQ test, all of Western civilization would
|
||
presumably flunk it.
|
||
-- Stanley Garn
|
||
%
|
||
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 they can make penicillin out of moldy bread, they can sure make
|
||
something out of you.
|
||
-- Muhammad Ali
|
||
%
|
||
If this fortune didn't exist, somebody would have invented it.
|
||
%
|
||
If this is timesharing, give me my share right now.
|
||
%
|
||
If time heals all wounds, how come the belly button stays the same?
|
||
%
|
||
If today is the first day of the rest of your life, what the hell was
|
||
yesterday?
|
||
%
|
||
If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is
|
||
doing the thinking.
|
||
-- Lyndon Baines Johnson
|
||
%
|
||
If two wrongs don't make a right, try three.
|
||
-- Laurence J. Peter
|
||
%
|
||
"If value corrupts then absolute value corrupts absolutely"
|
||
%
|
||
"If we were meant to fly, we wouldn't keep losing our luggage."
|
||
%
|
||
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 are a fatalist, what can you do about it?
|
||
-- Ann Edwards-Duff
|
||
%
|
||
"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 read this, you're too close.
|
||
%
|
||
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 don't go to other men's funerals they won't go to yours.
|
||
-- Clarence Day
|
||
%
|
||
If you don't have a nasty obituary you probably didn't matter.
|
||
-- Freeman Dyson
|
||
%
|
||
"If you don't want your dog to have bad breath, do what I do: Pour a little
|
||
Lavoris in the toilet."
|
||
-- Jay Leno
|
||
%
|
||
If you eat a live frog in the morning, nothing worse will happen to
|
||
either of you for the rest of the day.
|
||
%
|
||
"If you ever want to get anywhere in politics, my boy, you're going to
|
||
have to get a toehold in the public eye."
|
||
%
|
||
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 just try long enough and hard enough, you can always manage to
|
||
boot yourself in the posterior.
|
||
-- A. J. Liebling
|
||
%
|
||
If you keep anything long enough, you can throw it away.
|
||
%
|
||
If you live in a country run by committee, be on the committee.
|
||
-- Graham Summer
|
||
%
|
||
If you live to the age of a hundred you have it made because very few
|
||
people die past the age of a hundred.
|
||
-- George Burns
|
||
%
|
||
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 sit down at a poker game and don't see a sucker, get up. You're
|
||
the sucker.
|
||
%
|
||
If you stand on your head, you will get footprints in your hair.
|
||
%
|
||
If you stick a stock of liquor in your locker,
|
||
It is slick to stick a lock upon your stock.
|
||
Or some joker who is slicker,
|
||
Will trick you of your liquor,
|
||
If you fail to lock your liquor with a lock.
|
||
%
|
||
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 problem is bad now, just wait until we've solved it.
|
||
-- Arthur Kasspe
|
||
%
|
||
If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest
|
||
shopping center in the world?
|
||
-- Richard M. Nixon
|
||
%
|
||
If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest
|
||
shopping center in the world?
|
||
-- Richard 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 took all the students that felt asleep in class and laid them
|
||
end to end, they'd be a lot more comfortable.
|
||
-- "Graffiti in the Big Ten"
|
||
%
|
||
"If you understand what you're doing, you're not learning anything."
|
||
-- A. L.
|
||
%
|
||
If you want divine justice, die.
|
||
-- Nick Seldon
|
||
%
|
||
If you want to know what god thinks of money, just look at the people
|
||
he gave it to.
|
||
-- Dorthy Parker
|
||
%
|
||
If you want to understand your government, don't begin by reading the
|
||
Constitution. It conveys precious little of the flavor of today's
|
||
statecraft. Instead, read selected portions of the Washington
|
||
telephone directory containing listings for all the organizations with
|
||
titles beginning with the word "National".
|
||
-- George Will
|
||
%
|
||
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 wish to live wisely, ignore sayings -- including this one.
|
||
%
|
||
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 like most homeowners, you're afraid that many repairs
|
||
around your home are too difficult to tackle. So, when your furnace
|
||
explodes, you call in a so-called professional to fix it. The
|
||
"professional" arrives in a truck with lettering on the sides and
|
||
deposits a large quantity of tools and two assistants who spend the
|
||
better part of the week in your basement whacking objects at random
|
||
with heavy wrenches, after which the "professional" returns and gives
|
||
you a bill for slightly more money than it would cost you to run a
|
||
successful campaign for the U.S. Senate.
|
||
And that's why you've decided to start doing things yourself.
|
||
You figure, "If those guys can fix my furnace, then so can I. How
|
||
difficult can it be?"
|
||
Very difficult. In fact, most home projects are impossible,
|
||
which is why you should do them yourself. There is no point in paying
|
||
other people to screw things up when you can easily screw them up
|
||
yourself for far less money. This article can help you.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
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're right 90% of the time, why quibble about the remaining 3%?
|
||
%
|
||
"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
|
||
%
|
||
Ignisecond, n.:
|
||
The overlapping moment of time when the hand is locking the car
|
||
door even as the brain is saying, "my keys are in there!"
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Il brilgue: les t^oves libricilleux
|
||
Se gyrent et frillant dans le guave,
|
||
Enm^im'es sont les gougebosquex,
|
||
Et le m^omerade horgrave.
|
||
-- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
|
||
%
|
||
Iles's Law:
|
||
There is always an easier way to do it. When looking directly
|
||
at the easy way, especially for long periods, you will not see it.
|
||
Neither will Iles.
|
||
%
|
||
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 if every Thursday your shoes exploded if you tied them the
|
||
usual way. This happens to us all the time with computers, and nobody
|
||
thinks of complaining."
|
||
-- Jeff Raskin, interviewed in Doctor Dobb's Journal
|
||
%
|
||
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 4096 x 4096 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?"
|
||
%
|
||
Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.
|
||
-- Jack Paar
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Impossible, adj.:
|
||
(1) I wouldn't like it and when it happens I won't approve;
|
||
(2) I can't be bothered; (3) God can't be bothered. Meaning (3) may
|
||
perhaps be valid but the others are 101% whaledreck.
|
||
-- Chad C. Mulligan, "The Hipcrime Vocab"
|
||
%
|
||
In 1750 Issac Newton became discouraged when he fell up a flight of
|
||
stairs.
|
||
%
|
||
In 1869 the waffle iron was invented for people who had wrinkled
|
||
waffles.
|
||
%
|
||
In 1880 the French captured Detroit but gave it back ... they couldn't
|
||
get parts.
|
||
%
|
||
In 1914, the first crossword puzzle was printed in a newspaper. The
|
||
creator received $4000 down ... and $3000 across.
|
||
%
|
||
In 1915 pancake make-up was invented but most people still preferred
|
||
syrup.
|
||
%
|
||
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 a medium in which a News Piece takes a minute and an "In-Depth"
|
||
Piece takes two minutes, the Simple will drive out the Complex.
|
||
-- Frank Mankiewicz
|
||
%
|
||
In a museum in Havana, there are two skulls of Christopher Columbus,
|
||
"one when he was a boy and one when he was a man."
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
In Africa some of the native tribes have a custom of beating the ground
|
||
with clubs and uttering spine chilling cries. Anthropologists call
|
||
this a form of primitive self-expression. In America we call it golf.
|
||
%
|
||
In America today ... we have Woody Allen, whose humor has become so
|
||
sophisticated that nobody gets it any more except Mia Farrow. All
|
||
those who think Mia Farrow should go back to making movies where the
|
||
devil gets her pregnant and Woody Allen should go back to dressing up
|
||
as a human sperm, please raise your hands. Thank you.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Why Humor is Funny"
|
||
%
|
||
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 any world menu, Canada must be considered the vichyssoise of
|
||
nations -- it's cold, half-French, and difficult to stir."
|
||
-- Stuart Keate
|
||
%
|
||
In Blythe, California, a city ordinance declares that a person must own
|
||
at least two cows before he can wear cowboy boots in public.
|
||
%
|
||
In Boston, it is illegal to hold frog-jumping contests in nightclubs.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Columbia, Pennsylvania, it is against the law for a pilot to tickle
|
||
a female flying student under her chin with a feather duster in order
|
||
to get her attention.
|
||
%
|
||
In Corning, Iowa, it's a misdemeanor for a man to ask his wife to ride
|
||
in any motor vehicle.
|
||
%
|
||
"In defeat, unbeatable; in victory, unbearable."
|
||
-- Winston Churchill, of Montgomery
|
||
%
|
||
In Denver it is unlawful to lend your vacuum cleaner to your next-door
|
||
neighbor.
|
||
%
|
||
In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Greene, New York, it is illegal to eat peanuts and walk backwards on
|
||
the sidewalks when a concert is on.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Lexington, Kentucky, it's illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your
|
||
pocket.
|
||
%
|
||
In Lowes Crossroads, Delaware, it is a violation of local law for any
|
||
pilot or passenger to carry an ice cream cone in their pocket while
|
||
either flying or waiting to board a plane.
|
||
%
|
||
In Memphis, Tennessee, it is illegal for a woman to drive a car unless
|
||
there is a man either running or walking in front of it waving a red
|
||
flag to warn approaching motorists and pedestrians.
|
||
%
|
||
In Ohio, if you ignore an orator on Decoration day to such an extent as
|
||
to publicly play croquet or pitch horseshoes within one mile of the
|
||
speaker's stand, you can be fined $25.00.
|
||
%
|
||
"In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the
|
||
universe."
|
||
-- Carl Sagan, Cosmos
|
||
%
|
||
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 Pocataligo, Georgia, it is a violation for a woman over 200 pounds
|
||
and attired in shorts to pilot or ride in an airplane.
|
||
%
|
||
In Pocatello, Idaho, a law passed in 1912 provided that "The carrying
|
||
of concealed weapons is forbidden, unless same are exhibited to public
|
||
view."
|
||
%
|
||
In Riemann, Hilbert or in Banach space
|
||
Let superscripts and subscripts go their ways.
|
||
Our asymptotes no longer out of phase,
|
||
We shall encounter, counting, face to face.
|
||
-- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
|
||
%
|
||
In Seattle, Washington, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon that
|
||
is over six feet in length.
|
||
%
|
||
In seeking the unattainable, simplicity only gets in the way.
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
"In short, _N is Richardian if, and only if, _N is not Richardian."
|
||
%
|
||
In specifications, Murphy's Law supersedes Ohm's.
|
||
%
|
||
In Tennessee, it is illegal to shoot any game other than whales from a
|
||
moving automobile.
|
||
%
|
||
[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 beginning was the word.
|
||
But by the time the second word was added to it,
|
||
there was trouble.
|
||
For with it came syntax ...
|
||
-- John Simon
|
||
%
|
||
In the days when Sussman was a novice Minsky once came to him as he sat
|
||
hacking at the PDP-6. "What are you doing?", asked Minsky. "I am
|
||
training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe." "Why is the
|
||
net wired randomly?", asked Minsky. "I do not want it to have any
|
||
preconceptions of how to play." Minsky shut his eyes. "Why do you
|
||
close your eyes?", Sussman asked his teacher. "So the room will be
|
||
empty." At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.
|
||
%
|
||
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 space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Mississippi has
|
||
shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. Therefore ... in the
|
||
Old Silurian Period the Mississippi River was upward of one million
|
||
three hundred thousand miles long ... seven hundred and forty-two years
|
||
from now the Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long.
|
||
... There is something fascinating about science. One gets such
|
||
wholesome returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of
|
||
fact.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
In those days he was wiser than he is now -- he used to frequently take
|
||
my advice.
|
||
-- Winston Churchill
|
||
%
|
||
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it is against the law to open a soda bottle without
|
||
the supervision of a licensed engineer.
|
||
%
|
||
In West Union, Ohio, No married man can go flying without his spouse
|
||
along at any time, unless he has been married for more than 12 months.
|
||
%
|
||
Incumbent, n.:
|
||
Person of liveliest interest to the outcumbents.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
... indifference is a militant thing ... when it goes away it leaves
|
||
smoking ruins, where lie citizens bayonetted through the throat. It is
|
||
not a children's pastime like mere highway robbery.
|
||
-- Stephen Crane
|
||
%
|
||
Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
|
||
%
|
||
Individualists unite!
|
||
%
|
||
Infancy, n.:
|
||
The period of our lives when, according to Wordsworth, "Heaven
|
||
lies about us." The world begins lying about us pretty soon
|
||
afterward.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Intolerance is the last defense of the insecure.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Irrationality is the square root of all evil"
|
||
-- Douglas Hofstadter
|
||
%
|
||
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 interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction
|
||
listen to weather forecasts and economists?
|
||
-- Kelvin Throop III
|
||
%
|
||
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 appears that after his death, Albert Einstein found himself working
|
||
as the doorkeeper at the Pearly Gates. One slow day, he found that he
|
||
had time to chat with the new entrants. To the first one he asked,
|
||
"What's your IQ?" The new arrival replied, "190". They discussed
|
||
Einstein's theory of relativity for hours. When the second new arrival
|
||
came, Einstein once again inquired as to the newcomer's IQ. The answer
|
||
this time came "120". To which Einstein replied, "Tell me, how did the
|
||
Cubs do this year?" and they proceeded to talk for half an hour or so.
|
||
To the final arrival, Einstein once again posed the question, "What's
|
||
your IQ?". Upon receiving the answer "70", Einstein smiled and asked,
|
||
"Got a minute to tell me about VMS 4.0?"
|
||
%
|
||
It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown
|
||
came out to inform the public. They thought it was just a jest and
|
||
applauded. He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder. So I
|
||
think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the
|
||
wits, who believe that it is a joke.
|
||
-- S. A. Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
|
||
%
|
||
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 been said [by Anatole France], "it is not by amusing oneself
|
||
that one learns," and, in reply: "it is *____only* by amusing oneself that
|
||
one can learn."
|
||
-- Edward Kasner and James R. Newman
|
||
%
|
||
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have
|
||
been searching for evidence which could support this.
|
||
-- Bertrand Russell
|
||
%
|
||
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 against the law for a monster to enter the corporate limits of
|
||
Urbana, Illinois.
|
||
%
|
||
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 an important and popular fact that things are not always what
|
||
they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed
|
||
that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so
|
||
much -- the wheel, New York wars and so on -- whilst all the dolphins
|
||
had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But
|
||
conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more
|
||
intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons.
|
||
|
||
Curiously enough, the dolphins had long known of the impending
|
||
destruction of the of the planet Earth and had made many attempts to
|
||
alert mankind to the danger; but most of their communications were
|
||
misinterpreted ...
|
||
-- Douglas Admas "The Hitch-Hikers' Guide To The
|
||
Galaxy"
|
||
%
|
||
It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be
|
||
coming up it.
|
||
-- Henry Allen
|
||
%
|
||
It is better never to have been born. But who among us has such luck?
|
||
One in a million, perhaps.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
-- Rod 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 be a "humanitarian" than to render your own country its
|
||
proper due; it is easier to be a "patriot" than to make your community
|
||
a better place to live in; it is easier to be a "civic leader" than to
|
||
treat your own family with loving understanding; for the smaller the
|
||
focus of attention, the harder the task.
|
||
-- Sydney J. Harris
|
||
%
|
||
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 illegal to drive more than two thousand sheep down Hollywood
|
||
Boulevard at one time.
|
||
%
|
||
It is illegal to say "Oh, Boy" in Jonesboro, Georgia.
|
||
%
|
||
It is impossible to experience one's death objectively and still carry
|
||
a tune.
|
||
-- Woody Allen
|
||
%
|
||
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 Mr. Mellon's credo that $200,000,000 can do no wrong. Our
|
||
offense consists in doubting it.
|
||
-- Justice Robert H. Jackson
|
||
%
|
||
It is much easier to suggest solutions when you know nothing about the
|
||
problem.
|
||
%
|
||
It is necessary for the welfare of society that genius should be
|
||
privileged to utter sedition, to blaspheme, to outrage good taste, to
|
||
corrupt the youthful mind, and generally to scandalize one's uncles.
|
||
-- George Bernard Shaw
|
||
%
|
||
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 only people of small moral stature who have to stand on their
|
||
dignity.
|
||
%
|
||
It is only the great men who are truly obscene. If they had not dared
|
||
to be obscene, they could never have dared to be great.
|
||
-- Havelock Ellis
|
||
%
|
||
It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to
|
||
students that have had prior exposure to BASIC: as potential
|
||
programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of
|
||
regeneration.
|
||
-- Dijkstra
|
||
%
|
||
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 Texas law that when two trains meet each other at a railroad
|
||
crossing, each shall come to a full stop, and neither shall proceed
|
||
until the other has gone.
|
||
%
|
||
It is the business of little minds to shrink.
|
||
-- Carl Sandburg
|
||
%
|
||
It is the business of the future to be dangerous.
|
||
-- Hawkwind
|
||
%
|
||
It is true that if your paperboy throws your paper into the bushes for
|
||
five straight days it can be explained by Newton's Law of Gravity. But
|
||
it takes Murphy's law to explain why it is happening to you.
|
||
%
|
||
It is hard to predict, in particular about the future.
|
||
-- Robert Storm Petersen
|
||
%
|
||
It looks like blind screaming hedonism won out.
|
||
%
|
||
It may be bad manners to talk with your mouth full, but it isn't too
|
||
good either if you speak when your head is empty.
|
||
%
|
||
It may be that your whole purpose in life is simply to serve as a
|
||
warning to others.
|
||
%
|
||
"It runs like _x, where _x is something unsavory"
|
||
-- Prof. Romas Aleliunas, CS 435
|
||
%
|
||
It seems like the less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the
|
||
flag.
|
||
%
|
||
It shall be unlawful for any suspicious person to be within the
|
||
municipality.
|
||
-- Local ordinance, Euclid Ohio
|
||
%
|
||
"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."
|
||
-- Robert Benchly
|
||
%
|
||
It was a book to kill time for those who liked it better dead.
|
||
%
|
||
"It was a virgin forest, a place where the Hand of Man had never set
|
||
foot."
|
||
%
|
||
It was one of those perfect summer days -- the sun was shining, a
|
||
breeze was blowing, the birds were singing, and the lawn mower was
|
||
broken ...
|
||
-- James Dent
|
||
%
|
||
"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 wasn't that she had a rose in her teeth, exactly. It was more like
|
||
the rose and the teeth were in the same glass.
|
||
%
|
||
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 will be generally found that those who sneer habitually at human
|
||
nature and affect to despise it, are among its worst and least pleasant
|
||
examples.
|
||
-- Charles Dickens
|
||
%
|
||
It would be nice if the Food and Drug Administration stopped issuing
|
||
warnings about toxic substances and just gave me the names of one or
|
||
two things still safe to eat.
|
||
-- Robert Fuoss
|
||
%
|
||
It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
|
||
-- Andrew Jackson
|
||
%
|
||
"It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and I'm wearing Milkbone
|
||
underwear."
|
||
%
|
||
It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for.
|
||
%
|
||
"It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to have to paint it."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"It's a summons."
|
||
"What's a summons?"
|
||
"It means summon's in trouble."
|
||
-- Rocky and Bullwinkle
|
||
%
|
||
It's a very *__UN*lucky week in which to be took dead.
|
||
-- Churchy La Femme
|
||
%
|
||
It's always darkest just before it gets pitch black.
|
||
%
|
||
"It's bad luck to be superstitious."
|
||
-- Andrew W. Mathis
|
||
%
|
||
It's better to be wanted for murder that not to be wanted at all.
|
||
-- Marty Winch
|
||
%
|
||
"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 illegal in Wilbur, Washington, to ride an ugly horse.
|
||
%
|
||
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 just a jump to the left
|
||
And then a step to the right.
|
||
Put your hands on your hips
|
||
And pull your knees in tight.
|
||
It's the pelvic thrust
|
||
That really gets you insa-a-a-a-ane
|
||
|
||
LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN!
|
||
|
||
-- Rocky Horror Picture Show
|
||
%
|
||
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
|
||
-- Walt Disney
|
||
%
|
||
"It's Like This"
|
||
|
||
Even the samurai
|
||
have teddy bears,
|
||
and even the teddy bears
|
||
get drunk.
|
||
%
|
||
It's lucky you're going so slowly, because you're going in the wrong
|
||
direction.
|
||
%
|
||
"It's men like him that give the Y chromosome a bad name."
|
||
%
|
||
It's more than magnificent -- it's mediocre.
|
||
-- Sam Goldwyn
|
||
%
|
||
It's no surprise that things are so screwed up: everyone that knows how
|
||
to run a government is either driving taxicabs or cutting hair.
|
||
-- George Burns
|
||
%
|
||
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 just a computer -- it's your ass."
|
||
-- Cal Keegan
|
||
%
|
||
It's not reality or how you perceive things that's important -- it's
|
||
what you're taking for it...
|
||
%
|
||
It's not so hard to lift yourself by your bootstraps once you're off
|
||
the ground.
|
||
-- Daniel B. Luten
|
||
%
|
||
It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it
|
||
happens.
|
||
-- Woody Allen
|
||
%
|
||
It's not the valleys in life I dread so much as the dips.
|
||
-- Garfield
|
||
%
|
||
It's odd, and a little unsettling, to reflect upon the fact that
|
||
English is the only major language in which "I" is capitalized; in many
|
||
other languages "You" is capitalized and the "i" is lower case.
|
||
-- Sydney J. Harris
|
||
%
|
||
It's raisins that make Post Raisin Bran so raisiny ...
|
||
%
|
||
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
|
||
%
|
||
It's so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the
|
||
Devil when he is the only explanation of it.
|
||
%
|
||
It's the opinion of some that crops could be grown on the moon. Which
|
||
raises the fear that it may not be long before we're paying somebody
|
||
not to.
|
||
-- Franklin P. Jones
|
||
%
|
||
It's the thought, if any, that counts!
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
James Joyce -- an essentially private man who wished his total
|
||
indifference to public notice to be universally recognized.
|
||
-- Tom Stoppard
|
||
%
|
||
Jenkinson's Law:
|
||
It won't work.
|
||
%
|
||
Jesus Saves,
|
||
Moses Invests,
|
||
But only Buddha pays Dividends.
|
||
%
|
||
Job Placement, n.:
|
||
Telling your boss what he can do with your job.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Join in the new game that's sweeping the country. It's called
|
||
"Bureaucracy". Everybody stands in a circle. The first person to do
|
||
anything loses.
|
||
%
|
||
Join the march to save individuality!
|
||
%
|
||
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 about every computer on the market today runs Unix, except the Mac
|
||
(and nobody cares about it).
|
||
-- Bill Joy 6/21/85
|
||
%
|
||
Just as most issues are seldom black or white, so are most good
|
||
solutions seldom black or white. Beware of the solution that requires
|
||
one side to be totally the loser and the other side to be totally the
|
||
winner. The reason there are two sides to begin with usually is
|
||
because neither side has all the facts. Therefore, when the wise
|
||
mediator effects a compromise, he is not acting from political
|
||
motivation. Rather, he is acting from a deep sense of respect for the
|
||
whole truth.
|
||
-- Stephen R. Schwambach
|
||
%
|
||
Just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has
|
||
changed.
|
||
-- Irene Peter
|
||
%
|
||
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 go with the flow control, roll with the crunches, and, when you
|
||
get a prompt, type like hell.
|
||
%
|
||
"Just once, I wish we would encounter an alien menace that wasn't
|
||
immune to bullets"
|
||
-- The Brigader, "Dr. Who"
|
||
%
|
||
"Just out of curiosity does this actually mean something or have some
|
||
of the few remaining bits of your brain just evaporated?"
|
||
-- Patricia O Tuama, rissa@killer.DALLAS.TX.US
|
||
%
|
||
"Just remember, it all started with a mouse."
|
||
-- Walt Disney
|
||
%
|
||
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!
|
||
%
|
||
`Just the place for a Snark!' the Bellman cried,
|
||
As he landed his crew with care;
|
||
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
|
||
By a finger entwined in his hair.
|
||
|
||
'Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
|
||
That alone should encourage the crew.
|
||
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
|
||
What I tell you three times is true.'
|
||
%
|
||
Just when you thought you were winning the rat race, along comes a
|
||
faster rat!!!
|
||
%
|
||
Justice always prevails ... three times out of seven!
|
||
-- Michael J. Wagner
|
||
%
|
||
Justice is incidental to law and order.
|
||
-- J. Edgar Hoover
|
||
%
|
||
Justice, n.:
|
||
A decision in your favor.
|
||
%
|
||
K: Cobalt's metal, hard and shining;
|
||
Cobol's wordy and confining;
|
||
KOBOLDS topple when you strike them;
|
||
Don't feel bad, it's hard to like them.
|
||
-- The Roguelet's ABC
|
||
%
|
||
Kansas state law requires pedestrians crossing the highways at night to
|
||
wear tail lights.
|
||
%
|
||
Katz' Law:
|
||
Man and nations will act rationally when all other
|
||
possibilities have been exhausted.
|
||
%
|
||
Keep America beautiful. Swallow your beer cans.
|
||
%
|
||
Keep Cool, but Don't Freeze
|
||
- Hellman's Mayonnaise
|
||
%
|
||
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 your 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.
|
||
%
|
||
Kids have *_____never* taken guidance from their parents. If you could
|
||
travel back in time and observe the original primate family in the
|
||
original tree, you would see the primate parents yelling at the primate
|
||
teenager for sitting around and sulking all day instead of hunting for
|
||
grubs and berries like dad primate. Then you'd see the primate
|
||
teenager stomp up to his branch and slam the leaves.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Kids Today: They Don't Know Dum Diddly
|
||
Do"
|
||
%
|
||
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."
|
||
%
|
||
Kirkland, Illinois, law forbids bees to fly over the village or through
|
||
any of its streets.
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Ladybug, ladybug,
|
||
Look to your stern!
|
||
Your house is on fire,
|
||
Your children will burn!
|
||
So jump ye and sing, for
|
||
The very first time
|
||
The four lines above
|
||
Have been put into rhyme.
|
||
-- Walt Kelly
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
"Last night, I came home and realized that everything in my apartment
|
||
had been stolen and replaced with an exact duplicate. I told this to
|
||
my friend -- he said, `Do I know you?'"
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"Last week a cop stopped me in my car. He asked me if I had a police
|
||
record. I said, no, but I have the new DEVO album. Cops have no sense
|
||
of humor."
|
||
%
|
||
Last yeer I kudn't spel Engineer. Now I are won.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Learned men are the cisterns of knowledge, not the fountainheads.
|
||
%
|
||
Learning French is trivial: the word for horse is cheval, and
|
||
everything else follows in the same way.
|
||
-- Alan J. Perlis
|
||
%
|
||
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
|
||
%
|
||
Legalize free-enterprise murder: why should governments have all the
|
||
fun?
|
||
%
|
||
Legislation proposed in the Illinois State Legislature, May, 1907:
|
||
"Speed upon county roads will be limited to ten miles an hour
|
||
unless the motorist sees a bailiff who does not appear to have had a
|
||
drink in 30 days, when the driver will be permitted to make what he
|
||
can."
|
||
%
|
||
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)
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Let He who taketh the Plunge Remember to return it by Tuesday.
|
||
%
|
||
"Let me assure you that to us here at First National, you're not just a
|
||
number. You're two numbers, a dash, three more numbers, another dash
|
||
and another number."
|
||
-- James Estes
|
||
%
|
||
Let us live!!!
|
||
Let us love!!!
|
||
Let us share the deepest secrets of our souls!!!
|
||
|
||
You first.
|
||
%
|
||
Let's just say that where a change was required, I adjusted. In every
|
||
relationship that exists, people have to seek a way to survive. If you
|
||
really care about the person, you do what's necessary, or that's the
|
||
end. For the first time, I found that I really could change, and the
|
||
qualities I most admired in myself I gave up. I stopped being loud and
|
||
bossy ... Oh, all right. I was still loud and bossy, but only behind
|
||
his back."
|
||
-- Kate Hepburn, on Tracy and Hepburn
|
||
%
|
||
Let's say your wedding ring falls into your toaster, and when you stick
|
||
your hand in to retrieve it, you suffer Pain and Suffering as well as
|
||
Mental Anguish. You would sue:
|
||
|
||
* The toaster manufacturer, for failure to include, in the instructions
|
||
section that says you should never never never ever stick you hand
|
||
into the toaster, the statement "Not even if your wedding ring falls
|
||
in there".
|
||
|
||
* The store where you bought the toaster, for selling it to an obvious
|
||
cretin like yourself.
|
||
|
||
* Union Carbide Corporation, which is not directly responsible in this
|
||
case, but which is feeling so guilty that it would probably send you
|
||
a large cash settlement anyway.
|
||
-- Dave Barry
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have.
|
||
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick
|
||
%
|
||
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 a bowl of soup with hairs floating on it. You have to
|
||
eat it nevertheless."
|
||
-- Flaubert
|
||
%
|
||
"Life is like a buffet; it's not good but there's plenty of it."
|
||
%
|
||
Life is like a simile.
|
||
%
|
||
Life is like an analogy
|
||
%
|
||
Life is like an onion: you peel off layer after layer, then you find
|
||
there is nothing in it.
|
||
%
|
||
"Life is too important to take seriously."
|
||
-- Corky Siegel
|
||
%
|
||
"Life may have no meaning -- or even worse, it may have a meaning of
|
||
which I disapprove."
|
||
%
|
||
"Life to you is a bold and dashing responsibility"
|
||
-- a Mary Chung's fortune cookie
|
||
%
|
||
"Life would be much simpler and things would get done much faster if it
|
||
weren't for other people"
|
||
-- Blore
|
||
%
|
||
Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.
|
||
%
|
||
"Life, loathe it or ignore it, you can't like it."
|
||
-- Marvin, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
|
||
Kennedy exactly one hundred years later in 1946.
|
||
|
||
Lincoln was elected president in November 1860.
|
||
Kennedy in November 1960.
|
||
|
||
Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy who urged him not to go to
|
||
the theatre.
|
||
Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln who advised against his going
|
||
to Dallas.
|
||
|
||
Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and ran off into a warehouse.
|
||
Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and ran off into a theatre.
|
||
|
||
Lincoln was succeeded by a Southerner named Johnson.
|
||
Kennedy was succeeded by a Southerner named Johnson.
|
||
|
||
The first Johnson was born in 1808.
|
||
The second Johnson was born in 1908.
|
||
|
||
-- Alistair Cooke, "Letter From America", 26nov2001
|
||
%
|
||
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 in LA is like not having a date on Saturday night.
|
||
-- Candice Bergen
|
||
%
|
||
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?
|
||
%
|
||
Loan-department manager: "There isn't any fine print. At these
|
||
interest rates, we don't need it."
|
||
%
|
||
Lobster:
|
||
Everyone loves these delectable crustaceans, but many cooks are
|
||
squeamish about placing them into boiling water alive, which is the
|
||
only proper method of preparing them. Frankly, the easiest way to
|
||
eliminate your guilt is to establish theirs by putting them on trial
|
||
before they're cooked. The fact is, lobsters are among the most
|
||
ferocious predators on the sea floor, and you're helping reduce crime
|
||
in the reefs. Grasp the lobster behind the head, look it right in its
|
||
unmistakably guilty eyestalks and say, "Where were you on the night of
|
||
the 21st?", then flourish a picture of a scallop or a sole and shout,
|
||
"Perhaps this will refresh that crude neural apparatus you call a
|
||
memory!" The lobster will squirm noticeably. It may even take a swipe
|
||
at you with one of its claws. Incorrigible. Pop it into the pot.
|
||
Justice has been served, and shortly you and your friends will be,
|
||
too.
|
||
-- "Cooking: The Art of Using Appliances and Utensils
|
||
into Excuses and Apologies"
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Logic is a little bird, sitting in a tree; that smells *_____awful*.
|
||
%
|
||
... Logically incoherent, semantically incomprehensible, and
|
||
legally ... impeccable!
|
||
%
|
||
Logicians have but ill defined
|
||
As rational the human kind.
|
||
Logic, they say, belongs to man,
|
||
But let them prove it if they can.
|
||
-- Oliver Goldsmith
|
||
%
|
||
Look out! Behind you!
|
||
%
|
||
Look, we play the Star Spangled Banner before every game. You want us
|
||
to pay income taxes, too?
|
||
-- Bill Veeck, Chicago White Sox
|
||
%
|
||
Loose bits sink chips.
|
||
%
|
||
Losing your drivers' license is just God's way of saying "BOOGA,
|
||
BOOGA!"
|
||
%
|
||
Lost interest? It's so bad I've lost apathy.
|
||
%
|
||
Loud burping while walking around the airport is prohibited in
|
||
Halstead, Kansas.
|
||
%
|
||
Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.
|
||
%
|
||
Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea.
|
||
%
|
||
Love at first sight is one of the greatest labor-saving devices the
|
||
world has ever seen.
|
||
%
|
||
Love cannot be much younger than the lust for murder.
|
||
-- Sigmund Freud
|
||
%
|
||
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it
|
||
flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come."
|
||
-- Matt Groening
|
||
%
|
||
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 an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with
|
||
the ideal never goes unpunished."
|
||
-- Goethe
|
||
%
|
||
Love is sentimental measles.
|
||
%
|
||
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
Love means having to say you're sorry every five minutes.
|
||
%
|
||
Love thy neighbor as thyself, but choose your neighborhood.
|
||
-- Louise Beal
|
||
%
|
||
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 my 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
|
||
%
|
||
Machine-Independent, adj.:
|
||
Does not run on any existing machine.
|
||
%
|
||
Machines certainly can solve problems, store information, correlate,
|
||
and play games -- but not with pleasure.
|
||
-- Leo Rosten
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
MAFIA, n:
|
||
[Acronym for Mechanized Applications in Forced Insurance
|
||
Accounting.] An extensive network with many on-line and offshore
|
||
subsystems running under OS, DOS, and IOS. MAFIA documentation is
|
||
rather scanty, and the MAFIA sales office exhibits that testy
|
||
reluctance to bona fide inquiries which is the hallmark of so many DP
|
||
operations. From the little that has seeped out, it would appear that
|
||
MAFIA operates under a non-standard protocol, OMERTA, a tight-lipped
|
||
variant of SNA, in which extended handshakes also perform complex
|
||
security functions. The known timesharing aspects of MAFIA point to a
|
||
more than usually autocratic operating system. Screen prompts carry an
|
||
imperative, nonrefusable weighting (most menus offer simple YES/YES
|
||
options, defaulting to YES) that precludes indifference or delay.
|
||
Uniquely, all editing under MAFIA is performed centrally, using a
|
||
powerful rubout feature capable of erasing files, filors, filees, and
|
||
entire nodal aggravations.
|
||
-- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Devil's DP Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
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 thievish disposition suggested to someone that it
|
||
might be taught to talk.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
Maier's Law:
|
||
If the facts don't 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.
|
||
%
|
||
Make it myself? But I'm a physical organic chemist!
|
||
%
|
||
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 1: Ask me. "What is the most important thing about telling a good
|
||
joke?"
|
||
|
||
Man 2: OK, what is the most impo --
|
||
|
||
Man 1: ______TIMING!
|
||
%
|
||
"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 is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the
|
||
victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
|
||
-- Samuel Butler
|
||
%
|
||
Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the
|
||
victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
|
||
-- Samuel Butler (1835-1902)
|
||
%
|
||
Man usually avoids attributing cleverness to somebody else -- unless it
|
||
is an enemy.
|
||
-- Albert 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"
|
||
%
|
||
Mandrell: "You know what I think?"
|
||
Doctor: "Ah, ah that's a catch question. With a brain your size you
|
||
don't think, right?"
|
||
-- Dr. Who
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Maryel brought her bat into Exit once and started whacking people on
|
||
the dance floor. Now everyone's doing it. It's called grand slam
|
||
dancing.
|
||
-- Ransford, Chicago Reader 10/7/83
|
||
%
|
||
Maternity pay? Now every Tom, Dick and Harry will get pregnant.
|
||
-- Malcolm Smith
|
||
%
|
||
Math is like love -- a simple idea but it can get complicated.
|
||
-- R. Drabek
|
||
%
|
||
Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they
|
||
translate into their own language, and forthwith it is something
|
||
entirely different.
|
||
-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
|
||
%
|
||
Mathematicians often resort to something called Hilbert space, which is
|
||
described as being n-dimensional. Like modern sex, any number can
|
||
play.
|
||
-- Dr. Thor Wald, in "Beep/The Quincunx of Time", by
|
||
James Blish
|
||
%
|
||
"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.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Men's skin is different from women's skin. It is usually bigger, and
|
||
it has more snakes tattooed on it. Also, if you examine a woman's skin
|
||
very closely, inch by inch, starting at her shapely ankles, then gently
|
||
tracing the slender curve of her calves, then moving up to her ...
|
||
[EDITOR'S NOTE: To make room for news articles about important
|
||
world events such as agriculture, we're going to delete the
|
||
next few square feet of the woman's skin. Thank you.]
|
||
... until finally the two of you are lying there, spent, smoking your
|
||
cigarettes, and suddenly it hits you: Human skin is actually made up of
|
||
billions of tiny units of protoplasm, called "cells"! And what is even
|
||
more interesting, the ones on the outside are all dying! This is a
|
||
fact. Your skin is like an aggressive modern corporation, where the
|
||
older veteran cells, who have finally worked their way to the top and
|
||
obtained offices with nice views, are constantly being shoved out the
|
||
window head first, without so much as a pension plan, by younger
|
||
hotshot cells moving up from below.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Saving Face"
|
||
%
|
||
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 ACKNOWLEDGED -- The Pershing II missiles have been launched.
|
||
%
|
||
Message will arrive in the mail. Destroy, before the FBI sees it.
|
||
%
|
||
methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenylalanylalanylglutamin-
|
||
ylleucyllysylglutamylarginyllysylglutamylglycylalanylphenylalanylvalylprolyl-
|
||
phenylalanylvalylthreonylleucylglycylaspartylprolylglycylisoleucylglutamylglu-
|
||
taminylserylleucyllysylisoleucylaspartylthreonylleucylisoleucylglutamylalanyl-
|
||
glycylalanylaspartylalanylleucylglutamylleucylglycylisoleucylprolylphenylala-
|
||
nylserylaspartylprolylleucylalanylaspartylglycylprolylthreonylisoleucylgluta-
|
||
minylasparaginylalanylthreonylleucylarginylalanylphenylalanylalanylalanylgly-
|
||
cylvalylthreonylprolylalanylglutaminylcysteinylphenylalanylglutamylmethionyl-
|
||
leucylalanylleucylisoleucylarginylglutaminyllysylhistidylprolylthreonylisoleu-
|
||
cylprolylisoleucylglycylleucylleucylmethionyltyrosylalanylasparaginylleucylva-
|
||
lylphenylalanylasparaginyllysylglycylisoleucylaspartylglutamylphenylalanyltyro-
|
||
sylalanylglutaminylcysteinylglutamyllysylvalylglycylvalylaspartylserylvalylleu-
|
||
cylvalylalanylaspartylvalylprolylvalylglutaminylglutamylserylalanylprolylphe-
|
||
nylalanylarginylglutaminylalanylalanylleucylarginylhistidylasparaginylvalylala-
|
||
nylprolylisoleucylphenylalanylisoleucylcysteinylprolylprolylaspartylalanylas-
|
||
partylaspartylaspartylleucylleucylarginylglutaminylisoleucylalanylseryltyrosyl-
|
||
glycylarginylglycyltyrosylthreonyltyrosylleucylleucylserylarginylalanylglycyl-
|
||
valylthreonylglycylalanylglutamylasparaginylarginylalanylalanylleucylprolylleu-
|
||
cylasparaginylhistidylleucylvalylalanyllysylleucyllysylglutamyltyrosylasparagi-
|
||
nylalanylalanylprolylprolylleucylglutaminylglycylphenylalanylglycylisoleucylse-
|
||
rylalanylprolylaspartylglutaminylvalyllysylalanylalanylisoleucylaspartylalanyl-
|
||
glycylalanylalanylglycylalanylisoleucylserylglycylserylalanylisoleucylvalylly-
|
||
sylisoleucylisoleucylglutamylglutaminylhistidylasparaginylisoleucylglutamylpro-
|
||
lylglutamyllysylmethionylleucylalanylalanylleucyllysylvalylphenylalanylvalyl-
|
||
glutaminylprolylmethionyllysylalanylalanylthreonylarginylserine, n.:
|
||
The chemical name for tryptophan synthetase A protein, a
|
||
1,913-letter enzyme with 267 amino acids.
|
||
-- Mrs. Bryne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and
|
||
%
|
||
Mickey Mouse wears a Spiro Agnew watch.
|
||
%
|
||
Micro Credo:
|
||
Never trust a computer bigger than you can lift.
|
||
%
|
||
"Microwave oven? Whaddya mean, it's a microwave oven? I've been
|
||
watching Channel 4 on the thing for two weeks."
|
||
%
|
||
"Might as well be frank, monsieur. It would take a miracle to get you
|
||
out of Casablanca and the Germans have outlawed miracles."
|
||
%
|
||
Mike: "The Fourth Dimension is a shambles?"
|
||
Bernie: "Nobody ever empties the ashtrays. People are SO
|
||
inconsiderate."
|
||
-- Gary Trudeau, "Doonesbury"
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Millihelen, adj:
|
||
The amount of beauty required to launch one ship.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Minors in Kansas City, Missouri, are not allowed to purchase cap
|
||
pistols; they may buy shotguns freely, however.
|
||
%
|
||
Misery loves company, but company does not reciprocate.
|
||
%
|
||
Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it.
|
||
-- Russell Baker
|
||
%
|
||
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 two crust 9-inch 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.
|
||
%
|
||
Mohandas K. Gandhi often changed his mind publicly. An aide once asked
|
||
him how he could so freely contradict this week what he had said just
|
||
last week. The great man replied that it was because this week he knew
|
||
better.
|
||
%
|
||
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 better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
|
||
%
|
||
Money is the root of all evil, and man needs roots
|
||
%
|
||
Money is the root of all wealth.
|
||
%
|
||
Moon, n.:
|
||
1. A celestial object whose phase is very important to
|
||
hackers. See PHASE OF THE MOON. 2. Dave Moon (MOON@MC).
|
||
%
|
||
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 fish live underwater, which is a terrible place to have sex
|
||
because virtually anywhere you lie down there will be stinging crabs
|
||
and large quantities of little fish staring at you with buggy little
|
||
eyes. So generally when two fish want to have sex, they swim around
|
||
and around for hours, looking for someplace to go, until finally the
|
||
female gets really tired and has a terrible headache, and she just
|
||
dumps her eggs right on the sand and swims away. Then the male, driven
|
||
by some timeless, noble instinct for survival, eats the eggs. So the
|
||
truth is that fish don't reproduce at all, but there are so many of
|
||
them that it doesn't make any difference.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Sex and the Single Amoeba: What Every
|
||
Teen Should Know"
|
||
%
|
||
Most people can't understand how others can blow their noses differently
|
||
than they do.
|
||
-- Turgenev
|
||
%
|
||
Most people wouldn't know music if it came up and bit them on the ass.
|
||
-- Frank Zappa
|
||
%
|
||
Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like.
|
||
-- Arnold Bennett
|
||
%
|
||
Mother is the invention of necessity.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Multiply in your head" (ordered the compassionate Dr. Adams)
|
||
"365,365,365,365,365,365 by 365,365,365,365,365,365. He [ten-year-old
|
||
Truman Henry Safford] flew around the room like a top, pulled his
|
||
pantaloons over the tops of his boots, bit his hands, rolled his eyes
|
||
in their sockets, sometimes smiling and talking, and then seeming to be
|
||
in an agony, until, in not more than one minute, said he,
|
||
133,491,850,208,566,925,016,658,299,941,583,225!" An electronic
|
||
computer might do the job a little faster but it wouldn't be as much
|
||
fun to watch.
|
||
-- James R. Newman (The World of Mathematics)
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Murphy's Law, that brash proletarian restatement of Godel's Theorem ..."
|
||
-- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
|
||
%
|
||
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 advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on
|
||
it."
|
||
-- "Grendel", by John Gardner
|
||
%
|
||
My band career ended late in my senior year when John Cooper and I
|
||
threw my amplifier out the dormitory window. We did not act in haste.
|
||
First we checked to make sure the amplifier would fit through the
|
||
frame, using the belt from my bathrobe to measure, then we picked up
|
||
the amplifier and backed up to my bedroom door. Then we rushed
|
||
forward, shouting "The WHO! The WHO!" and we launched my amplifier
|
||
perfectly, as though we had been doing it all our lives, clean through
|
||
the window and down onto the sidewalk, where a small but appreciative
|
||
crowd had gathered. I would like to be able to say that this was a
|
||
symbolic act, an effort on my part to break cleanly away from one state
|
||
in my life and move on to another, but the truth is, Cooper and I
|
||
really just wanted to find out what it would sound like. It sounded
|
||
OK.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Snake"
|
||
%
|
||
"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless
|
||
there are three other people."
|
||
-- Orson Welles
|
||
%
|
||
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 fortunes 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 life is a soap opera, but who has the rights?"
|
||
-- MadameX
|
||
%
|
||
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 mother loved children -- she would have given anything if I had been
|
||
one.
|
||
-- Groucho Marx
|
||
%
|
||
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 pants just went on a wild rampage through a Long Island Bowling
|
||
Alley!!
|
||
%
|
||
"My pants just went on a wild rampage through a Long Island Bowling
|
||
Alley!!"
|
||
-- Zippy the Pinhead
|
||
%
|
||
My pen is at the bottom of a page,
|
||
Which, being finished, here the story ends;
|
||
'Tis to be wished it had been sooner done,
|
||
But stories somehow lengthen when begun.
|
||
-- Byron
|
||
%
|
||
My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not
|
||
signed.
|
||
-- Christopher Morley
|
||
%
|
||
"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"
|
||
%
|
||
n = ((n >> 1) & 0x55555555) | ((n << 1) & 0xaaaaaaaa);
|
||
n = ((n >> 2) & 0x33333333) | ((n << 2) & 0xcccccccc);
|
||
n = ((n >> 4) & 0x0f0f0f0f) | ((n << 4) & 0xf0f0f0f0);
|
||
n = ((n >> 8) & 0x00ff00ff) | ((n << 8) & 0xff00ff00);
|
||
n = ((n >> 16) & 0x0000ffff) | ((n << 16) & 0xffff0000);
|
||
|
||
-- C code which reverses the bits in a word.
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Nasrudin called at a large house to collect for charity. The servant
|
||
said "My master is out." Nasrudin replied, "Tell your master that next
|
||
time he goes out, he should not leave his face at the window. Someone
|
||
might steal it."
|
||
%
|
||
Nasrudin returned to his village from the imperial capital, and the
|
||
villagers gathered around to hear what had passed. "At this time,"
|
||
said Nasrudin, "I only want to say that the King spoke to me." All the
|
||
villagers but the stupidest ran off to spread the wonderful news. The
|
||
remaining villager asked, "What did the King say to you?" "What he
|
||
said -- and quite distinctly, for everyone to hear -- was 'Get out of
|
||
my way!'" The simpleton was overjoyed; he had heard words actually
|
||
spoken by the King, and seen the very man they were spoken to.
|
||
%
|
||
Nasrudin walked into a shop one day, and the owner came forward to
|
||
serve him. Nasrudin said, "First things first. Did you see me walk
|
||
into your shop?" "Of course." "Have you ever seen me before?"
|
||
"Never." "Then how do you know it was me?"
|
||
%
|
||
Nasrudin walked into a teahouse and declaimed, "The moon is more useful
|
||
than the sun." "Why?", he was asked. "Because at night we need the
|
||
light more."
|
||
%
|
||
Nasrudin was carrying home a piece of liver and the recipe for liver
|
||
pie. Suddenly a bird of prey swooped down and snatched the piece of
|
||
meat from his hand. As the bird flew off, Nasrudin called after it,
|
||
"Foolish bird! You have the liver, but what can you do with it without
|
||
the recipe?"
|
||
%
|
||
Nature abhors a hero. For one thing, he violates the law of
|
||
conservation of energy. For another, how can it be the survival of the
|
||
fittest when the fittest keeps putting himself in situations where he
|
||
is most likely to be creamed?
|
||
-- Solomon Short
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Nature is by and large to be found out of doors, a location where, it
|
||
cannot be argued, there are never enough comfortable chairs.
|
||
-- Fran Leibowitz
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Neckties strangle clear thinking.
|
||
-- Lin Yutang
|
||
%
|
||
Never be led astray onto the path of virtue.
|
||
%
|
||
Never call a man a fool; borrow from him.
|
||
%
|
||
Never commit yourself! Let someone else commit you.
|
||
%
|
||
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 schooling interfere with your education.
|
||
%
|
||
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 put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a
|
||
law against it by that time.
|
||
%
|
||
Never settle with words what you can accomplish with a flame thrower.
|
||
%
|
||
Never tell a lie unless it is absolutely convenient.
|
||
%
|
||
Never try to outstubborn a cat.
|
||
-- Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love"
|
||
%
|
||
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes.
|
||
-- Dr. Warren Jackson, Director, UTCS
|
||
%
|
||
"Never underestimate the power of a small tactical nuclear weapon."
|
||
%
|
||
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 Hampshire law forbids you to tap your feet, nod your head, or in
|
||
any way keep time to the music in a tavern, restaurant, or cafe.
|
||
%
|
||
New members are urgently needed in the Society for Prevention of
|
||
Cruelty to Yourself. Apply within.
|
||
%
|
||
New members urgently required for SUICIDE CLUB, Watford area.
|
||
-- Monty Python's Big Red Book
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
"Nice boy, but about as sharp as a sack of wet mice."
|
||
-- Foghorn Leghorn
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Nine-track tapes and seven-track tapes
|
||
And tapes without any tracks;
|
||
Stretchy tapes and snarley tapes
|
||
And tapes mixed up on the racks --
|
||
Take hold of the tape
|
||
And pull off the strip,
|
||
And then you'll be sure
|
||
Your tape drive will skip.
|
||
|
||
-- Uncle Colonel's Cursory Rhymes
|
||
%
|
||
"Ninety percent of the time things turn out worse than you thought they
|
||
would. The other ten percent of the time you had no right to expect
|
||
that much."
|
||
-- Augustine
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Nirvana? Thats the place where the powers that be and their friends
|
||
hang out.
|
||
-- Zonker Harris
|
||
%
|
||
No animal should ever jump on the dining room furniture unless
|
||
absolutely certain he can hold his own in conversation.
|
||
-- Fran Lebowitz
|
||
%
|
||
No committee could ever come up with anything as revolutionary as a
|
||
camel -- anything as practical and as perfectly designed to perform
|
||
effectively under such difficult conditions.
|
||
-- Laurence J. Peter
|
||
%
|
||
No good deed goes unpunished.
|
||
-- Clare Boothe Luce
|
||
%
|
||
No man in the world has more courage than the man who can stop after
|
||
eating one peanut.
|
||
-- Channing Pollock
|
||
%
|
||
No man is an island, but some of us are long peninsulas.
|
||
%
|
||
No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife in the shoulder blades will
|
||
seriously cramp his style.
|
||
%
|
||
No matter what other nations may say about the United States,
|
||
immigration is still the sincerest form of flattery.
|
||
%
|
||
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
|
||
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
|
||
%
|
||
"No one gets too old to learn a new way of being stupid."
|
||
%
|
||
No one has a higher opinion of him than he has.
|
||
-- Greg Lehey, FreeBSDcon 1999
|
||
%
|
||
No part of this message may reproduce, store itself in a retrieval
|
||
system, or transmit disease, in any form, without the permissiveness of
|
||
the author.
|
||
-- Chris Shaw
|
||
%
|
||
No plain fanfold paper could hold that fractal Puff --
|
||
He grew so fast no plotting pack could shrink him far enough.
|
||
Compiles and simulations grew so quickly tame
|
||
And swapped out all their data space when Puff pushed his stack frame.
|
||
CHORUS:
|
||
Puff the fractal dragon was written in C,
|
||
And frolicked while processes switched in mainframe memory.
|
||
Puff the fractal dragon was written in C,
|
||
And frolicked while processes switched in mainframe memory.
|
||
Puff, he grew so quickly, while others moved like snails
|
||
And mini-Puffs would perch themselves on his gigantic tail.
|
||
All the student hackers loved that fractal Puff
|
||
But DCS did not like Puff, and finally said, "Enough!"
|
||
(chorus)
|
||
Puff used more resources than DCS could spare.
|
||
The operator killed Puff's job -- he didn't seem to care.
|
||
A gloom fell on the hackers; it seemed to be the end,
|
||
But Puff trapped the exception, and grew from naught again!
|
||
(chorus)
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"No proper program contains an indication which as an operator-applied
|
||
occurrence identifies an operator-defining occurrence which as an
|
||
indication-applied occurrence identifies an indication-defining
|
||
occurrence different from the one identified by the given indication as
|
||
an indication-applied occurrence."
|
||
-- ALGOL 68 Report
|
||
%
|
||
"No self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in that kind of
|
||
paper."
|
||
-- Mike Royko on the Chicago Sun-Times after it was
|
||
taken over by Rupert Murdoch
|
||
%
|
||
No violence, gentlemen -- no violence, I beg of you! Consider
|
||
the furniture!
|
||
-- Sherlock Holmes
|
||
%
|
||
"No, `Eureka' is Greek for `This bath is too hot.'"
|
||
-- Dr. Who
|
||
%
|
||
Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing
|
||
it.
|
||
-- Tallulah Bankhead
|
||
%
|
||
NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION
|
||
%
|
||
Nobody said computers were going to be polite.
|
||
%
|
||
Nobody suffers the pain of birth or the anguish of loving a child in
|
||
order for presidents to make wars, for governments to feed on the
|
||
substance of their people, for insurance companies to cheat the young
|
||
and rob the old.
|
||
-- Lewis Lapham
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Non-sequiturs make me eat lampshades.
|
||
%
|
||
Noncombatant, n.:
|
||
A dead Quaker.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
Nondeterminism means never having to say you are wrong.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 Hercules could have knock'd out his brains, for he had none."
|
||
-- Shakespeare
|
||
%
|
||
"Not only is this incomprehensible, but the ink is ugly and the paper
|
||
is from the wrong kind of tree."
|
||
-- Professor 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 is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires
|
||
tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.
|
||
-- Nero Wolfe
|
||
%
|
||
Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner.
|
||
Conscience makes egotists of us all.
|
||
-- Oscar Wilde
|
||
%
|
||
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 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 this is a totally brain damaged algorithm. Gag me with a
|
||
smurfette."
|
||
-- P. Buhr, Computer Science 354
|
||
%
|
||
... 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"
|
||
%
|
||
Now, you might ask, "How do I get one of those complete home
|
||
tool sets for under $4?" An excellent question.
|
||
Go to one of those really cheap discount stores where they sell
|
||
plastic furniture in colors visible from the planet Neptune and where
|
||
they have a food section specializing in cardboard cartons full of
|
||
Raisinets and malted milk balls manufactured during the Nixon
|
||
administration. In either the hardware or housewares department,
|
||
you'll find an item imported from an obscure Oriental country and
|
||
described as "Nine Tools in One", consisting of a little handle with
|
||
interchangeable ends representing inscrutable Oriental notions of tools
|
||
that Americans might use around the home. Buy it.
|
||
This is the kind of tool set professionals use. Not only is it
|
||
inexpensive, but it also has a great safety feature not found in the
|
||
so-called quality tools sets: The handle will actually break right off
|
||
if you accidentally hit yourself or anything else, or expose it to
|
||
direct sunlight.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
"Nuclear war can ruin your whole compile."
|
||
-- Karl Lehenbauer
|
||
%
|
||
"Nuclear war would mean abolition of most comforts, and disruption of
|
||
normal routines, for children and adults alike."
|
||
-- Willard F. Libby, "You *Can* Survive Atomic Attack"
|
||
%
|
||
"Nuclear war would really set back cable."
|
||
-- Ted Turner
|
||
%
|
||
[Nuclear war] ... may not be desirable.
|
||
-- Edwin Meese III
|
||
%
|
||
Nudists are people who wear one-button suits.
|
||
%
|
||
(null cookie; hope that's ok)
|
||
%
|
||
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 possible committee reactions to any given agenda item, the
|
||
reaction that will occur is the one which will liberate the greatest
|
||
amount of hot air.
|
||
-- Thomas L. Martin
|
||
%
|
||
Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.
|
||
-- Plato
|
||
%
|
||
Of all the words of witch's doom
|
||
There's none so bad as which and whom.
|
||
The man who kills both which and whom
|
||
Will be enshrined in our Who's Whom.
|
||
-- Fletcher Knebel
|
||
%
|
||
"Of course power tools and alcohol don't mix. Everyone knows power
|
||
tools aren't soluble in alcohol ..."
|
||
-- Crazy Nigel
|
||
%
|
||
Of course there's no reason for it, it's just our policy.
|
||
%
|
||
Of what you see in books, believe 75%. Of newspapers, believe 50%.
|
||
And of TV news, believe 25% -- make that 5% if the anchorman wears a
|
||
blazer.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Dad! We're ALL Devo!
|
||
%
|
||
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, I am a C programmer and I'm okay
|
||
I muck with indices and structs all day
|
||
And when it works, I shout hoo-ray
|
||
Oh, I am a C programmer and I'm okay
|
||
%
|
||
Oh, I don't blame Congress. If I had $600 billion at my disposal, I'd
|
||
be irresponsible, too.
|
||
-- Lichty & Wagner
|
||
%
|
||
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
|
||
And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings;
|
||
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
|
||
Of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things
|
||
You have not dreamed of --
|
||
Wheeled and soared and swung
|
||
High in the sunlit silence.
|
||
Hovering there
|
||
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
|
||
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
|
||
Up, up along delirious, burning blue
|
||
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
|
||
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
|
||
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
|
||
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
|
||
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
|
||
-- John Gillespie Magee Jr., "High Flight"
|
||
%
|
||
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!
|
||
%
|
||
"OK, now let's look at four dimensions on the blackboard."
|
||
-- Dr. Joy
|
||
%
|
||
OK, so you're a Ph.D. Just don't touch anything.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Omnibiblious, adj.:
|
||
Indifferent to type of drink. "Oh, you can get me anything.
|
||
I'm omnibiblious."
|
||
%
|
||
OMNIVERSAL AWARENESS?? Oh, YEH!! First you need four GALLONS of
|
||
JELL-O and a BIG WRENCH!! ... I think you drop th' WRENCH in the JELL-O
|
||
as if it was a FLAVOR, or an INGREDIENT ... or ... I ... um ...
|
||
WHERE'S the WASHING MACHINES?
|
||
%
|
||
On a paper submitted by a physicist colleague:
|
||
|
||
"This isn't right. This isn't even wrong."
|
||
-- Wolfgang Pauli
|
||
%
|
||
On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only
|
||
nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter
|
||
what it does.
|
||
-- Will Rogers
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
-- Avery
|
||
%
|
||
On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are
|
||
created jerks.
|
||
-- H. Allen Smith, "Let the Crabgrass Grow"
|
||
%
|
||
On the road, ZIPPY is a pinhead without a purpose, but never without a
|
||
POINT ...
|
||
%
|
||
On the subject of C program indentation:
|
||
|
||
"In My Egotistical Opinion, most people's C programs should be
|
||
indented six feet downward and covered with dirt."
|
||
-- Blair P. Houghton
|
||
%
|
||
"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 rightly to apprehend the kind of
|
||
confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
|
||
-- Charles Babbage
|
||
%
|
||
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 at a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict,
|
||
Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease".
|
||
Disraeli replied, "That all depends upon whether I embrace your
|
||
principals or your mistress".
|
||
%
|
||
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 it's odd. QED.
|
||
3: The True Prime --
|
||
Lewis Carroll: "If I tell you three 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 advantage of talking to yourself is that you know at least
|
||
somebody's listening.
|
||
-- Franklin P. Jones
|
||
%
|
||
"One basic notion underlying Usenet is that it is a cooperative."
|
||
|
||
Having been on USENET for going on ten years, I disagree with this.
|
||
The basic notion underlying USENET is the flame.
|
||
-- Chuq Von Rospach
|
||
%
|
||
One can't proceed from the informal to the formal by formal means.
|
||
%
|
||
One cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs -- but it is amazing
|
||
how many eggs one can break without making a decent omelette.
|
||
-- Professor Charles P. Issawi
|
||
%
|
||
One day the King decided that he would force all his subjects to tell
|
||
the truth. A gallows was erected in front of the city gates. A herald
|
||
announced, "Whoever would enter the city must first answer the truth to
|
||
a question which will be put to him." Nasrudin was first in line. The
|
||
captain of the guard asked him, "Where are you going? Tell the truth
|
||
-- the alternative is death by hanging." "I am going," said Nasrudin,
|
||
"to be hanged on that gallows." "I don't believe you." "Very well, if
|
||
I have told a lie, then hang me!" "But that would make it the truth!"
|
||
"Exactly," said Nasrudin, "your truth."
|
||
%
|
||
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 is not superior merely because one sees the world as odious.
|
||
-- Chateaubriand (1768-1848)
|
||
%
|
||
One learns to itch where one can scratch.
|
||
-- Ernest Bramah
|
||
%
|
||
One man's brain plus one other will produce one half as many ideas as
|
||
one man would have produced alone. These two plus two more will
|
||
produce half again as many ideas. These four plus four more begin to
|
||
represent a creative meeting, and the ratio changes to one quarter as
|
||
many ...
|
||
-- Anthony Chevins
|
||
%
|
||
One man's theology is another man's belly laugh.
|
||
%
|
||
One monk said to the other, "The fish has flopped out of the net! How
|
||
will it live?" The other said, "When you have gotten out of the net,
|
||
I'll tell you."
|
||
%
|
||
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 lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to
|
||
do and always a clever thing to say.
|
||
-- Will Durant
|
||
%
|
||
"... one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that,
|
||
lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of
|
||
their C programs."
|
||
-- Robert Firth
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
The Seventh Commandments for Technicians
|
||
Work thou not on energized equipment, for if thou dost, thy
|
||
fellow workers will surely buy beers for thy widow and console her in
|
||
other ways.
|
||
%
|
||
The First Commandment for Technicians:
|
||
Beware the lightening that lurketh in the undischarged
|
||
capacitor, lest it cause thee to bounce upon thy buttocks in a most
|
||
untechnician-like manner.
|
||
%
|
||
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 promising concept that I came up with right away was that you could
|
||
manufacture personal air bags, then get a law passed requiring that
|
||
they be installed on congressmen to keep them from taking trips. Let's
|
||
say your congressman was trying to travel to Paris to do a fact-finding
|
||
study on how the French government handles diseases transmitted by
|
||
sherbet. Just when he got to the plane, his mandatory air bag,
|
||
strapped around his waist, would inflate -- FWWAAAAAAPPPP -- thus
|
||
rendering him too large to fit through the plane door. It could also
|
||
be rigged to inflate whenever the congressman proposed a law. ("Mr.
|
||
Speaker, people ask me, why should October be designated as Cuticle
|
||
Inspection Month? And I answer that FWWAAAAAAPPPP.") This would save
|
||
millions of dollars, so I have no doubt that the public would violently
|
||
support a law requiring airbags on congressmen. The problem is that
|
||
your potential market is very small: there are only around 500 members
|
||
of Congress, and some of them, such as House Speaker "Tip" O'Neil, are
|
||
already too large to fit on normal aircraft.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "'Mister Mediocre' Restaurants"
|
||
%
|
||
One reason why George Washington
|
||
Is held in such veneration:
|
||
He never blamed his problems
|
||
On the former Administration.
|
||
-- George O. Ludcke
|
||
%
|
||
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 thing they don't tell you about doing experimental physics is that
|
||
sometimes you must work under adverse conditions ... like a state of
|
||
sheer terror."
|
||
-- W. K. Hartmann
|
||
%
|
||
One way to make your old car run better is to look up the price of a
|
||
new model.
|
||
%
|
||
One way to stop a runaway horse is to bet on him.
|
||
%
|
||
One, with God, is always a majority, but many a martyr has been burned
|
||
at the stake while the votes were being counted.
|
||
-- Thomas B. Reed
|
||
%
|
||
One-Shot Case Study, n.:
|
||
The scientific equivalent of the four-leaf clover, from which
|
||
it is concluded all clovers possess four leaves and are sometimes
|
||
green.
|
||
%
|
||
Only adults have difficulty with childproof caps.
|
||
%
|
||
Only God can make random selections.
|
||
%
|
||
Only presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to
|
||
use the editorial "we."
|
||
%
|
||
Only through hard work and perseverance can one truly suffer.
|
||
%
|
||
Optimization hinders evolution.
|
||
%
|
||
Optimization hinders evolution.
|
||
%
|
||
Oregano, n.:
|
||
The ancient Italian art of pizza folding.
|
||
%
|
||
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 documentation manager was showing her two year old son around the
|
||
office. He was introduced to me, at which time he pointed out that we
|
||
were both holding bags of popcorn. We were both holding bottles of
|
||
juice. But only *__he* had a lollipop.
|
||
|
||
He asked his mother, "Why doesn't HE have a lollipop?"
|
||
|
||
Her reply:
|
||
|
||
"He can have a lollipop any time he wants to. That's what it
|
||
means to be a programmer."
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
... Our second completely true news item was sent to me by Mr. H. Boyce
|
||
Connell Jr. of Atlanta, Ga., where he is involved in a law firm. One
|
||
thing I like about the South is, folks there care about tradition. If
|
||
somebody gets handed a name like "H. Boyce," he hangs on to it, puts it
|
||
on his legal stationery, even passes it to his son, rather than do what
|
||
a lesser person would do, such as get it changed or kill himself.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "This Column is Nothing but the Truth!"
|
||
%
|
||
"Our vision is to speed up time, eventually eliminating it."
|
||
-- Alex Schure
|
||
%
|
||
"Our vision is to speed up time, eventually eliminating it."
|
||
-- Alex Schure
|
||
%
|
||
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
|
||
-- General Omar N. Bradley
|
||
%
|
||
OUTCONERR
|
||
Twas FORTRAN as the doloop goes
|
||
Did logzerneg the ifthen block
|
||
All kludgy were the function flows
|
||
And subroutines adhoc.
|
||
|
||
Beware the runtime-bug my friend
|
||
squrooneg, the false goto
|
||
Beware the infiniteloop
|
||
And shun the inprectoo.
|
||
%
|
||
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend: and inside a dog,
|
||
it's too dark to read."
|
||
-- Groucho Marx
|
||
%
|
||
Over the years, I've developed my sense of deja vu so acutely that now
|
||
I can remember things that *have* happened before ...
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Painting, n.:
|
||
The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and
|
||
exposing them to the critic.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
panic: can't find /
|
||
%
|
||
panic: kernel trap (ignored)
|
||
%
|
||
Paradise is exactly like where you are right now ... only much, much
|
||
better.
|
||
-- Laurie Anderson
|
||
%
|
||
Parallel lines never meet, unless you bend one or both of them.
|
||
%
|
||
Paranoia is simply an optimistic outlook on life.
|
||
%
|
||
Paranoid schizophrenics outnumber their enemies at least two to one.
|
||
%
|
||
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:
|
||
Everything else causes cancer in rats.
|
||
%
|
||
Pardon this fortune. Database under reconstruction.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Parsley
|
||
is gharsley.
|
||
-- Ogden Nash
|
||
%
|
||
Parts that positively cannot be assembled in improper order will be.
|
||
%
|
||
"Pascal is not a high-level language."
|
||
-- Steven Feiner
|
||
%
|
||
"Pascal is Pascal is Pascal is dog meat."
|
||
-- M. Devine and P. Larson, Computer Science 340
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Patageometry, n.:
|
||
The study of those mathematical properties that are invariant
|
||
under brain transplants.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Pedaeration, n.:
|
||
The perfect body heat achieved by having one leg under the
|
||
sheet and one hanging off the edge of the bed.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Penguin Trivia #46:
|
||
Animals who are not penguins can only wish they were.
|
||
-- Chicago Reader 10/15/82
|
||
%
|
||
People need good lies. There are too many bad ones.
|
||
-- Bokonon, "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
|
||
%
|
||
People often find it easier to be a result of the past than a cause of
|
||
the future.
|
||
%
|
||
"People think love is an emotion. Love is good sense."
|
||
-- Ken Kesey
|
||
%
|
||
People usually get what's coming to them ... unless it's been mailed.
|
||
%
|
||
People who are funny and smart and return phone calls get much better
|
||
press than people who are just funny and smart.
|
||
-- Howard Simons, "The Washington Post"
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
People will do tomorrow what they did today because that is what they
|
||
did yesterday.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Perfection is reached, not when there is no longer anything to add, but
|
||
when there is no longer anything to take away.
|
||
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
|
||
%
|
||
Personifiers Unite! You have nothing to lose but Mr. Dignity!
|
||
%
|
||
Peter Wemm Murphy Field, n.:
|
||
A field of abnormally frequent and severe Murphy's Law events
|
||
emanating from Mr. Peter Wemm. The field was first discovered and
|
||
identified in Denmark during the initial FreeBSD SMP development.
|
||
Mr. Wemm was residing in Australia at the time.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Jersey.
|
||
%
|
||
Philogyny recapitulates erogeny; erogeny recapitulates philogyny.
|
||
%
|
||
Philosophy will clip an angel's wings.
|
||
-- John Keats
|
||
%
|
||
Pick another fortune cookie.
|
||
%
|
||
"Picture the sun as the origin of two intersecting 6-dimensional
|
||
hyperplanes from which we can deduce a certain transformational
|
||
sequence which gives us the terminal velocity of a rubber duck ..."
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Pittsburgh 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.
|
||
%
|
||
Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
|
||
-- Don Marquis
|
||
%
|
||
PL/1, "the fatal disease", belongs more to the problem set than to the
|
||
solution set.
|
||
-- E. W. Dijkstra
|
||
%
|
||
"Plaese porrf raed."
|
||
-- Prof. Michael O'Longhlin, S.U.N.Y. Purchase
|
||
%
|
||
Plato, by the way, wanted to banish all poets from his proposed Utopia
|
||
because they were liars. The truth was that Plato knew philosophers
|
||
couldn't compete successfully with poets.
|
||
-- Kilgore Trout (Philip J. Farmer) "Venus on the Half
|
||
Shell"
|
||
%
|
||
Play Rogue, visit exotic locations, meet strange creatures and kill
|
||
them.
|
||
%
|
||
Playing an unamplified electric guitar is like strumming on a picnic
|
||
table.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Snake"
|
||
%
|
||
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?
|
||
%
|
||
Plumbing is one of the easier of do-it-yourself activities,
|
||
requiring only a few simple tools and a willingness to stick your arm
|
||
into a clogged toilet. In fact, you can solve many home plumbing
|
||
problems, such as annoying faucet drip, merely by turning up the
|
||
radio. But before we get into specific techniques, let's look at how
|
||
plumbing works.
|
||
A plumbing system is very much like your electrical system,
|
||
except that instead of electricity, it has water, and instead of wires,
|
||
it has pipes, and instead of radios and waffle irons, it has faucets
|
||
and toilets. So the truth is that your plumbing systems is nothing at
|
||
all like your electrical system, which is good, because electricity can
|
||
kill you.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
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.:
|
||
An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of
|
||
organized society is reared. When he wriggles, he mistakes the
|
||
agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared
|
||
with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even
|
||
where there is no river.
|
||
-- Nikita Khrushchev
|
||
%
|
||
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 B"ompzidaize was elected Landburgher of K"oln in 1653.
|
||
-- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
|
||
%
|
||
Portable, adj.:
|
||
Survives system reboot.
|
||
%
|
||
Positive, adj.:
|
||
Mistaken at the top of one's voice.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
Pound for pound, the amoeba is the most vicious animal on earth.
|
||
%
|
||
"Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat"
|
||
-- John Lehman, Secretary of the Navy 1981-1987
|
||
%
|
||
Power corrupts. And atomic power corrupts atomically.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Probably the question asked most often is: Do one-celled animals have
|
||
orgasms? The answer is yes, they have orgasms almost constantly, which
|
||
is why they don't mind living in pools of warm slime.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Sex and the Single Amoeba: What Every
|
||
Teen Should Know"
|
||
%
|
||
Prof: So the American government went to IBM to come up with a data
|
||
encryption standard and they came up with ...
|
||
Student: EBCDIC!
|
||
%
|
||
Professor Gorden Newell threw another shutout in last week's Chem.
|
||
Eng. 130 midterm. Once again no student received a single point on
|
||
his exam. Newell has now tossed five shutouts this quarter. Newell's
|
||
earned exam average has now dropped to a phenomenal 30%
|
||
%
|
||
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to
|
||
build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying
|
||
to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
|
||
|
||
-- Rich Cook
|
||
%
|
||
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 to 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"
|
||
%
|
||
Proposed Additions to the PDP-11 Instruction Set:
|
||
|
||
BBW Branch Both Ways
|
||
BEW Branch Either Way
|
||
BBBF Branch on Bit Bucket Full
|
||
BH Branch and Hang
|
||
BMR Branch Multiple Registers
|
||
BOB Branch On Bug
|
||
BPO Branch on Power Off
|
||
BST Backspace and Stretch Tape
|
||
CDS Condense and Destroy System
|
||
CLBR Clobber Register
|
||
CLBRI Clobber Register Immediately
|
||
CM Circulate Memory
|
||
CMFRM Come From -- essential for truly structured programming
|
||
CPPR Crumple Printer Paper and Rip
|
||
CRN Convert to Roman Numerals
|
||
%
|
||
Proposed Additions to the PDP-11 Instruction Set:
|
||
|
||
DC Divide and Conquer
|
||
DMPK Destroy Memory Protect Key
|
||
DO Divide and Overflow
|
||
EMPC Emulate Pocket Calculator
|
||
EPI Execute Programmer Immediately
|
||
EROS Erase Read Only Storage
|
||
EXCE Execute Customer Engineer
|
||
HCF Halt and Catch Fire
|
||
IBP Insert Bug and Proceed
|
||
INSQSW Insert into queue somewhere (for FINO queues [First in never out])
|
||
PBC Print and Break Chain
|
||
PDSK Punch Disk
|
||
%
|
||
Proposed Additions to the PDP-11 Instruction Set:
|
||
|
||
PI Punch Invalid
|
||
POPI Punch Operator Immediately
|
||
PVLC Punch Variable Length Card
|
||
RASC Read And Shred Card
|
||
RPM Read Programmers Mind
|
||
RSSC reduce speed, step carefully (for improved accuracy)
|
||
RTAB Rewind tape and break
|
||
RWDSK rewind disk
|
||
RWOC Read Writing On Card
|
||
SCRBL scribble to disk - faster than a write
|
||
SLC Search for Lost Chord
|
||
SPSW Scramble Program Status Word
|
||
SRSD Seek Record and Scar Disk
|
||
STROM Store in Read Only Memory
|
||
TDB Transfer and Drop Bit
|
||
WBT Water Binary Tree
|
||
%
|
||
"Protozoa are small, and bacteria are small, but viruses are smaller
|
||
than the both put together."
|
||
%
|
||
Psychiatrists say that one out of four people are mentally ill. Check
|
||
three friends. If they're OK, you're it.
|
||
%
|
||
Psychotherapy is the theory that the patient will probably get well
|
||
anyhow and is certainly a damn fool.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
Puns are little "plays on words" that a certain breed of person loves
|
||
to spring on you and then look at you in a certain self-satisfied way
|
||
to indicate that he thinks that you must think that he is by far the
|
||
cleverest person on Earth now that Benjamin Franklin is dead, when in
|
||
fact what you are thinking is that if this person ever ends up in a
|
||
lifeboat, the other passengers will hurl him overboard by the end of
|
||
the first day even if they have plenty of food and water.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Why Humor is Funny"
|
||
%
|
||
Pure drivel tends to drive ordinary drivel off of the TV screen.
|
||
%
|
||
Pure drivel tends to drive ordinary drivel off the TV screen.
|
||
%
|
||
Pushing 40 is exercise enough.
|
||
%
|
||
Put no trust in cryptic comments.
|
||
%
|
||
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: How did you get into artificial intelligence?
|
||
A: Seemed logical -- I didn't have any real intelligence.
|
||
%
|
||
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 heterosexual males does it take to screw in a light bulb
|
||
in San Francisco?
|
||
A: Both of them.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Martians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
|
||
A: One and a half.
|
||
%
|
||
Q: How many mathematicians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
|
||
A: One. He gives it to six Californians, thereby reducing the problem
|
||
to the earlier joke.
|
||
%
|
||
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 giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub
|
||
with brightly colored machine tools.
|
||
%
|
||
Q: How many Zen masters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
|
||
A: None. The Universe spins the bulb, and the Zen master stays out
|
||
of the way.
|
||
%
|
||
Q: What's a light-year?
|
||
A: One-third less calories than a regular year.
|
||
%
|
||
Q: Why did the tachyon cross the road?
|
||
A: Because it was on the other side.
|
||
%
|
||
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: Somebody just posted that Roman Polanski directed Star Wars. What
|
||
should I do?
|
||
|
||
A: Post the correct answer at once! We can't have people go on
|
||
believing that! Very good of you to spot this. You'll probably be
|
||
the only one to make the correction, so post as soon as you can. No
|
||
time to lose, so certainly don't wait a day, or check to see if
|
||
somebody else has made the correction.
|
||
|
||
And it's not good enough to send the message by mail. Since you're
|
||
the only one who really knows that it was Francis Coppola, you have
|
||
to inform the whole net right away!
|
||
|
||
-- Brad Templeton, "Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions
|
||
on Netiquette"
|
||
%
|
||
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!
|
||
%
|
||
Quick, sing me the BUDAPEST NATIONAL ANTHEM!!
|
||
%
|
||
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
|
||
|
||
(Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.)
|
||
%
|
||
Quigley's Law:
|
||
Whoever has any authority over you, no matter how small, will
|
||
atttempt to use it.
|
||
%
|
||
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
|
||
|
||
`
|
||
|
||
%
|
||
"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.
|
||
%
|
||
Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of
|
||
Congress. But I repeat myself.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
Real computer scientists admire ADA for its overwhelming aesthetic
|
||
value but they find it difficult to actually program in it, as it is
|
||
much too large to implement. Most computer scientists don't notice
|
||
this because they are still arguing over what else to add to ADA.
|
||
%
|
||
Real computer scientists despise the idea of actual hardware. Hardware
|
||
has limitations, software doesn't. It's a real shame that Turing
|
||
machines are so poor at I/O.
|
||
%
|
||
Real computer scientists don't comment their code. The identifiers are
|
||
so long they can't afford the disk space.
|
||
%
|
||
Real computer scientists don't program in assembler. They don't write
|
||
in anything less portable than a number two pencil.
|
||
%
|
||
Real computer scientists don't write code. They occasionally tinker
|
||
with `programming systems', but those are so high level that they
|
||
hardly count (and rarely count accurately; precision is for
|
||
applications.)
|
||
%
|
||
Real computer scientists only write specs for languages that might run
|
||
on future hardware. Nobody trusts them to write specs for anything homo
|
||
sapiens will ever be able to fit on a single planet.
|
||
%
|
||
Real programmers disdain structured programming. Structured
|
||
programming is for compulsive neurotics who were prematurely toilet-
|
||
trained. They wear neckties and carefully line up pencils on otherwise
|
||
clear desks.
|
||
%
|
||
Real programmers don't bring brown-bag lunches. If the vending machine
|
||
doesn't sell it, they don't eat it. Vending machines don't sell
|
||
quiche.
|
||
%
|
||
Real programmers don't comment their code. It was hard to write, it
|
||
should be hard to understand.
|
||
%
|
||
Real programmers don't draw flowcharts. Flowcharts are, after all, the
|
||
illiterate's form of documentation. Cavemen drew flowcharts; look how
|
||
much good it did them.
|
||
%
|
||
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 BASIC. Actually, no programmers write
|
||
in BASIC after reaching puberty.
|
||
%
|
||
Real programmers don't write in FORTRAN. FORTRAN is for pipe stress
|
||
freaks and crystallography weenies. FORTRAN is for wimp engineers who
|
||
wear white socks.
|
||
%
|
||
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 software engineers don't debug programs, they verify correctness.
|
||
This process doesn't necessarily involve execution of anything on a
|
||
computer, except perhaps a Correctness Verification Aid package.
|
||
%
|
||
Real software engineers don't like the idea of some inexplicable and
|
||
greasy hardware several aisles away that may stop working at any
|
||
moment. They have a great distrust of hardware people, and wish that
|
||
systems could be virtual at *___all* levels. They would like personal
|
||
computers (you know no one's going to trip over something and kill your
|
||
DFA in mid-transit), except that they need 8 megabytes to run their
|
||
Correctness Verification Aid packages.
|
||
%
|
||
Real software engineers work from 9 to 5, because that is the way the
|
||
job is described in the formal spec. Working late would feel like
|
||
using an undocumented external procedure.
|
||
%
|
||
Real Time, adj.:
|
||
Here and now, as opposed to fake time, which only occurs there
|
||
and then.
|
||
%
|
||
Real Users are afraid they'll break the machine -- but they're never
|
||
afraid to break your face.
|
||
%
|
||
Real Users find the one combination of bizarre input values that shuts
|
||
down the system for days.
|
||
%
|
||
Real Users hate Real Programmers.
|
||
%
|
||
Real Users know your home telephone number.
|
||
%
|
||
Real Users never know what they want, but they always know when your
|
||
program doesn't deliver it.
|
||
%
|
||
Real Users never use the Help key.
|
||
%
|
||
Real World, The n.:
|
||
1. In programming, those institutions at which programming may
|
||
be used in the same sentence as FORTRAN, COBOL, RPG, IBM, etc. 2. To
|
||
programmers, the location of non-programmers and activities not related
|
||
to programming. 3. A universe in which the standard dress is shirt and
|
||
tie and in which a person's working hours are defined as 9 to 5. 4.
|
||
The location of the status quo. 5. Anywhere outside a university.
|
||
"Poor fellow, he's left MIT and gone into the real world." Used
|
||
pejoratively by those not in residence there. In conversation, talking
|
||
of someone who has entered the real world is not unlike talking about a
|
||
deceased person.
|
||
%
|
||
Reality is a cop-out for people who can't handle drugs.
|
||
%
|
||
Reality is an obstacle to hallucination.
|
||
%
|
||
Reality is bad enough, why should I tell the truth?
|
||
-- Patrick Sky
|
||
%
|
||
Reality is for people who lack imagination.
|
||
%
|
||
Reality is for those who can't face Science Fiction.
|
||
%
|
||
Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity.
|
||
-- Alvy Ray Smith
|
||
%
|
||
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go
|
||
away".
|
||
-- Philip K. Dick
|
||
%
|
||
"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.
|
||
%
|
||
Religion has done love a great service by making it a sin.
|
||
-- Anatole France
|
||
%
|
||
"Rembrandt's first name was Beauregard, which is why he never used
|
||
it."
|
||
-- Dave Barry
|
||
%
|
||
Remember that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be
|
||
worse in Cleveland.
|
||
-- National Lampoon, "Deteriorata"
|
||
%
|
||
Remember, drive defensively! And of course, the best defense is a good
|
||
offense!
|
||
%
|
||
Remember, even if you win the rat race -- you're still a rat.
|
||
%
|
||
Remember, UNIX spelled backwards is XINU.
|
||
%
|
||
Remember: Silly is a state of Mind, Stupid is a way of Life.
|
||
-- Dave Butler
|
||
%
|
||
Renning's Maxim:
|
||
Man is the highest animal. Man does the classifying.
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
REPORTER: Senator, are you for or against the MX missile system?
|
||
|
||
SENATOR: Bob, the MX missile system reminds me of an old saying that
|
||
the country folk in my state like to say. It goes like this: "You can
|
||
carry a pig for six miles, but if you set it down it might run away."
|
||
I have no idea why the country folk say this. Maybe there's some kind
|
||
of chemical pollutant in their drinking water. That is why I pledge to
|
||
do all that I can to protect the environment of this great nation of
|
||
ours, and put prayer back in the schools, where it belongs. What we
|
||
need is jobs, not empty promises. I realize I'm risking my political
|
||
career be being so outspoken on a sensitive issue such as the MX, but
|
||
that's just the kind of straight-talking honest person I am, and I
|
||
can't help it.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "On Presidential Politics"
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
Rocky's Lemma of Innovation Prevention
|
||
Unless the results are known in advance, funding agencies will
|
||
reject the proposal.
|
||
%
|
||
Romeo wasn't bilked in a day.
|
||
-- Walt Kelly, "Ten Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Years With
|
||
Pogo"
|
||
%
|
||
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 Academic Deans:
|
||
(1) HIDE!!!!
|
||
(2) If they find you, LIE!!!!
|
||
-- Father Damian C. Fandal
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Rules:
|
||
(1) The boss is always right.
|
||
(2) When the boss is wrong, refer to rule 1.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Sanity is the trademark of a weak mind.
|
||
-- Mark Harrold
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Sauron is alive in Argentina!
|
||
%
|
||
Save energy: be apathetic.
|
||
%
|
||
Save the Whales -- Harpoon a Honda.
|
||
%
|
||
Save the whales. Collect the whole set.
|
||
%
|
||
"Saw a sign on a restaurant that said Breakfast, any time -- so I
|
||
ordered French Toast in the Renaissance.
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Schlattwhapper, n.:
|
||
The window shade that allows itself to be pulled down,
|
||
hesitates for a second, then snaps up in your face.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Schnuffel, n.:
|
||
A dog's practice of continuously nuzzling in your crotch in
|
||
mixed company.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Schwiggle, n.:
|
||
The amusing rotation of one's bottom while sharpening a
|
||
pencil.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made
|
||
of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts
|
||
is not necessarily science.
|
||
-- Henri Poincair'e
|
||
%
|
||
Science is what happens when preconception meets verification.
|
||
%
|
||
Scientists are people who build the Brooklyn Bridge and then buy it.
|
||
-- William Buckley
|
||
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the
|
||
Presidency.
|
||
-- Richard Nixon
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Section 2.4.3.5 AWNS (Acceptor Wait for New Cycle State).
|
||
In AWNS the AH function indicates that it has received a
|
||
multiline message byte.
|
||
In AWNS the RFD message must be sent false and the DAC message
|
||
must be sent passive true.
|
||
The AH function must exit the AWNS and enter:
|
||
(1) The ANRS if DAV is false
|
||
(2) The AIDS if the ATN message is false and neither:
|
||
(a) The LADS is active
|
||
(b) Nor LACS is active"
|
||
|
||
-- from the IEEE Standard Digital Interface for
|
||
Programmable Instrumentation
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
"See - the thing is - I'm an absolutist. I mean, kind of ... in a way ..."
|
||
%
|
||
Seleznick's Theory of Holistic Medicine:
|
||
Ice Cream cures all ills.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Sen. Danforth: "There is nothing on the face of the album which would
|
||
notify you if the record has pornographic material or
|
||
material glorifying violence?"
|
||
Tipper Gore: "No, there is nothing that would suggest that to me."
|
||
Frank Zappa: "I would say that a buzz saw blade between the guy's
|
||
legs on the album cover is good indication that it's
|
||
not for little Johnny."
|
||
|
||
-- The Senate Commerce Committee hearing on rock
|
||
lyrics, from The Village Voice, 6 Oct 1985
|
||
%
|
||
Senate, n.:
|
||
A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and
|
||
misdemeanors.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
Serenity through viciousness.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Several years ago, some smart businessmen had an idea: Why not build a
|
||
big store where a do-it-yourselfer could get everything he needed at
|
||
reasonable prices? Then they decided, nah, the hell with that, let's
|
||
build a home center. And before long home centers were springing up
|
||
like crabgrass all over the United States.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
Sex is a natural bodily process, like a stroke.
|
||
%
|
||
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. [Yiddish]:
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Sharks are as tough as those football fans who take their shirts off
|
||
during games in Chicago in January, only more intelligent.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Sex and the Single Amoeba: What Every
|
||
Teen Should Know"
|
||
%
|
||
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 liked him; he was a man of many qualities, even if most of them
|
||
were bad.
|
||
%
|
||
She missed an invaluable opportunity to give him a look that you could
|
||
have poured on a waffle ...
|
||
%
|
||
"She said, `I know you ... you cannot sing'. I said, `That's nothing,
|
||
you should hear me play piano.'"
|
||
-- Morrisey
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Signals don't kill programs. Programs kill programs.
|
||
%
|
||
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 have to speak well of the dead, let's knock them while they're
|
||
alive.
|
||
-- John Sloan
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work ... I did not,
|
||
when a slave, understand the deep meanings of those rude, and
|
||
apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle, so that I
|
||
neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a
|
||
tale which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension: they
|
||
were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and complaint of
|
||
souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a
|
||
testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from
|
||
chains.
|
||
-- Frederick Douglass
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Slowly and surely the unix crept up on the Nintendo user ...
|
||
%
|
||
Slurm, n.:
|
||
The slime that accumulates on the underside of a soap bar when
|
||
it sits in the dish too long.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.
|
||
-- Fletcher Knebel
|
||
%
|
||
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 as your consumer electronics adviser, I am advising you to donate
|
||
your current VCR to a grate resident, who will laugh sardonically and
|
||
hurl it into a dumpster. Then I want you to go out and purchase a vast
|
||
array of 8-millimeter video equipment.
|
||
|
||
... OK! Got everything? Well, *too bad, sucker*, because while you
|
||
were gone the electronics industry came up with an even newer format
|
||
that makes your 8-millimeter VCR look as technologically advanced as
|
||
toenail dirt. This format is called "3.5 hectare" and it will not be
|
||
made available until it is outmoded, sometime early next week, by a
|
||
format called "Elroy", so *order yours now*.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "No Surrender in the Electronics
|
||
Revolution"
|
||
%
|
||
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in
|
||
praise of intelligence.
|
||
-- Bertrand Russell
|
||
%
|
||
... so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those
|
||
who wish to tyrranize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent,
|
||
and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious
|
||
and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.
|
||
-- Voltarine de Cleyre
|
||
%
|
||
So Richard and I decided to try to catch [the small shark].
|
||
With a great deal of strategy and effort and shouting, we managed to
|
||
maneuver the shark, over the course of about a half-hour, to a sort of
|
||
corner of the lagoon, so that it had no way to escape other than to
|
||
flop up onto the land and evolve. Richard and I were inching toward
|
||
it, sort of crouched over, when all of a sudden it turned around and --
|
||
I can still remember the sensation I felt at that moment, primarily in
|
||
the armpit area -- headed right straight toward us.
|
||
Many people would have panicked at this point. But Richard and
|
||
I were not "many people." We were experienced waders, and we kept our
|
||
heads. We did exactly what the textbook says you should do when you're
|
||
unarmed and a shark that is nearly two feet long turns on you in water
|
||
up to your lower calves: We sprinted I would say 600 yards in the
|
||
opposite direction, using a sprinting style such that the bottoms of
|
||
our feet never once went below the surface of the water. We ran all
|
||
the way to the far shore, and if we had been in a Warner Brothers
|
||
cartoon we would have run right INTO the beach, and you would have seen
|
||
these two mounds of sand racing across the island until they bonked
|
||
into trees and coconuts fell onto their heads.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Wonders of Sharks on TV"
|
||
%
|
||
"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
|
||
%
|
||
... So the documentary-makers stick with sharks. Generally, their
|
||
procedure is to scatter bleeding fish pieces around their boat, so as
|
||
to infest the waters. I would estimate that the primary food source of
|
||
sharks today is bleeding fish pieces scattered by people making
|
||
documentaries. Once the sharks arrive, they are generally fairly
|
||
listless. The general shark attitude seems to be: "Oh God, another
|
||
documentary." So the divers have to somehow goad them into attacking,
|
||
under the guise of Scientific Research. "We know very little about the
|
||
effect of electricity on sharks," the narrator will say, in a deeply
|
||
scientific voice. "That is why Todd is going to jab this Great White
|
||
in the testicles with a cattle prod." The divers keep this kind of
|
||
thing up until the shark finally gets irritated and snaps at them, and
|
||
then they act as though this was a totally unexpected and very
|
||
dangerous development, although clearly it is what they wanted all
|
||
along.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Wonders of Sharks on TV"
|
||
%
|
||
So, what's with this guy Gideon, anyway? And why can't he ever
|
||
remember his Bible?
|
||
%
|
||
Sodd's Second Law:
|
||
Sooner or later, the worst possible set of circumstances is
|
||
bound to occur.
|
||
%
|
||
Software, n.:
|
||
Formal evening attire for female computer analysts.
|
||
%
|
||
Some don't prefer the pursuit of happiness to the happiness of pursuit.
|
||
%
|
||
Some men are alive simply because it is against the law to kill them.
|
||
-- Ed Howe
|
||
%
|
||
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 have a way about them that seems to say: "If I have only
|
||
one life to live, let me live it as a jerk."
|
||
%
|
||
Some people in this department wouldn't recognize subtlety if it hit
|
||
them on the head.
|
||
%
|
||
Some people live life in the fast lane. You're in oncoming traffic.
|
||
%
|
||
Some performers on television appear to be horrible people, but when
|
||
you finally get to know them in person, they turn out to be even
|
||
worse.
|
||
-- Avery
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Some primal termite knocked on wood.
|
||
And tasted it, and found it good.
|
||
And that is why your Cousin May
|
||
Fell through the parlor floor today.
|
||
-- Ogden Nash
|
||
%
|
||
Some programming languages manage to absorb change but withstand
|
||
progress.
|
||
%
|
||
Some programming languages manage to absorb change, but withstand
|
||
progress.
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Somewhere, just out of sight, the unicorns are gathering.
|
||
%
|
||
Song Title of the Week:
|
||
"They're putting dimes in the hole in my head to see the change
|
||
in me."
|
||
%
|
||
Sooner or later you must pay for your sins. (Those who have already
|
||
paid may disregard this fortune).
|
||
%
|
||
Sorry, no fortune this time.
|
||
%
|
||
Sorry. I forget what I was going to say.
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
"Spare no expense to save money on this one."
|
||
-- Samuel Goldwyn
|
||
%
|
||
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 Carroll, "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.
|
||
%
|
||
Speak softly and own a big, mean Doberman.
|
||
-- Dave Millman
|
||
%
|
||
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 Godzilla and other things that convey horror:
|
||
|
||
With a purposeful grimace and a Mongo-like flair
|
||
He throws the spinning disk drives in the air!
|
||
And he picks up a Vax and he throws it back down
|
||
As he wades through the lab making terrible sounds!
|
||
Helpless users with projects due
|
||
Scream "My God!" as he stomps on the tape drives, too!
|
||
|
||
Oh, no! He says Unix runs too slow! Go, go, DECzilla!
|
||
Oh, yes! He's gonna bring up VMS! Go, go, DECzilla!"
|
||
|
||
* VMS is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation
|
||
* DECzilla is a trademark of Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of Death, Inc.
|
||
-- Curtis Jackson
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
"Speed is subsittute fo accurancy."
|
||
%
|
||
Speer's 1st Law of Proofreading:
|
||
The visibility of an error is inversely proportional to the
|
||
number of times you have looked at it.
|
||
%
|
||
Spelling is a lossed art.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Star Wars is adolescent nonsense; Close Encounters is obscurantist
|
||
drivel; Star Trek can turn your brains to pur'ee of bat guano; and the
|
||
greatest science fiction series of all time is Doctor Who! And I'll
|
||
take you all on, one-by-one or all in a bunch to back it up!"
|
||
-- Harlan Ellison
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Stupidity got us into this mess -- why can't it get us out?
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Subtlety is the art of saying what you think and getting out of the way
|
||
before it is understood.
|
||
%
|
||
Succumb to natural tendencies. Be hateful and boring.
|
||
%
|
||
Suddenly, Professor Liebowitz realizes he has come to the seminar
|
||
without his duck ...
|
||
%
|
||
(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!
|
||
%
|
||
Support wildlife -- vote for an orgy.
|
||
%
|
||
Support your local police force -- steal!!
|
||
%
|
||
Support your local Search and Rescue unit -- get lost.
|
||
%
|
||
Sure he's sharp as a razor ... he's a two-dimensional pinhead!
|
||
%
|
||
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 type
|
||
in your name and social security number. Please remember that leaving
|
||
the room is punishable under law:
|
||
|
||
Name #
|
||
%
|
||
Swahili, n.:
|
||
The language used by the National Enquirer to print their
|
||
retractions.
|
||
-- Johnny Hart
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Syntactic sugar causes cancer of the semicolon.
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
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!
|
||
%
|
||
Systems have sub-systems and sub-systems have sub-systems and so on ad
|
||
infinitum -- which is why we're always starting over.
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
_
|
||
_ / \ o
|
||
/ \ | | o o o
|
||
| | | | _ o o o o
|
||
| \_| | / \ o o o
|
||
\__ | | | o o
|
||
| | | | ______ ~~~~ _____
|
||
| |__/ | / ___--\\ ~~~ __/_____\__
|
||
| ___/ / \--\\ \\ \ ___ <__ x x __\
|
||
| | / /\\ \\ )) \ ( " )
|
||
| | -------(---->>(@)--(@)-------\----------< >-----------
|
||
| | // | | //__________ / \ ____) (___ \\
|
||
| | // __|_| ( --------- ) //// ______ /////\ \\
|
||
// | ( \ ______ / <<<< <>-----<<<<< / \\
|
||
// ( ) / / \` \__ \\
|
||
//-------------------------------------------------------------\\
|
||
|
||
Every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels
|
||
start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and
|
||
then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas ... with the
|
||
music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.
|
||
-- H.S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
|
||
%
|
||
T: One big monster, he called TROLL.
|
||
He don't rock, and he don't roll;
|
||
Drink no wine, and smoke no stogies.
|
||
He just Love To Eat Them Roguies.
|
||
-- The Roguelet's ABC
|
||
%
|
||
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, "Deteriorata"
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
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 are going up so fast, the government is likely to price itself
|
||
out of the market.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Telephone, n.:
|
||
An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the
|
||
advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
Tell me, O Octopus, I begs,
|
||
Is those things arms, or is they legs?
|
||
I marvel at thee, Octopus;
|
||
If I were thou, I'd call me us.
|
||
-- Ogden Nash
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
"Termiter's argument that God is His own grandmother generated a
|
||
surprising amount of controversy among Church leaders, who on the one
|
||
hand considered the argument unsupported by scripture but on the other
|
||
hand were unwilling to risk offending God's grandmother."
|
||
-- Len Cool, "American Pie"
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
|
||
(Tertullian was one of the founders of the Catholic Church).
|
||
%
|
||
Test-tube babies shouldn't throw stones.
|
||
%
|
||
Texas law forbids anyone to have a pair of pliers in his possession.
|
||
%
|
||
"Text processing has made it possible to right-justify any idea, even
|
||
one which cannot be justified on any other grounds."
|
||
-- J. Finnegan, USC.
|
||
%
|
||
Thank goodness modern convenience is a thing of the remote future.
|
||
-- Pogo, by Walt Kelly
|
||
%
|
||
"That boy's about as sharp as a pound of wet liver"
|
||
-- Foghorn Leghorn
|
||
%
|
||
"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 80's -- when you can't tell hairstyles from chemotherapy.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Advertising Agency Song:
|
||
|
||
When your client's hopping mad,
|
||
Put his picture in the ad.
|
||
If he still should prove refractory,
|
||
Add a picture of his factory.
|
||
%
|
||
"The algorithm to do that is extremely nasty. You might want to mug
|
||
someone with it."
|
||
-- M. Devine, Computer Science 340
|
||
%
|
||
... 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 answer is that libdialog, the library on which sysinstall depends
|
||
for these menus, is genuinely evil. It is the unloved, satanic
|
||
bastard child of multiple parents and torturing users like yourself
|
||
constitutes the only joy in life it has left. Its source files are
|
||
all chmod'd 0666 and dire README files warn against trespass by
|
||
neophyte programmers. It is the 7th gate of Hell. It makes the baby
|
||
Jesus cry. Were libdialog given anthropomorphic representation, it
|
||
would be promptly burnt at the stake and its ashes scattered in the
|
||
desert, to be then doused with holy water from altitude by
|
||
fire-fighting aircraft.
|
||
|
||
-- Jordan K. Hubbard on the evils of libdialog
|
||
%
|
||
The Arkansas legislature passed a law that states that the Arkansas
|
||
River can rise no higher than to the Main Street bridge in Little
|
||
Rock.
|
||
%
|
||
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 assertion that "all men are created equal" was of no practical use
|
||
in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the
|
||
Declaration not for that, but for future use.
|
||
-- Abraham Lincoln
|
||
%
|
||
The average income of the modern teenager is about 2 a.m.
|
||
%
|
||
The average woman would rather have beauty than brains, because the
|
||
average man can see better than he can think.
|
||
%
|
||
"The bad reputation UNIX has gotten is totally undeserved, laid on by
|
||
people who don't understand, who have not gotten in there and tried
|
||
anything."
|
||
-- Jim Joyce, owner of Jim Joyce's UNIX Bookstore
|
||
%
|
||
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 basic menu item, in fact the ONLY menu item, would be a food unit
|
||
called the "patty," consisting of -- this would be guaranteed in
|
||
writing -- "100 percent animal matter of some kind." All patties would
|
||
be heated up and then cooled back down in electronic devices
|
||
immediately before serving. The Breakfast Patty would be a patty on a
|
||
bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, egg, Ba-Ko-Bits, Cheez Whiz, a Special
|
||
Sauce made by pouring ketchup out of a bottle and a little slip of
|
||
paper stating: "Inspected by Number 12". The Lunch or Dinner Patty
|
||
would be any Breakfast Patties that didn't get sold in the morning.
|
||
The Seafood Lover's Patty would be any patties that were starting to
|
||
emit a serious aroma. Patties that were too rank even to be Seafood
|
||
Lover's Patties would be compressed into wads and sold as "Nuggets."
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "'Mister Mediocre' Restaurants"
|
||
%
|
||
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 best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and
|
||
blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails.
|
||
You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at
|
||
night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only
|
||
love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or
|
||
know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only
|
||
one thing for it then -- to learn. Learn why the world wags and what
|
||
wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust,
|
||
never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never
|
||
dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a
|
||
lot of things there are to learn."
|
||
-- T.H. White, "The Once and Future King"
|
||
%
|
||
The best way to make a fire with two sticks is to make sure one of them
|
||
is a match.
|
||
-- Will Rogers
|
||
%
|
||
The bigger the theory the better.
|
||
%
|
||
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 bogosity meter just pegged.
|
||
%
|
||
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 buffalo isn't as dangerous as everyone makes him out to be.
|
||
Statistics prove that in the United States more Americans are killed in
|
||
automobile accidents than are killed by buffalo.
|
||
-- Art Buchwald
|
||
%
|
||
The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding
|
||
bureaucracy.
|
||
%
|
||
"The C Programming Language -- A language which combines the
|
||
flexibility of assembly language with the power of assembly language."
|
||
%
|
||
The camel has a single hump;
|
||
The dromedary two;
|
||
Or else the other way around.
|
||
I'm never sure. Are you?
|
||
-- Ogden Nash
|
||
%
|
||
The capacity of human beings to bore one another seems to be vastly
|
||
greater than that of any other animals. Some of their most esteemed
|
||
inventions have no other apparent purpose, for example, the dinner
|
||
party of more than two, the epic poem, and the science of metaphysics.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
"The chain which can be yanked is not the eternal chain."
|
||
-- G. Fitch
|
||
%
|
||
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 chief danger in life is that you may take too may precautions.
|
||
-- Alfred Adler
|
||
%
|
||
The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I will
|
||
walk carefully.
|
||
-- Russian Proverb
|
||
%
|
||
"The climate of Bombay is such that its inhabitants have to live
|
||
elsewhere."
|
||
%
|
||
"The Computer made me do it."
|
||
%
|
||
The computing field is always in need of new cliches.
|
||
-- Alan Perlis
|
||
%
|
||
The confusion of a staff member is measured by the length of his
|
||
memos.
|
||
-- New York Times, Jan. 20, 1981
|
||
%
|
||
The conservation movement is a breeding ground of Communists and other
|
||
subversives. We intend to clean them out, even if it means rounding up
|
||
every bird watcher in the country.
|
||
-- John Mitchell, Atty. General 1969-1972
|
||
%
|
||
The Consultant's Curse:
|
||
When the customer has beaten upon you long enough, give him
|
||
what he asks for, instead of what he needs. This is very strong
|
||
medicine, and is normally only required once.
|
||
%
|
||
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 cry has been that when war is declared, all opposition should
|
||
therefore be hushed. A sentiment more unworthy of a free country could
|
||
hardly be propagated. If the doctrine be admitted, rulers have only to
|
||
declare war and they are screened at once from scrutiny ... In war,
|
||
then, as in peace, assert the freedom of speech and of the press.
|
||
Cling to this as the bulwark of all our rights and privileges.
|
||
-- William Ellery Channing
|
||
%
|
||
The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.
|
||
%
|
||
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 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"
|
||
%
|
||
The District of Columbia has a law forbidding you to exert pressure on
|
||
a balloon and thereby cause a whistling sound on the streets.
|
||
%
|
||
The doctrine of human equality reposes on this: that there is no man
|
||
really clever who has not found that he is stupid.
|
||
-- Gilbert K. Chesterson
|
||
%
|
||
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 early bird who catches the worm works for someone who comes in late
|
||
and owns the worm farm.
|
||
-- Travis McGee
|
||
%
|
||
The earth is like a tiny grain of sand, only much, much heavier.
|
||
%
|
||
The easiest way to figure the cost of living is to take your income and
|
||
add ten percent.
|
||
%
|
||
The economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on
|
||
weather forecasters.
|
||
-- Jean-Paul Kauffmann
|
||
%
|
||
"The eleventh commandment was `Thou Shalt Compute' or `Thou Shalt Not
|
||
Compute' -- I forget which."
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of
|
||
civilization.
|
||
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
|
||
%
|
||
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 boys are allowed to exist at all is evidence of a
|
||
remarkable Christian forbearance among men.
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce
|
||
%
|
||
The fact that it works is immaterial.
|
||
-- L. Ogborn
|
||
%
|
||
The faster we go, the rounder we get.
|
||
-- The Grateful Dead
|
||
%
|
||
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 myth of management is that it exists. The second myth of
|
||
management is that success equals skill.
|
||
-- Robert Heller
|
||
%
|
||
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 it's just painted it's 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 magic is simple. Don't waste your time waving your
|
||
hands and hoping when a rock or a club will do."
|
||
-- McCloctnik the Lucid
|
||
%
|
||
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 first time, it's a KLUDGE!
|
||
The second, a trick.
|
||
Later, it's a well-established technique!
|
||
-- Mike Broido, Intermetrics
|
||
%
|
||
The following quote is from page 4-27 of the MSCP Basic Disk Functions
|
||
Manual which is part of the UDA50 Programmers Doc Kit manuals:
|
||
|
||
As stated above, the host area of a disk is structured as a vector of
|
||
logical blocks. From a performance viewpoint, however, it is more
|
||
appropriate to view the host area as a four dimensional hyper-cube, the
|
||
four dimensions being cylinder, group, track, and sector.
|
||
. . .
|
||
Referring to our hyper-cube analogy, the set of potentially accessible
|
||
blocks form a line parallel to the track axis. This line moves
|
||
parallel to the sector axis, wrapping around when it reaches the edge
|
||
of the hyper-cube.
|
||
%
|
||
The fortune program is supported, in part, by user contributions and by
|
||
a major grant from the National Endowment for the Inanities.
|
||
%
|
||
"The four building blocks of the universe are fire, water, gravel and
|
||
vinyl."
|
||
-- Dave Barry
|
||
%
|
||
The full impact of parenthood doesn't hit you until you multiply the
|
||
number of your kids by 32 teeth.
|
||
%
|
||
The generation of random numbers is too important to be left to
|
||
chance.
|
||
%
|
||
The gentlemen looked one another over with microscopic carelessness.
|
||
%
|
||
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 giraffe you thought you offended last week is willing to be nuzzled
|
||
today.
|
||
%
|
||
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 good Christian should beware of mathematicians and all those who
|
||
make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that mathematicians
|
||
have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine
|
||
man in the bonds of Hell."
|
||
-- St. Augustine
|
||
%
|
||
The good die young -- because they see it's no use living if you've got
|
||
to be good.
|
||
%
|
||
"The Good Ship Enterprise" (to the tune of "The Good Ship Lollipop")
|
||
|
||
On the good ship Enterprise
|
||
Every week there's a new surprise
|
||
Where the Romulans lurk
|
||
And the Klingons often go berserk.
|
||
|
||
Yes, the good ship Enterprise
|
||
There's excitement anywhere it flies
|
||
Where Tribbles play
|
||
And Nurse Chapel never gets her way.
|
||
|
||
See Captain Kirk standing on the bridge,
|
||
Mr. Spock is at his side.
|
||
The weekly menace, ooh-ooh
|
||
It gets fried, scattered far and wide.
|
||
|
||
It's the good ship Enterprise
|
||
Heading out where danger lies
|
||
And you live in dread
|
||
If you're wearing a shirt that's red.
|
||
-- Doris Robin and Karen Trimble of The L.A. Filkharmonics
|
||
%
|
||
The government [is] extremely fond of amassing great quantities of
|
||
statistics. These are raised to the _nth degree, the cube roots are
|
||
extracted, and the results are arranged into elaborate and impressive
|
||
displays. What must be kept ever in mind, however, is that in every
|
||
case, the figures are first put down by a village watchman, and he puts
|
||
down anything he damn well pleases.
|
||
-- Sir Josiah Stamp
|
||
%
|
||
The grand leap of the whale up the Fall of Niagara is esteemed, by all
|
||
who have seen it, as one of the finest spectacles in nature.
|
||
-- Benjamin Franklin.
|
||
%
|
||
The Great Bald Swamp Hedgehog:
|
||
The Great 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 greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men
|
||
of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
|
||
-- Justice Louis D. Brandeis
|
||
%
|
||
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 hieroglyphics are all unreadable except for a notation on the back,
|
||
which reads "Genuine authentic Egyptian papyrus. Guaranteed to be at
|
||
least 5000 years old."
|
||
%
|
||
The human animal differs from the lesser primates in his passion for
|
||
lists of "Ten Best".
|
||
-- H. Allen Smith
|
||
%
|
||
"The human brain is like an enormous fish -- it is flat and slimy and
|
||
has gills through which it can see."
|
||
-- Monty Python
|
||
%
|
||
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 been fascinated by sharks for as long as I can
|
||
remember. Just like the bluebird feeding its young, or the spider
|
||
struggling to weave its perfect web, or the buttercup blooming in
|
||
spring, the shark reveals to us yet another of the infinite and
|
||
wonderful facets of nature, namely the facet that it can bite your head
|
||
off. This causes us humans to feel a certain degree of awe.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Wonders of Sharks on TV"
|
||
%
|
||
The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that
|
||
procession but carrying a banner.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
The idea is to die young as late as possible.
|
||
-- Ashley Montague
|
||
%
|
||
The idea there was that consumers would bring their broken electronic
|
||
devices, such as television sets and VCR's, to the destruction centers,
|
||
where trained personnel would whack them (the devices) with
|
||
sledgehammers. With their devices thus permanently destroyed,
|
||
consumers would then be free to go out and buy new devices, rather than
|
||
have to fritter away years of their lives trying to have the old ones
|
||
repaired at so-called "factory service centers," which in fact consist
|
||
of two men named Lester poking at the insides of broken electronic
|
||
devices with cheap cigars and going, "Lookit all them WIRES in there!"
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "'Mister Mediocre' Restaurants"
|
||
%
|
||
"The identical is equal to itself, since it is different."
|
||
-- Franco Spisani
|
||
%
|
||
"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a bit
|
||
longer."
|
||
-- Henry Kissinger
|
||
%
|
||
The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf
|
||
has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know
|
||
when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr.
|
||
-- Will Rogers
|
||
%
|
||
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 intelligence of any discussion diminishes with the square of the
|
||
number of participants.
|
||
-- Adam Walinsky
|
||
%
|
||
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 last time somebody said, `I find I can write much better with a
|
||
word processor.', I replied, `They used to say the same thing about
|
||
drugs.'
|
||
-- Roy Blount, Jr.
|
||
%
|
||
The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the
|
||
law free.
|
||
-- Henry David Thoreau
|
||
%
|
||
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 lawgiver, of all beings, most owes the law allegiance. He of all
|
||
men should behave as though the law compelled him. But it is the
|
||
universal weakness of mankind that what we are given to administer we
|
||
presently imagine we own."
|
||
-- H.G. Wells
|
||
%
|
||
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 #18a: 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 LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #2: RENE
|
||
|
||
Named after the famous French philosopher and mathematician Rene
|
||
DesCartes, RENE is a language used for artificial intelligence. The
|
||
language is being developed at the Chicago Center of Machine Politics
|
||
and Programming under a grant from the Jane Byrne Victory Fund. A
|
||
spokesman described the language as "Just as great as dis [sic] city of
|
||
ours."
|
||
|
||
The center is very pleased with progress to date. They say they have
|
||
almost succeeded in getting a VAX to think. However, sources inside the
|
||
organization say that each time the machine fails to think it ceases to
|
||
exist.
|
||
%
|
||
THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #5: VALGOL
|
||
From its modest beginnings in Southern California's San Fernando Valley,
|
||
VALGOL is enjoying a dramatic surge of popularity across the industry.
|
||
|
||
Here is a sample program:
|
||
LIKE, Y*KNOW(I MEAN)START
|
||
IF PIZZA = LIKE BITCHEN AND GUY = LIKE TUBULAR AND
|
||
VALLEY GIRL = LIKE GRODY**MAX(FERSURE)**2 THEN
|
||
FOR I = LIKE 1 TO OH*MAYBE 100
|
||
DO*WAH - (DITTY**2)
|
||
BARF(I)=TOTALLY GROSS(OUT)
|
||
SURE
|
||
LIKE BAG THIS PROGRAM
|
||
REALLY
|
||
LIKE TOTALLY (Y*KNOW)
|
||
IM*SURE
|
||
GOTO THE MALL
|
||
|
||
When the user makes a syntax error, the interpreter displays the message:
|
||
|
||
GAG ME WITH A SPOON!!
|
||
%
|
||
THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #8: LAIDBACK
|
||
|
||
This language was developed at the Marin County Center for T'ai Chi,
|
||
Mellowness and Computer Programming (now defunct), as an alternative to
|
||
the more intense atmosphere in nearby Silicon Valley.
|
||
|
||
The center was ideal for programmers who liked to soak in hot tubs
|
||
while they worked. Unfortunately few programmers could survive there
|
||
because the center outlawed Pizza and Coca-Cola in favor of Tofu and
|
||
Perrier.
|
||
|
||
Many mourn the demise of LAIDBACK because of its reputation as a gentle
|
||
and non-threatening language since all error messages are in lower
|
||
case. For example, LAIDBACK responded to syntax errors with the
|
||
message:
|
||
"i hate to bother you, but i just can't relate to that. can
|
||
you find the time to try it again?"
|
||
%
|
||
The light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an approaching
|
||
train.
|
||
%
|
||
The light at the end of the tunnel may be an oncoming dragon.
|
||
%
|
||
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 makers may make
|
||
and the users may use,
|
||
but the fixers must fix
|
||
with but minimal clues
|
||
%
|
||
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 man who sets out to carry a cat by its tail learns something that
|
||
will always be useful and which never will grow dim or doubtful.
|
||
-- Mark Twain.
|
||
%
|
||
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 Mayo Clinic, named after its founder, Dr. Ted Clinic ..."
|
||
-- Dave Barry
|
||
%
|
||
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 meta-Turing test counts a thing as intelligent if it seeks to
|
||
devise and apply Turing tests to objects of its own creation.
|
||
-- Lew Mammel, Jr.
|
||
%
|
||
The misnaming of fields of study is so common as to lead to what might
|
||
be general systems laws. For example, Frank Harary once suggested the
|
||
law that any field that had the word "science" in its name was
|
||
guaranteed thereby not to be a science. He would cite as examples
|
||
Military Science, Library Science, Political Science, Homemaking
|
||
Science, Social Science, and Computer Science. Discuss the generality
|
||
of this law, and possible reasons for its predictive
|
||
power.
|
||
-- Gerald Weinberg, "An Introduction to General Systems
|
||
Thinking."
|
||
%
|
||
The modern child will answer you back before you've said anything.
|
||
-- Laurence J. Peter
|
||
%
|
||
The mome rath isn't born that could outgrabe me.
|
||
-- Nicol Williamson
|
||
%
|
||
The moon is a planet just like the Earth, only it is even deader.
|
||
%
|
||
The moon may be smaller than Earth, but it's further away.
|
||
%
|
||
"The more data I punch in this card, the lighter it becomes, and the
|
||
lower the mailing cost."
|
||
-- Stan Kelly-Bootle, "The Devil's DP Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
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 difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and
|
||
to watch someone else do it wrong without comment."
|
||
-- Theodore H. White
|
||
%
|
||
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 MYSTERIANS are in here with my CORDUROY SOAP DISH!!
|
||
%
|
||
"... The name of the song is called 'Haddocks' Eyes'!"
|
||
"Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?" Alice said, trying to
|
||
feel interested.
|
||
"No, you don't understand," the Knight said, looking a little
|
||
vexed. "That's what the name is called. The name really is, 'The Aged
|
||
Aged Man.'"
|
||
"Then I ought to have said "That's what the song is called'?"
|
||
Alice corrected herself.
|
||
"No, you oughtn't: that's quite another thing! The song is
|
||
called 'Ways and Means': but that's only what it is called you know!"
|
||
"Well, what is the song then?" said Alice, who was by this time
|
||
completely bewildered.
|
||
"I was coming to that," the Knight said. "The song really is
|
||
"A-sitting on a Gate": and the tune's my own invention."
|
||
-- Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass"
|
||
%
|
||
"The National Association of Theater Concessionaires reported that in
|
||
1986, 60% of all candy sold in movie theaters was sold to Roger Ebert."
|
||
-- D. Letterman
|
||
%
|
||
The National Short-Sleeved Shirt Association says:
|
||
Support your right to bare arms!
|
||
%
|
||
The net of law is spread so wide,
|
||
No sinner from its sweep may hide.
|
||
Its meshes are so fine and strong,
|
||
They take in every child of wrong.
|
||
O wondrous web of mystery!
|
||
Big fish alone escape from thee!
|
||
-- James Jeffrey Roche
|
||
%
|
||
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 New York Times is read by the people who run the country. The
|
||
Washington Post is read by the people who think they run the country.
|
||
The National Enquirer is read by the people who think Elvis is alive
|
||
and running the country ..."
|
||
-- Robert J Woodhead
|
||
%
|
||
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 notion that the church, the press, and the universities should
|
||
serve the state is essentially a Communist notion ... In a free society
|
||
these institutions must be wholly free -- which is to say that their
|
||
function is to serve as checks upon the state.
|
||
-- Alan Barth
|
||
%
|
||
The number of arguments is unimportant unless some of them are
|
||
correct.
|
||
-- Ralph Hartley
|
||
%
|
||
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 older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age
|
||
brings wisdom.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader
|
||
catch his own breath.
|
||
-- Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart
|
||
%
|
||
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 real way to look younger is not to be born so soon."
|
||
-- Charles Schulz, "Things I've Had to Learn Over and
|
||
Over and Over"
|
||
%
|
||
The only really decent thing to do behind a person's back is pat it.
|
||
%
|
||
The only really good place to buy lumber is at a store where the lumber
|
||
has already been cut and attached together in the form of furniture,
|
||
finished, and put inside boxes.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any
|
||
use to oneself.
|
||
-- Oscar Wilde
|
||
%
|
||
"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from
|
||
history."
|
||
-- Hegel
|
||
|
||
"I know guys can't learn from yesterday ... Hegel must be taking the
|
||
long view."
|
||
-- John Brunner, "Stand on Zanzibar"
|
||
%
|
||
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 p.m.
|
||
%
|
||
The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
|
||
-- Bohr
|
||
%
|
||
The optimum committee has no members.
|
||
-- Norman Augustine
|
||
%
|
||
"The other day I put instant coffee in my microwave oven ... I almost
|
||
went back in time."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
The past always looks better than it was. It's only pleasant because
|
||
it isn't here.
|
||
-- Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Dooley)
|
||
%
|
||
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it
|
||
were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
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 plot was designed in a light vein that somehow became varicose.
|
||
-- David Lardner
|
||
%
|
||
The polite thing to do has always been to address people as they wish
|
||
to be addressed, to treat them in a way they think dignified. But it
|
||
is equally important to accept and tolerate different standards of
|
||
courtesy, not expecting everyone else to adapt to one's own
|
||
preferences. Only then can we hope to restore the insult to its proper
|
||
social function of expressing true distaste.
|
||
-- Judith Martin, "Miss Manners' Guide to
|
||
Excruciatingly Correct Behavior"
|
||
%
|
||
"The porcupine with the sharpest quills gets stuck on a tree more
|
||
often."
|
||
%
|
||
The Preacher, the Politician, 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 President publicly apologized today to all those offended by his
|
||
brother's remark, "There's more Arabs in this country than there is
|
||
Jews!". Those offended include Arabs, Jews, and English teachers.
|
||
-- Baltimore, Channel 11 News, on Jimmy Carter
|
||
%
|
||
The price of seeking to force our beliefs on others is that someday
|
||
they might force their beliefs on us.
|
||
-- Mario Cuomo
|
||
%
|
||
The primary cause of failure in electrical appliances is an expired
|
||
warranty. Often, you can get an appliance running again simply by
|
||
changing the warranty expiration date with a 15/64-inch felt-tipped
|
||
marker.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
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 primary requisite for any new tax law is for it to exempt enough
|
||
voters to win the next election.
|
||
%
|
||
The primary theme of SoupCon is communication. The acronym "LEO"
|
||
represents the secondary theme:
|
||
|
||
Law Enforcement Officials
|
||
|
||
The overall theme of SoupCon shall be:
|
||
|
||
Avoiding Communication with Law Enforcement Officials
|
||
%
|
||
... the privileged being which we call human is distinguished from
|
||
other animals only by certain double-edged manifestations which in
|
||
charity we can only call "inhuman."
|
||
-- R. A. Lafferty
|
||
%
|
||
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 engineers is that they tend to cheat in order to get
|
||
results.
|
||
|
||
The problem with mathematicians is that they tend to work on toy
|
||
problems in order to get results.
|
||
|
||
The problem with program verifiers is that they tend to cheat at toy
|
||
problems in order to get results.
|
||
%
|
||
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 qotc (quote of the con) was Liz's:
|
||
"My brain is paged out to my liver"
|
||
%
|
||
The question is, why are politicians so eager to be president? What is
|
||
it about the job that makes it worth revealing, on national television,
|
||
that you have the ethical standards of a slime-coated piece of
|
||
industrial waste?
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "On Presidential Politics"
|
||
%
|
||
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 reader this message encounters not failing to understand is
|
||
cursed.
|
||
%
|
||
The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much.
|
||
%
|
||
The reason it's called "Grape Nuts" is that it contains "dextrose",
|
||
which is also sometimes called "grape sugar", and also because "Grape
|
||
Nuts" is catchier, in terms of marketing, than "A Cross Between Gerbil
|
||
Food and Gravel", which is what it tastes like.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Tips for Writer's"
|
||
%
|
||
The reason we come up with new versions is not to fix bugs. It's
|
||
absolutely not.
|
||
-- Bill Gates
|
||
%
|
||
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 rhino is a homely beast,
|
||
For human eyes he's not a feast.
|
||
Farewell, farewell, you old rhinoceros,
|
||
I'll stare at something less prepoceros.
|
||
-- Ogden Nash
|
||
%
|
||
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 Right Honorable Gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests
|
||
and to his imagination for his facts."
|
||
-- Sheridan
|
||
%
|
||
The right to revolt has sources deep in our history.
|
||
-- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
|
||
%
|
||
"The rights you have are the rights given you by this Committee [the
|
||
House Un-American Activities Committee]. We will determine what rights
|
||
you have and what rights you have not got."
|
||
-- J. Parnell Thomas
|
||
%
|
||
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And littered with
|
||
sloppy analysis!
|
||
%
|
||
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 rule on staying alive as a forcaster is to give 'em a number or
|
||
give 'em a date, but never give 'em both at once.
|
||
-- Jane Bryant Quinn
|
||
%
|
||
"The Schizophrenic: An Unauthorized Autobiography"
|
||
%
|
||
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 scum also rises.
|
||
-- Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
|
||
%
|
||
The seven deadly sins ... Food, clothing, firing, rent, taxes,
|
||
respectability and children. Nothing can lift those seven milestones
|
||
from man's neck but money; and the spirit cannot soar until the
|
||
milestones are lifted.
|
||
-- George Bernard Shaw
|
||
%
|
||
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 Lankhmar'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 sheep that fly over your head are soon to land.
|
||
%
|
||
The shortest distance between two points is under construction.
|
||
-- Noelie Alito
|
||
%
|
||
The Sixth Commandment of Frisbee:
|
||
The greatest single aid to distance is for the disc to be going
|
||
in a direction you did not want. (Goes the wrong way = Goes a long
|
||
way.)
|
||
-- Dan Roddick
|
||
%
|
||
"The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity
|
||
and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted
|
||
activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy ...
|
||
neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."
|
||
%
|
||
"The sooner all the animals are dead, the sooner we'll find their
|
||
money."
|
||
-- Ed Bluestone, "The National Lampoon"
|
||
%
|
||
"The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up!"
|
||
%
|
||
The sooner you make your first 5000 mistakes, the sooner you will be
|
||
able to correct them.
|
||
-- Nicolaides
|
||
%
|
||
The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.
|
||
%
|
||
The Soviet pre-eminence in chess can be traced to the average Russian's
|
||
readiness to brood obsessively over anything, even the arrangement of
|
||
some pieces of wood. Indeed, the Russians' predisposition for quiet
|
||
reflection followed by sudden preventive action explains why they led
|
||
the field for many years in both chess and ax murders. It is well
|
||
known that as early as 1970, the U.S.S.R., aware of what a defeat at
|
||
Reykjavik would do to national prestige, implemented a vigorous program
|
||
of preparation and incentive. Every day for an entire year, a team of
|
||
psychologists, chess analysts and coaches met with the top three
|
||
Russian grand masters and threatened them with a pointy stick. That
|
||
these tactics proved fruitless is now a part of chess history and a
|
||
further testament to the American way, which provides that if you want
|
||
something badly enough, you can always go to Iceland and get it from
|
||
the Russians.
|
||
-- Marshall Brickman, Playboy, April, 1973
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
The state law of Pennsylvania prohibits singing in the bathtub.
|
||
%
|
||
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 streets are safe in Philadelphia, it's only the people who make
|
||
them unsafe.
|
||
-- Mayor Frank Rizzo
|
||
%
|
||
"The student in question is performing minimally for his peer group and
|
||
is an emerging underachiever."
|
||
%
|
||
The study of non-linear physics is like the study of non-elephant
|
||
biology.
|
||
%
|
||
"The subspace _W inherits the other 8 properties of _V. And there aren't
|
||
even any property taxes."
|
||
-- J. MacKay, Mathematics 134b
|
||
%
|
||
The sum of the Universe is zero.
|
||
%
|
||
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 surest protection against temptation is cowardice.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
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 Three Major Kind of Tools
|
||
|
||
* Tools for hitting things to make them loose or to tighten them up or
|
||
jar their many complex, sophisticated electrical parts in such a
|
||
manner that they function perfectly. (These are your hammers, maces,
|
||
bludgeons, and truncheons.)
|
||
|
||
* Tools that, if dropped properly, can penetrate your foot. (Awls)
|
||
|
||
* Tools that nobody should ever use because the potential danger is far
|
||
greater than the value of any project that could possibly result.
|
||
(Power saws, power drills, power staplers, any kind of tool that uses
|
||
any kind of power more advanced than flashlight batteries.)
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
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 nobody's there to appreciate
|
||
it.
|
||
-- Franklin P. Jones
|
||
%
|
||
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 trouble with superheros is what to do between phone booths.
|
||
-- Ken Kesey
|
||
%
|
||
The truth is what is; what should be is a dirty lie.
|
||
-- Lenny Bruce
|
||
%
|
||
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 two most common things in the universe are hydrogen and
|
||
stupidity."
|
||
%
|
||
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 United States also has its native Fascists who say that they are
|
||
"100 percent American"...
|
||
-- U. S. Army (1945)
|
||
%
|
||
The United States is like the guy at the party who gives cocaine to
|
||
everybody and still nobody likes him.
|
||
-- Jim Samuels
|
||
%
|
||
The universe does not have laws -- it has habits, and habits can be
|
||
broken.
|
||
%
|
||
The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination -- but the
|
||
combination is locked up in the safe.
|
||
-- Peter DeVries
|
||
%
|
||
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 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 verdict of a jury is the a priori opinion of that juror who smokes
|
||
the worst cigars.
|
||
-- H. L. Mencken
|
||
%
|
||
The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid
|
||
prejudice.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
|
||
Instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts
|
||
to fit their views ... which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to
|
||
be one of the facts that needs altering.
|
||
-- Dr. Who, "Face of Evil"
|
||
%
|
||
"The voters have spoken, the bastards ..."
|
||
%
|
||
"The wages of sin are death; but after they're done taking out taxes,
|
||
it's just a tired feeling:"
|
||
%
|
||
The wages of sin are high but you get your money's worth.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 wind doth taste so bitter sweet,
|
||
Like Jaspar wine and sugar,
|
||
It must have blown through someone's feet,
|
||
Like those of Caspar Weinberger.
|
||
-- P. Opus
|
||
%
|
||
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 ... SAVE YOUR BUFFERS!!!
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Then here's to the City of Boston,
|
||
The town of the cries and the groans.
|
||
Where the Cabots can't see the Kabotschniks,
|
||
And the Lowells won't speak to the Cohns.
|
||
-- Franklin Pierce Adams
|
||
%
|
||
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 *__is* intelligent life on Earth, but I leave for Texas on Monday.
|
||
%
|
||
There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable,
|
||
and praiseworthy ...
|
||
-- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"
|
||
%
|
||
There are many intelligent species in the universe. They all own
|
||
cats.
|
||
%
|
||
There are no data that cannot be plotted on a straight line if the axis
|
||
are chosen correctly.
|
||
%
|
||
There are no games on this system.
|
||
%
|
||
There are no physicists in the hottest parts of hell, because the
|
||
existence of a "hottest part" implies a temperature difference, and any
|
||
marginally competent physicist would immediately use this to run a heat
|
||
engine and make some other part of hell comfortably cool. This is
|
||
obviously impossible.
|
||
-- Richard Davisson
|
||
%
|
||
There are people so addicted to exaggeration that they can't tell the
|
||
truth without lying.
|
||
%
|
||
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 those who claim that magic is like the tide; that it swells
|
||
and fades over the surface of the earth, collecting in concentrated
|
||
pools here and there, almost disappearing from other spots, leaving
|
||
them parched for wonder. There are also those who believe that if you
|
||
stick your fingers up your nose and blow, it will increase your
|
||
intelligence."
|
||
-- The Teachings of Ebenezum, Volume VII
|
||
%
|
||
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 Behavior
|
||
%
|
||
"There are three principal ways to lose money: wine, women, and
|
||
engineers. While the first two are more pleasant, the third is by far
|
||
the more certain."
|
||
-- Baron Rothschild, ca. 1800
|
||
%
|
||
There are three schools of magic. One: State a tautology, then ring
|
||
the changes on its corollaries; that's philosophy. Two: Record many
|
||
facts. Try to find a pattern. Then make a wrong guess at the next
|
||
fact; that's science. Three: Be aware that you live in a malevolent
|
||
Universe controlled by Murphy's Law, sometimes offset by Brewster's
|
||
Factor; that's engineering.
|
||
%
|
||
There are three things I always forget. Names, faces -- the third I
|
||
can't remember.
|
||
-- Italo Svevo
|
||
%
|
||
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 times when truth is stranger than fiction and lunch time is
|
||
one of them.
|
||
%
|
||
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 types of people in this world, good and bad. The good
|
||
sleep better, but the bad seem to enjoy the waking hours much more.
|
||
-- Woody Allen
|
||
%
|
||
"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 way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious
|
||
deficiencies."
|
||
-- C. A. R. Hoare
|
||
%
|
||
"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 can be no twisted thought without a twisted molecule.
|
||
-- R. W. Gerard
|
||
%
|
||
There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full.
|
||
-- Henry Kissinger
|
||
%
|
||
There exist tasks which cannot be done by more than 10 men or fewer
|
||
than 100.
|
||
-- Steele's Law
|
||
%
|
||
There has been an alarming increase in the number of things you know
|
||
nothing about.
|
||
%
|
||
There is a certain impertinence in allowing oneself to be burned for an
|
||
opinion.
|
||
-- Anatole France
|
||
%
|
||
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 Massachusetts law requiring all dogs to have their hind legs
|
||
tied during the month of April.
|
||
%
|
||
There is a natural hootchy-kootchy to a goldfish.
|
||
-- Walt Disney
|
||
%
|
||
"There is a road to freedom. Its milestones are Obedience, Endeavor,
|
||
Honesty, Order, Cleanliness, Sobriety, Truthfulness, Sacrifice, and
|
||
love of the Fatherland."
|
||
-- Adolf Hitler
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
-- Douglas Adams, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"
|
||
%
|
||
"There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a
|
||
vacuum."
|
||
-- Arthur C. Clarke
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
-- Encyclopedia Apocryphia, 1990 ed.
|
||
%
|
||
"There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their
|
||
home."
|
||
-- Ken Olson, President of DEC, World Future Society
|
||
Convention, 1977
|
||
%
|
||
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 such thing as fortune. Try again.
|
||
%
|
||
There is no time like the pleasant.
|
||
%
|
||
There is no time like the present for postponing what you ought to be
|
||
doing.
|
||
%
|
||
There is no TRUTH. There is no REALITY. There is no CONSISTENCY.
|
||
There are no ABSOLUTE STATEMENTS I'm very probably wrong.
|
||
%
|
||
"There is nothing which cannot be answered by means of my doctrine,"
|
||
said a monk, coming into a teahouse where Nasrudin sat. "And yet just
|
||
a short time ago, I was challenged by a scholar with an unanswerable
|
||
question," said Nasrudin. "I could have answered it if I had been
|
||
there." "Very well. He asked, 'Why are you breaking into my house in
|
||
the middle of the night?'"
|
||
%
|
||
There is nothing wrong with Southern California that a rise in the
|
||
ocean level wouldn't cure.
|
||
-- Ross MacDonald
|
||
%
|
||
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 a member of Mensa
|
||
Who was a most excellent fencer.
|
||
The sword that he used
|
||
Was his -- (line is refused,
|
||
And has now been removed by the censor).
|
||
%
|
||
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 was an interesting development in the CBS-Westmoreland trial:
|
||
both sides agreed that after the trial, Andy Rooney would be allowed to
|
||
talk to the jury for three minutes about little things that annoyed him
|
||
during the trial."
|
||
-- David Letterman
|
||
%
|
||
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 it's not
|
||
a fence.
|
||
%
|
||
There's a long-standing bug relating to the x86 architecture that
|
||
allows you to install Windows.
|
||
-- Matthew D. Fuller
|
||
%
|
||
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 easy quick way out, we're gonna have to live through our
|
||
whole lives, win, lose, or draw.
|
||
-- Walt Kelly
|
||
%
|
||
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 no room in the drug world for amateurs.
|
||
%
|
||
There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government
|
||
working for you.
|
||
-- Will Rodgers
|
||
%
|
||
"There's nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead
|
||
armadillos."
|
||
-- Jim Hightower, Texas Agricultural Commissioner
|
||
%
|
||
There's nothing so precious as a cafe full of Gap kiddies trying to
|
||
work out whether you're really wearing rubber pants.
|
||
-- Mike Smith
|
||
%
|
||
"There's nothing wrong with teenagers that reasoning with them won't
|
||
aggravate."
|
||
%
|
||
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 make a desert and call it peace."
|
||
-- Tacitus (55?-120?)
|
||
%
|
||
They spell it "da Vinci" and pronounce it "da Vinchy". Foreigners
|
||
always spell better than they pronounce.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
|
||
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
|
||
-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759
|
||
%
|
||
"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!
|
||
%
|
||
"They're unfriendly, which is fortunate, really. They'd be difficult
|
||
to like."
|
||
-- Avon
|
||
%
|
||
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".
|
||
%
|
||
"Thirty days hath Septober,
|
||
April, June, and no wonder.
|
||
all the rest have peanut butter
|
||
except my father who wears red suspenders."
|
||
%
|
||
This Fortue Examined By INSPECTOR NO. 2-14
|
||
%
|
||
This fortune cookie 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 fortune intentionally not included.
|
||
%
|
||
This fortune is false.
|
||
%
|
||
This fortune is inoperative. Please try another.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 a job for BOB VIOLENCE and SCUM, the INCREDIBLY STUPID MUTANT
|
||
DOG."
|
||
-- Bob Violence
|
||
%
|
||
"This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. If this had been an
|
||
actual emergency, do you really think we'd stick around to tell you?"
|
||
%
|
||
This is an especially good time for you vacationers who plan to fly,
|
||
because the Reagan administration, as part of the same policy under
|
||
which it recently sold Yellowstone National Park to Wayne Newton, has
|
||
"deregulated" the airline industry. What this means for you, the
|
||
consumer, is that the airlines are no longer required to follow any
|
||
rules whatsoever. They can show snuff movies. They can charge for
|
||
oxygen. They can hire pilots right out of Vending Machine Refill
|
||
Person School. They can conserve fuel by ejecting husky passengers
|
||
over water. They can ram competing planes in mid-air. These
|
||
innovations have resulted in tremendous cost savings which have been
|
||
passed along to you, the consumer, in the form of flights with
|
||
amazingly low fares, such as $29. Of course, certain restrictions do
|
||
apply, the main one being that all these flights take you to Newark,
|
||
and you must pay thousands of dollars if you want to fly back out.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Iowa -- Land of Secure Vacations"
|
||
%
|
||
This is an unauthorized cybernetic announcement.
|
||
%
|
||
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 lemma 1.1. We start a new chapter so the numbers all go back
|
||
to one."
|
||
-- Prof. Seager, C&O 351
|
||
%
|
||
This is National Non-Dairy Creamer Week.
|
||
%
|
||
THIS IS PLEDGE WEEK FOR THE FORTUNE PROGRAM
|
||
|
||
If you like the fortune program, why not support it now with your
|
||
contribution of a pithy fortune, clean or obscene? We cannot continue
|
||
without your support. Less than 14% of all fortune 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 fortunes, and unless user contributions increase to make up the
|
||
difference, the fortune program will have to shut down between midnight
|
||
and 8 a.m. Don't let this happen. Mail your fortunes right now to
|
||
"fortune". Just type in your favorite pithy saying. Do it now before
|
||
you forget. Our target is 300 new fortunes by the end of the week.
|
||
Don't miss out. All fortunes will be acknowledged. If you contribute
|
||
30 fortunes or more, you will receive a free subscription to "The
|
||
Fortune Hunter", our monthly program guide. If you contribute 50 or
|
||
more, you will receive a free "Fortune Hunter" coffee mug ....
|
||
%
|
||
This is the ____LAST time I take travel suggestions from Ray Bradbury!
|
||
%
|
||
This is the first numerical problem I ever did. It demonstrates the
|
||
power of computers:
|
||
|
||
Enter lots of data on calorie & nutritive content of foods. Instruct
|
||
the thing to maximize a function describing nutritive content, with a
|
||
minimum level of each component, for fixed caloric content. The
|
||
results are that one should eat each day:
|
||
|
||
1/2 chicken
|
||
1 egg
|
||
1 glass of skim milk
|
||
27 heads of lettuce.
|
||
-- Rev. Adrian Melott
|
||
%
|
||
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 is your fortune.
|
||
%
|
||
This land is full of trousers!
|
||
this land is full of mausers!
|
||
And pussycats to eat them when the sun goes down!
|
||
-- Firesign Theater
|
||
%
|
||
This land is made of mountains,
|
||
This land is made of mud,
|
||
This land has lots of everything,
|
||
For me and Elmer Fudd.
|
||
|
||
This land has lots of trousers,
|
||
This land has lots of mousers,
|
||
And pussycats to eat them
|
||
When the sun goes down.
|
||
%
|
||
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 novel is not to be tossed lightly aside, but to be hurled with
|
||
great force.
|
||
-- Dorothy Parker
|
||
%
|
||
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 process can check if this value is zero, and if it is, it does
|
||
something child-like."
|
||
-- Forbes Burkowski, Computer Science 454
|
||
%
|
||
This quote is taken from the Diamondback, the University of Maryland
|
||
student newspaper, of Tuesday, 3/10/87.
|
||
|
||
One disadvantage of the Univac system is that it does not use
|
||
Unix, a recently developed program which translates from one
|
||
computer language to another and has a built-in editing system
|
||
which identifies errors in the original program.
|
||
%
|
||
This sentence contradicts itself -- no actually it doesn't.
|
||
-- Hofstadter
|
||
%
|
||
... 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 of you who think you know everything are very annoying to those
|
||
of us who do.
|
||
%
|
||
Those who can't write, write manuals.
|
||
%
|
||
Those who can, do. Those who can't, simulate.
|
||
%
|
||
"Those who do not do politics will be done in by politics."
|
||
-- French Proverb
|
||
%
|
||
Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.
|
||
-- Henry Spencer
|
||
%
|
||
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 express random thoughts to legislative committees are often
|
||
surprised and appalled to find themselves the instigators of law.
|
||
-- Mark B. Cohen
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are
|
||
men who want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean
|
||
without the roar of its many waters.
|
||
-- Frederick Douglass
|
||
%
|
||
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, but fruit flies like a banana.
|
||
%
|
||
Time is an illusion; lunchtime, doubly so.
|
||
-- Ford Prefect
|
||
%
|
||
Time is nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen at
|
||
once.
|
||
%
|
||
'Tis the dream of each programmer,
|
||
Before his life is done,
|
||
To write three lines of APL,
|
||
And make the damn things run.
|
||
%
|
||
(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. 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. Flintstone
|
||
%
|
||
"To be responsive at this time, though I will simply say, and therefore
|
||
this is a repeat of what I said previously, that which I am unable to
|
||
offer in response is based on information available to make no such
|
||
statement."
|
||
%
|
||
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and, whatever you hit,
|
||
call it the target.
|
||
%
|
||
To envision how a 4-processor system running [SunOS] 4.1.x works, think
|
||
of four kids and one bathroom.
|
||
-- John DiMarco
|
||
%
|
||
To err is human, to forgive is Not Company Policy.
|
||
%
|
||
"To err is human, to forgive, beyond the scope of the Operating System"
|
||
%
|
||
To err is human, to moo bovine.
|
||
%
|
||
To every Ph.D. there is an equal and opposite Ph.D.
|
||
-- B. Duggan
|
||
%
|
||
To generalize is to be an idiot.
|
||
-- William Blake
|
||
%
|
||
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three
|
||
men, two of them absent.
|
||
%
|
||
To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.
|
||
-- Thomas Edison
|
||
%
|
||
To iterate is human, to recurse, divine.
|
||
%
|
||
To the best of my recollection, Senator, I can't recall.
|
||
%
|
||
To the systems programmer, users and applications serve only to provide
|
||
a test load.
|
||
%
|
||
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 understand this important story, you have to understand how the
|
||
telephone company works. Your telephone is connected to a local
|
||
computer, which is in turn connected to a regional computer, which is
|
||
in turn connected to a loudspeaker the size of a garbage truck on the
|
||
lawn of Edna A. Bargewater of Lawrence, Kan.
|
||
|
||
Whenever you talk on the phone, your local computer listens in. If it
|
||
suspects you're going to discuss an intimate topic, it notifies the
|
||
computer above it, which listens in and decides whether to alert the
|
||
one above it, until finally, if you really humiliate yourself, maybe
|
||
break down in tears and tell your closest friend about a sordid
|
||
incident from your past involving a seedy motel, a neighbor's spouse,
|
||
an entire religious order, a garden hose and six quarts of tapioca
|
||
pudding, the top computer feeds your conversation into Edna's
|
||
loudspeaker, and she and her friends come out on the porch to listen
|
||
and drink gin and laugh themselves silly.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Won't It Be Just Great Owning Our Own
|
||
Phones?"
|
||
%
|
||
"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 first day of the rest of your lossage.
|
||
%
|
||
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?"
|
||
%
|
||
"Today's thrilling story has been brought to you by Mushies, the great new
|
||
cereal that gets soggy even without milk or cream. Join us soon for more
|
||
spectacular adventure starring ... Tippy, the Wonder Dog."
|
||
-- Bob & Ray
|
||
%
|
||
"Today, of course, it is considered very poor taste to use the F-word
|
||
except in major motion pictures."
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "$#$%#^%!^%&@%@!"
|
||
%
|
||
Toilet Toup'ee, n.:
|
||
Any shag carpet that causes the lid to become top-heavy, thus
|
||
creating endless annoyance to male users.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
Tomorrow will be canceled due to lack of interest.
|
||
%
|
||
Tonight's the night: Sleep in a eucalyptus tree.
|
||
%
|
||
Too clever is dumb.
|
||
-- Ogden Nash
|
||
%
|
||
Too much of a good thing is WONDERFUL.
|
||
-- Mae West
|
||
%
|
||
Too much of everything is just enough.
|
||
-- Bob Wier
|
||
%
|
||
Too often I find that the volume of paper expands to fill the available
|
||
briefcases.
|
||
-- Governor Jerry Brown
|
||
%
|
||
Top 10 things likely to be overheard if you had a Klingon Programmer:
|
||
|
||
10) Specifications are for the weak and timid!
|
||
9) You question the worthiness of my code? I should kill you where you stand!
|
||
8) Indentation?! - I will show you how to indent when I indent your skull!
|
||
7) What is this talk of 'release'? Klingons do not make software 'releases'.
|
||
Our software 'escapes' leaving a bloody trail of designers and quality
|
||
assurance people in its wake.
|
||
6) Klingon function calls do not have 'parameters' - they have 'arguments'
|
||
- and they ALWAYS WIN THEM.
|
||
5) Debugging? Klingons do not debug. Our software does not coddle the weak.
|
||
4) A TRUE Klingon Warrior does not comment his code!
|
||
3) Klingon software does NOT have BUGS. It has FEATURES, and those features
|
||
are too sophisticated for a Romulan pig like you to understand.
|
||
2) You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert unless you've read it in the
|
||
original Klingon.
|
||
1) Our users will know fear and cower before our software! Ship it! Ship
|
||
it and let them flee like the dogs they are!
|
||
%
|
||
Top scientists agree that with the present rate of consumption, the
|
||
earth's supply of gravity will be exhausted before the 24th century.
|
||
As man struggles to discover cheaper alternatives, we need your help.
|
||
Please...
|
||
|
||
CONSERVE GRAVITY
|
||
|
||
Follow these simple suggestions:
|
||
|
||
(1) Walk with a light step. Carry helium balloons if possible.
|
||
(2) Use tape, magnets, or glue instead of paperweights.
|
||
(3) Give up skiing and skydiving for more horizontal sports like
|
||
curling.
|
||
(4) Avoid showers .. take baths instead.
|
||
(5) Don't hang all your clothes in the closet ... Keep them in one big
|
||
pile.
|
||
(6) Stop flipping pancakes
|
||
%
|
||
Travel important today; Internal Revenue men arrive tomorrow.
|
||
%
|
||
Troubled day for virgins over 16 who are beautiful, wealthy, and live
|
||
in eucalyptus trees.
|
||
%
|
||
Truly great madness can not be achieved without significant
|
||
intelligence.
|
||
-- Henrik Tikkanen
|
||
%
|
||
Truth is the most valuable thing we have -- so let us economize it.
|
||
-- Mark Twain
|
||
%
|
||
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 find the real tense of the report you are reading: Was it done,
|
||
is it being done, or is something to be done? Reports are now written
|
||
in four tenses: past tense, present tense, future tense, and
|
||
pretense. Watch for novel uses of CONGRAM (CONtractor GRAMmer),
|
||
defined by the imperfect past, the insufficient present, and the
|
||
absolutely perfect future.
|
||
-- Amrom Katz
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.
|
||
-- Alan Watts
|
||
%
|
||
Trying to establish voice contact ... please ____yell into keyboard.
|
||
%
|
||
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 outgrabe.
|
||
|
||
"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 ...
|
||
%
|
||
Twenty Percent of Zero is Better than Nothing.
|
||
-- Walt Kelly
|
||
%
|
||
Two can Live as Cheaply as One for Half as Long.
|
||
-- Howard Kandel
|
||
%
|
||
Two men came before Nasrudin when he was magistrate. The first man
|
||
said, "This man has bitten my ear -- I demand compensation." The
|
||
second man said, "He bit it himself." Nasrudin withdrew to his
|
||
chambers, and spent an hour trying to bite his own ear. He succeeded
|
||
only in falling over and bruising his forehead. Returning to the
|
||
courtroom, Nasrudin pronounced, "Examine the man whose ear was bitten.
|
||
If his forehead is bruised, he did it himself and the case is
|
||
dismissed. If his forehead is not bruised, the other man did it and
|
||
must pay three silver pieces."
|
||
%
|
||
Two percent of zero is almost nothing.
|
||
%
|
||
"Two sure ways to tell a sexy male; the first is, he has a bad memory.
|
||
I forget the second."
|
||
%
|
||
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
|
||
%
|
||
U: There's a U -- a Unicorn!
|
||
Run right up and rub its horn.
|
||
Look at all those points you're losing!
|
||
UMBER HULKS are so confusing.
|
||
-- The Roguelet's ABC
|
||
%
|
||
"Ubi non accusator, ibi non judex."
|
||
|
||
(Where there is no police, there is no speed limit.)
|
||
-- Roman Law, trans. Petr Beckmann (1971)
|
||
%
|
||
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 a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a
|
||
just man is also in prison.
|
||
-- Henry David Thoreau
|
||
%
|
||
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 ...
|
||
%
|
||
unix soit qui mal y pense
|
||
%
|
||
UNIX was half a billion (500000000) seconds old on
|
||
Tue Nov 5 00:53:20 1985 GMT (measuring since the time(2) epoch).
|
||
-- Andy Tannenbaum
|
||
%
|
||
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: fortune -P [] -a [xsz] [Q: [file]] [rKe9] -v6[+] dataspec ... inputdir
|
||
%
|
||
User n.:
|
||
A programmer who will believe anything you tell him.
|
||
%
|
||
USER, n.:
|
||
The word computer professionals use when they mean "idiot."
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Claw Your Way to the Top"
|
||
%
|
||
Using TSO is like kicking a dead whale down the beach.
|
||
-- S. C. Johnson
|
||
%
|
||
Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two,
|
||
opulence is when you have three -- and paradise is when you have none.
|
||
-- Doug Larson
|
||
%
|
||
Vail's Second Axiom:
|
||
The amount of work to be done increases in proportion to the
|
||
amount of work already completed.
|
||
%
|
||
Valerie: Aww, Tom, you're going maudlin on me ...
|
||
Tom: I reserve the right to wax maudlin as I wane eloquent ...
|
||
-- Tom Chapin
|
||
%
|
||
Van Roy's Law:
|
||
An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.
|
||
%
|
||
Vanilla, adj.:
|
||
Ordinary flavor, standard. See FLAVOR. When used of food,
|
||
very often does not mean that the food is flavored with vanilla
|
||
extract! For example, "vanilla-flavored won ton soup" (or simply
|
||
"vanilla won ton soup") means ordinary won ton soup, as opposed to hot
|
||
and sour won ton soup.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Veni, Vidi, Visa.
|
||
%
|
||
"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.
|
||
%
|
||
Vila: "I think I have just made the biggest mistake of my life."
|
||
Orac: "It is unlikely. I would predict there are far greater mistakes
|
||
waiting to be made by someone with your obvious talent for it."
|
||
%
|
||
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
|
||
-- Salvor Hardin
|
||
%
|
||
Virginia law forbids bathtubs in the house; tubs must be kept in the
|
||
yard.
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Virtual" means never knowing where your next byte is coming from.
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
VMS is like a nightmare about RSX-11M.
|
||
%
|
||
Vote anarchist
|
||
%
|
||
Vote for ME -- I'm well-tapered, half-cocked, ill-conceived and
|
||
TAX-DEFERRED!
|
||
%
|
||
VYARZERZOMANIMORORSEZASSEZANSERAREORSES?
|
||
%
|
||
|
||
*** System shutdown message from root ***
|
||
|
||
System going down in 60 seconds
|
||
|
||
|
||
%
|
||
"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?"
|
||
%
|
||
Walk softly and carry a megawatt laser.
|
||
%
|
||
War hath no fury like a non-combatant.
|
||
-- Charles Edward Montague
|
||
%
|
||
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ketchup is a vegetable.
|
||
%
|
||
WARNING TO ALL PERSONNEL:
|
||
|
||
Firings will continue until morale improves.
|
||
%
|
||
WARNING:
|
||
Reading this fortune 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.
|
||
%
|
||
Warning: Do not look directly into laser with remaining eye.
|
||
%
|
||
Warning: Listening to WXRT on April Fools' Day is not recommended for
|
||
those who are slightly disoriented the first few hours after waking
|
||
up.
|
||
-- Chicago Reader 4/22/83
|
||
%
|
||
Warp 7 -- It's a law we can live with.
|
||
%
|
||
Washington [D.C.] is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.
|
||
-- John F. Kennedy
|
||
%
|
||
Waste not, get your budget cut next year.
|
||
%
|
||
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 all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which
|
||
divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being
|
||
correct. My own feeling is that it is not crazy enough.
|
||
-- Niels Bohr
|
||
%
|
||
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
|
||
-- Oscar Wilde
|
||
%
|
||
We are all worms. But I do believe I am a glowworm.
|
||
-- Winston Churchill
|
||
%
|
||
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 are going to give a little something, a few little years more, to
|
||
socialism, because socialism is defunct. It dies all by itself. The
|
||
bad thing is that socialism, being a victim of its ... Did I say
|
||
socialism?
|
||
-- Fidel Castro
|
||
%
|
||
"We are on the verge: Today our program proved Fermat's next-to-last
|
||
theorem."
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
"We are upping our standards ... so up yours."
|
||
-- Pat Paulsen for President, 1988.
|
||
%
|
||
We can defeat gravity. The problem is the paperwork involved.
|
||
%
|
||
We cannot put the face of a person on a stamp unless said person is
|
||
deceased. My suggestion, therefore, is that you drop dead.
|
||
-- James E. Day, Postmaster General
|
||
%
|
||
"We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!"
|
||
-- Vroomfondel
|
||
%
|
||
"We don't care. We don't have to. We're the Phone Company."
|
||
%
|
||
We don't know who discovered water, but we're certain it wasn't a
|
||
fish.
|
||
%
|
||
We don't understand the software, and sometimes we don't understand the
|
||
hardware, but we can *___see* the blinking lights!
|
||
%
|
||
We gave you an atomic bomb, what do you want, mermaids?
|
||
-- I. I. Rabi to the Atomic Energy Commission
|
||
%
|
||
"We had it tough ... I had to get up at 9 o'clock at night, half an
|
||
hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of dry poison, work 29 hours down
|
||
mill, and when we came home our Dad would kill us, and dance about on
|
||
our grave singing Haleleuia ..."
|
||
-- Monty Python
|
||
%
|
||
We have met the enemy, and he is us.
|
||
-- Walt Kelly
|
||
%
|
||
We have only two things to worry about: That things will never get
|
||
back to normal, and that they already have.
|
||
%
|
||
"We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his
|
||
hands for masturbation."
|
||
-- Lily Tomlin
|
||
%
|
||
We have the flu. I don't know if this particular strain has an
|
||
official name, but if it does, it must be something like "Martian Death
|
||
Flu". You may have had it yourself. The main symptom is that you wish
|
||
you had another setting on your electric blanket, up past "HIGH", that
|
||
said "ELECTROCUTION".
|
||
|
||
Another symptom is that you cease brushing your teeth, because (a) your
|
||
teeth hurt, and (b) you lack the strength. Midway through the brushing
|
||
process, you'd have to lie down in front of the sink to rest for a
|
||
couple of hours, and rivulets of toothpaste foam would dribble sideways
|
||
out of your mouth, eventually hardening into crusty little toothpaste
|
||
stalagmites that would bond your head permanently to the bathroom
|
||
floor, which is how the police would find you.
|
||
|
||
You know the kind of flu I'm talking about.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Molecular Homicide"
|
||
%
|
||
We may hope that machines will eventually compete with men in all
|
||
purely intellectual fields. But which are the best ones to start
|
||
with? Many people think that a very abstract activity, like the
|
||
playing of chess, would be best. It can also be maintained that it is
|
||
best to provide the machine with the best sense organs that money can
|
||
buy, and then teach it to understand and speak English.
|
||
-- Alan M. Turing
|
||
%
|
||
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 ought to be very grateful that we have tools. Millions of years ago
|
||
people did not have them, and home projects were extremely difficult.
|
||
For example, when a primitive person wanted to put up paneling, he had
|
||
to drive the little paneling nails into the cave wall with his bare
|
||
fist, so generally the paneling wound up getting spattered with
|
||
primitive blood, which isn't really all that bad when you consider how
|
||
ugly paneling is to begin with.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
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're only in it for the volume.
|
||
-- Black Sabbath
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Welcome thy neighbor into thy fallout shelter. He'll come in handy if
|
||
you run out of food.
|
||
-- Dean McLaughlin.
|
||
%
|
||
Well, here it is, 1983, so it won't be long before you start reading a
|
||
lot of boring stories about people like Vance Hartke. Hartke is a
|
||
governor or mayor or something from one of the flatter states, and the
|
||
reason you'll be reading about him is that he's one of the 50 top
|
||
contenders for the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination. These men
|
||
will spend the next 18 months going around the country engaging in the
|
||
most degrading activities imaginable, such as wearing idiot hats and
|
||
appearing on "Meet the Press". "Meet the Press" is one of those Sunday
|
||
morning public interest shows that the public is not the least bit
|
||
interested in. It features a panel of reporters who ask questions of a
|
||
guest politician, who wins an Amana home freezer if he can get through
|
||
the entire show without answering a single question ...
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "On Presidential Politics"
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
"Well, that was a piece of cake, eh K-9?"
|
||
|
||
"Piece of cake, Master? Radial slice of baked confection ...
|
||
coefficient of relevance to Key of Time: zero."
|
||
-- Dr. Who
|
||
%
|
||
"Well," Brahma said, "even after ten thousand explanations, a fool is
|
||
no wiser, but an intelligent man requires only two thousand five
|
||
hundred."
|
||
-- The Mahabharata.
|
||
%
|
||
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 are we going to do?"
|
||
|
||
"Me, I'm examining the major Western religions. I'm looking for
|
||
something that's soft on morality, generous with holidays, and has a
|
||
short initiation period."
|
||
%
|
||
"What are you doing?"
|
||
|
||
"Examining the world's major religions. I'm looking for something
|
||
that's light on morals, has lots of holidays, and with a short
|
||
initiation period."
|
||
%
|
||
What color is a chameleon on a mirror?
|
||
%
|
||
"What do you give a man who has everything?" the pretty
|
||
teenager asked her mother.
|
||
"Encouragement, dear," she replied.
|
||
%
|
||
What does "it" mean in the sentence "What time is it?"?
|
||
%
|
||
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 George Washington did for us was to throw out the British, so
|
||
that we wouldn't have a fat, insensitive government running our
|
||
country. Nice try anyway, George."
|
||
-- D.J. on KSFO/KYA
|
||
%
|
||
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 do, first thing [in the morning], is I hop into the shower
|
||
stall. Then I hop right back out, because when I hopped in I landed
|
||
barefoot right on top of See Threepio, a little plastic robot character
|
||
from "Star Wars" whom my son, Robert, likes to pull the legs off of
|
||
while he showers. Then I hop right back into the stall because our
|
||
dog, Earnest, who has been alone in the basement all night building up
|
||
powerful dog emotions, has come bounding and quivering into the
|
||
bathroom and wants to greet me with 60 or 70 thousand playful nips, any
|
||
one of which -- bear in mind that I am naked and, without my contact
|
||
lenses, essentially blind -- could result in the kind of injury where
|
||
you have to learn a whole new part if you want to sing the "Messiah",
|
||
if you get my drift. Then I hop right back out, because Robert, with
|
||
that uncanny sixth sense some children have -- you cannot teach it;
|
||
they either have it or they don't -- has chosen exactly that moment to
|
||
flush one of the toilets. Perhaps several of them.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Saving Face"
|
||
%
|
||
What I tell you three times is true.
|
||
%
|
||
"What I think is that the F-word is basically just a convenient nasty-
|
||
sounding word that we tend to use when we would really like to come up
|
||
with a terrifically witty insult, the kind Winston Churchill always
|
||
came up with when enormous women asked him stupid questions at
|
||
parties.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "$#$%#^%!^%&@%@!"
|
||
%
|
||
What I want is all of the power and none of the responsibility.
|
||
%
|
||
"What I've done, of course, is total garbage."
|
||
-- R. Willard, Pure Math 430a
|
||
%
|
||
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 practicing 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 Nature of God?"
|
||
|
||
CLICK...CLICK...WHIRRR...CLICK...=BEEP!=
|
||
1 QT. SOUR CREAM
|
||
1 TSP. SAUERKRAUT
|
||
1/2 CUT CHIVES.
|
||
STIR AND SPRINKLE WITH BACON BITS.
|
||
|
||
"I've just GOT to start labeling my software..."
|
||
-- Bloom County
|
||
%
|
||
"What is the robbing of a bank compared to the FOUNDING of a bank?"
|
||
-- Bertold Brecht
|
||
%
|
||
"What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out,
|
||
which is the exact opposite."
|
||
-- Bertrand Russell, "Skeptical_Essays", 1928
|
||
%
|
||
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 the world *really* needs is a good Automatic Bicycle Sharpener.
|
||
%
|
||
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 five cent ANYTHING!
|
||
%
|
||
What this country needs is a good five cent microcomputer.
|
||
%
|
||
What this country needs is a good five cent nickel.
|
||
%
|
||
What this country needs is a good five dollar plasma weapon.
|
||
%
|
||
What this world needs is a good five-dollar plasma weapon.
|
||
%
|
||
What use is magic if it can't save a unicorn?
|
||
-- Peter S. Beagle, "The Last Unicorn"
|
||
%
|
||
What we need in this country, instead of Daylight Savings Time, which
|
||
nobody really understands anyway, is a new concept called Weekday
|
||
Morning Time, whereby at 7 a.m. every weekday we go into a space-
|
||
launch-style "hold" for two to three hours, during which it just
|
||
remains 7 a.m. This way we could all wake up via a civilized gradual
|
||
process of stretching and belching and scratching, and it would still
|
||
be only 7 a.m. when we were ready to actually emerge from bed.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "$#$%#^%!^%&@%@!"
|
||
%
|
||
What you don't know can hurt you, only you won't know it.
|
||
%
|
||
"What's another word for Thesaurus?"
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
"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 MacNelley, "Shoe"
|
||
%
|
||
"What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it?"
|
||
-- Dr. Who
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
"Whatever the missing mass of the universe is, I hope it's not
|
||
cockroaches!"
|
||
-- Mom
|
||
%
|
||
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 are you BUTTHEADS gonna learn that you can't oppose Gestapo
|
||
tactics *with* Gestapo tactics?"
|
||
-- Reuben Flagg
|
||
%
|
||
When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before
|
||
the white men came, an Indian said simply "Ours."
|
||
-- Vine Deloria, Jr.
|
||
%
|
||
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 get real bored, I like to drive downtown and get a great
|
||
parking spot, then sit in my car and count how many people ask me if
|
||
I'm leaving."
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
When I heated my home with oil, I used an average of 800 gallons a
|
||
year. I have found that I can keep comfortably warm for an entire
|
||
winter with slightly over half that quantity of beer.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "Postpetroleum Guzzler"
|
||
%
|
||
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 a kid I said to my father one afternoon, "Daddy, will you
|
||
take me to the zoo?" He answered, "If the zoo wants you let them come
|
||
and get you."
|
||
-- Jerry Lewis
|
||
%
|
||
"When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked if I had any
|
||
firearms with me. I said, `Well, what do you need?'"
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
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 seven years old, I was once reprimanded by my mother for an
|
||
act of collective brutality in which I had been involved at school. A
|
||
group of seven-year-olds had been teasing and tormenting a
|
||
six-year-old. "It is always so," my mother said. "You do things
|
||
together which not one of you would think of doing alone." ...
|
||
Wherever one looks in the world of human organization, collective
|
||
responsibility brings a lowering of moral standards. The military
|
||
establishment is an extreme case, an organization which seems to have
|
||
been expressly designed to make it possible for people to do things
|
||
together which nobody in his right mind would do alone.
|
||
-- Freeman Dyson, "Weapons and Hope"
|
||
%
|
||
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 in panic, fear and doubt,
|
||
Drink in barrels, eat, and shout.
|
||
%
|
||
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 one woman was asked how long she had been going to symphony
|
||
concerts, she paused to calculate and replied, "Forty-seven years --
|
||
and I find I mind it less and less."
|
||
-- Louise Andrews Kent
|
||
%
|
||
When properly administered, vacations do not diminish productivity:
|
||
for every week you're away and get nothing done, there's another when
|
||
your boss is away and you get twice as much done.
|
||
-- Daniel B. Luten
|
||
%
|
||
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 don't 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 speaker and he to whom he is speaks do not understand, that is
|
||
metaphysics.
|
||
-- Voltaire
|
||
%
|
||
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 the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the plane, the
|
||
plane will fly.
|
||
-- Donald Douglas
|
||
%
|
||
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 we understand knowledge-based systems, it will be as before --
|
||
except our fingertips will have been singed.
|
||
-- Epigrams in Programming, ACM SIGPLAN Sept. 1982
|
||
%
|
||
When you are about to do an objective and scientific piece of
|
||
investigation of a topic, it is well to have the answer firmly in hand,
|
||
so that you can proceed forthrightly, without being deflected or
|
||
swayed, directly to the goal.
|
||
-- Amrom Katz
|
||
%
|
||
"When you are in it up to your ears, keep your mouth shut."
|
||
%
|
||
When you don't know what you are doing, do it neatly.
|
||
%
|
||
When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
|
||
-- Harry Truman
|
||
%
|
||
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 Churchill, On formal declarations of war
|
||
%
|
||
When you know absolutely nothing about the topic, make your forecast by
|
||
asking a carefully selected probability sample of 300 others who don't
|
||
know the answer either.
|
||
-- Edgar R. Fiedler
|
||
%
|
||
When you make your mark in the world, watch out for guys with erasers.
|
||
-- The Wall Street Journal
|
||
%
|
||
When you try to make an impression, the chances are that is the
|
||
impression you will make.
|
||
%
|
||
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 fortune 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
|
||
"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, "Deteriorata"
|
||
%
|
||
Which is worse: ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares?
|
||
%
|
||
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 having never invented a sin, I'm trying to perfect several.
|
||
%
|
||
While it may be true that a watched pot never boils, the one you don't
|
||
keep an eye on can make an awful mess of your stove.
|
||
-- Edward Stevenson
|
||
%
|
||
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 messed with my anti-paranoia shot?
|
||
%
|
||
Who needs friends when you can sit alone in your room and drink?
|
||
%
|
||
Who's on first?
|
||
%
|
||
"Whom are you?" said he, for he had been to night school.
|
||
-- George Ade
|
||
%
|
||
Whom computers would destroy, they must first drive mad.
|
||
%
|
||
Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising.
|
||
%
|
||
"Why are we importing all these highbrow plays like `Amadeus'? I could
|
||
have told you Mozart was a jerk for nothing."
|
||
-- Ian Shoales
|
||
%
|
||
"Why be a man when you can be a success?"
|
||
-- Bertold Brecht
|
||
%
|
||
Why bother building any more nuclear warheads until we use the ones we
|
||
have?
|
||
%
|
||
Why can't you be a non-conformist like everyone else?
|
||
%
|
||
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 do we have two eyes? To watch 3-D movies with.
|
||
%
|
||
Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently
|
||
there must be a beverage.
|
||
-- Woody Allen, "Without Feathers"
|
||
%
|
||
Why does New Jersey have more toxic waste dumps and California have
|
||
more lawyers?
|
||
|
||
New Jersey had first choice.
|
||
%
|
||
Why don't elephants eat penguins ?
|
||
|
||
Because they can't get the wrappers off ...
|
||
%
|
||
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 is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
|
||
%
|
||
"Why isn't there a special name for the tops of your feet?"
|
||
-- Lily Tomlin
|
||
%
|
||
"Why must you tell me all your secrets when it's hard enough to love
|
||
you knowing nothing?"
|
||
-- Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Why You Can't Run When There's Trouble in the Office:
|
||
No matter where you stand, no matter how far or fast you flee,
|
||
when it hits the fan, as much as possible will be propelled in your
|
||
direction, and almost none will be returned to the source.
|
||
-- John L. Shelton
|
||
%
|
||
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 gentleman I try to be a gentleman and a half, and with a fraud I
|
||
try to be a fraud and a half.
|
||
-- Otto von Bismark
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
Wombat's Laws of Computer Selection:
|
||
(1) If it doesn't run Unix, forget it.
|
||
(2) Any computer design over 10 years old is obsolete.
|
||
(3) Anything made by IBM is junk. (See number 2)
|
||
(4) The minimum acceptable CPU power for a single user is a
|
||
VAX/780 with a floating point accelerator.
|
||
(5) Any computer with a mouse is worthless.
|
||
-- Rich Kulawiec
|
||
%
|
||
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"
|
||
%
|
||
Work Rule: Leave of Absence (for an Operation):
|
||
We are no longer allowing this practice. We wish to discourage
|
||
any thoughts that you may not need all of whatever you have, and you
|
||
should not consider having anything removed. We hired you as you are,
|
||
and to have anything removed would certainly make you less than we
|
||
bargained for.
|
||
%
|
||
Workers of the world, arise! You have nothing to lose but your
|
||
chairs.
|
||
%
|
||
World War Three can be averted by adherence to a strictly enforced
|
||
dress code!
|
||
%
|
||
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 Response To A Crisis, 1985:
|
||
From a readers' Q and A column in TV GUIDE: "If we get involved
|
||
in a nuclear war, would the electromagnetic pulses from exploding bombs
|
||
damage my videotapes?"
|
||
%
|
||
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 Carroll
|
||
%
|
||
"Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put a hyphen between the words Fish
|
||
and And and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign' have been clearer
|
||
if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and
|
||
and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and And, and And and
|
||
and, and and and Chips, as well as after Chips?"
|
||
%
|
||
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
|
||
%
|
||
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
|
||
-- Frank Zappa
|
||
%
|
||
"Wrong," said Renner.
|
||
|
||
"The tactful way," Rod said quietly, "the polite way to disagree with
|
||
the Senator would be to say, `That turns out not to be the case.'"
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
XIIdigitation, n.:
|
||
The practice of trying to determine the year a movie was made
|
||
by deciphering the Roman numerals at the end of the credits.
|
||
-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"
|
||
%
|
||
"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"
|
||
%
|
||
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of APL, I shall
|
||
fear no evil, for I can string six primitive monadic and dyadic
|
||
operators together.
|
||
-- Steve Higgins
|
||
%
|
||
"Yeah, but you're taking the universe out of context."
|
||
%
|
||
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 a very redundant person, that's what kind of person you are.
|
||
%
|
||
You are here:
|
||
***
|
||
***
|
||
*********
|
||
*******
|
||
*****
|
||
***
|
||
*
|
||
|
||
But you're not all there.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 Carroll
|
||
%
|
||
"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 Carroll
|
||
%
|
||
"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 Carroll
|
||
%
|
||
"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 Carroll
|
||
%
|
||
You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.
|
||
%
|
||
You are the only person to ever get this message.
|
||
%
|
||
You are wise, witty, and wonderful, but you spend too much time reading
|
||
this sort of trash.
|
||
%
|
||
You buttered your bread, now lie in it.
|
||
%
|
||
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 bring any calculator you like to the midterm, as long as it
|
||
doesn't dim the lights when you turn it on."
|
||
-- Hepler, Systems Design 182
|
||
%
|
||
You can create your own opportunities this week. Blackmail a senior
|
||
executive.
|
||
%
|
||
"You can do this in a number of ways. IBM chose to do all of them.
|
||
Why do you find that funny?"
|
||
-- D. Taylor, Computer Science 350
|
||
%
|
||
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 learn many things from children. How much patience you have,
|
||
for instance.
|
||
-- Franklin P. Jones
|
||
%
|
||
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 only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
|
||
%
|
||
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 tune a piano, but you can't tuna fish.
|
||
%
|
||
"You can write a small letter to Grandma in the filename."
|
||
-- Forbes Burkowski, Computer Science 454
|
||
%
|
||
You can't carve your way to success without cutting remarks.
|
||
%
|
||
"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?"
|
||
-- Steven Wright
|
||
%
|
||
You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
|
||
-- Booker T. Washington
|
||
%
|
||
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
|
||
%
|
||
"You can't make a program without broken egos."
|
||
%
|
||
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 survive by sucking the juice from a wet mitten."
|
||
-- Charles Schulz, "Things I've Had to Learn Over and
|
||
Over and Over"
|
||
%
|
||
"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 do not have mail.
|
||
%
|
||
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 a tendency to feel you are superior to most computers.
|
||
%
|
||
You have acquired a scroll entitled 'irk gleknow mizk'(n).--More--
|
||
|
||
This is an IBM Manual scroll.--More--
|
||
|
||
You are permanently confused.
|
||
-- Dave Decot
|
||
%
|
||
You have an unusual magnetic personality. Don't walk too close to
|
||
metal objects which are not fastened down.
|
||
%
|
||
You have junk mail.
|
||
%
|
||
You have the body of a 19 year old. Please return it before it gets
|
||
wrinkled.
|
||
%
|
||
You have the capacity to learn from mistakes. You'll learn a lot
|
||
today.
|
||
%
|
||
You know if they ever find a way to harness sarcasm as an energy source,
|
||
you people are all going to owe me big.
|
||
-- Bill Paul
|
||
%
|
||
You know it's going to be a bad day when you want to put on the clothes
|
||
you wore home from the party and there aren't any.
|
||
%
|
||
You know the great thing about TV? If something important happens
|
||
anywhere at all in the world, no matter what time of the day or night,
|
||
you can always change the channel.
|
||
-- Jim Ignatowski
|
||
%
|
||
You know you have a small apartment when Rice Krispies echo.
|
||
-- S. Rickly Christian
|
||
%
|
||
You know you're a little fat if you have stretch marks on your car.
|
||
-- Cyrus, Chicago Reader 1/22/82
|
||
%
|
||
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 you've landed gear-up when it takes full power to taxi.
|
||
%
|
||
"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 look like a million dollars. All green and wrinkled.
|
||
%
|
||
You may be recognized soon. Hide.
|
||
%
|
||
You may be sure that when a man begins to call himself a "realist," he
|
||
is preparing to do something he is secretly ashamed of doing.
|
||
-- Sydney Harris
|
||
%
|
||
You may easily play a joke on a man who likes to argue -- agree with
|
||
him.
|
||
-- Ed Howe
|
||
%
|
||
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 might like to know that I looked at a detailed map of NT, and I'm
|
||
now able to confirm that in all probability Microsoft NT does not
|
||
exist. If it does, it's so small as to be completely insignificant.
|
||
-- Greg Lehey
|
||
%
|
||
"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 need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a
|
||
reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating
|
||
the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for
|
||
independence.
|
||
-- Charles A. Beard
|
||
%
|
||
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 probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could
|
||
know how seldom they do.
|
||
-- Olin Miller.
|
||
%
|
||
You should emulate your heros, but don't carry it too far. Especially
|
||
if they are dead.
|
||
%
|
||
You should never bet against anything in science at odds of more than
|
||
about 10^12 to 1.
|
||
-- Ernest Rutherford
|
||
%
|
||
You should never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for
|
||
freedom and liberty.
|
||
-- Henrik Ibsen
|
||
%
|
||
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 should tip the waiter $10, minus $2 if he tells you his name,
|
||
another $2 if he claims it will be His Pleasure to serve you and
|
||
another $2 for each "special" he describes involving confusing terms
|
||
such as "shallots," and $4 if the menu contains the word "fixin's." In
|
||
many restaurants, this means the waiter will actually owe you money.
|
||
If you are traveling with a child aged six months to three years, you
|
||
should leave an additional amount equal to twice the bill to compensate
|
||
for the fact that they will have to take the banquette out and burn it
|
||
because the cracks are wedged solid with gobbets made of partially
|
||
chewed former restaurant rolls saturated with baby spit.
|
||
|
||
In New York, tip the taxicab driver $40 if he does not mention his
|
||
hemorrhoids.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Stuff of Etiquette"
|
||
%
|
||
"You should, without hesitation, pound your typewriter into a
|
||
plowshare, your paper into fertilizer, and enter agriculture."
|
||
-- Business Professor, University of Georgia
|
||
%
|
||
You think Oedipus had a problem -- Adam was Eve's mother.
|
||
%
|
||
YOU TOO CAN MAKE BIG MONEY IN THE EXCITING FIELD OF
|
||
PAPER SHUFFLING!
|
||
|
||
Mr. TAA of Muddle, Mass. says: "Before I took this course I used to be
|
||
a lowly bit twiddler. Now with what I learned at MIT Tech I feel
|
||
really important and can obfuscate and confuse with the best."
|
||
|
||
Mr. MARC had this to say: "Ten short days ago all I could look forward
|
||
to was a dead-end job as a engineer. Now I have a promising future and
|
||
make really big Zorkmids."
|
||
|
||
MIT Tech can't promise these fantastic results to everyone, but when
|
||
you earn your MDL degree from MIT Tech your future will be brighter.
|
||
|
||
SEND FOR OUR FREE BROCHURE TODAY!
|
||
%
|
||
You too can wear a nose mitten.
|
||
%
|
||
You will be a winner today. Pick a fight with a four-year-old.
|
||
%
|
||
You will be attacked by a beast who has the body of a wolf, the tail of
|
||
a lion, and the face of Donald Duck.
|
||
%
|
||
You will be surprised by a loud noise.
|
||
%
|
||
You will be Told about it Tomorrow. Go Home and Prepare Thyself.
|
||
%
|
||
You will feel hungry again in another hour.
|
||
%
|
||
You will lose your present job and have to become a door to door
|
||
mayonnaise salesman.
|
||
%
|
||
You will remember, Watson, how the dreadful business of the
|
||
Abernetty family was first brought to my notice by the depth which the
|
||
parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day.
|
||
-- Sherlock Holmes
|
||
%
|
||
You will think of something funnier than this to add to the fortunes.
|
||
%
|
||
You worry too much about your job. Stop it. You're not paid enough to
|
||
worry.
|
||
%
|
||
You'd better beat it. You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get a
|
||
taxi, you can leave in a huff. If that's too soon, you can leave in a
|
||
minute and a huff.
|
||
-- Groucho Marx
|
||
%
|
||
"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're not my type. For that matter, you're not even my species!!!
|
||
%
|
||
You've been leading a dog's life. Stay off the furniture.
|
||
%
|
||
"You've got to have a gimmick if your band sucks."
|
||
-- Gary Giddens
|
||
%
|
||
"You've got to think about tomorrow!"
|
||
|
||
"TOMORROW! I haven't even prepared for *_________yesterday* yet!"
|
||
%
|
||
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 home electrical system is basically a bunch of wires that
|
||
bring electricity into your home and take if back out before it has a
|
||
chance to kill you. This is called a "circuit". The most common home
|
||
electrical problem is when the circuit is broken by a "circuit
|
||
breaker"; this causes the electricity to back up in one of the wires
|
||
until it bursts out of an outlet in the form of sparks, which can
|
||
damage your carpet. The best way to avoid broken circuits is to change
|
||
your fuses regularly.
|
||
Another common problem is that the lights flicker. This
|
||
sometimes means that your electrical system is inadequate, but more
|
||
often it means that your home is possessed by demons, in which case
|
||
you'll need to get a caulking gun and some caulking. If you're not
|
||
sure whether your house is possessed, see "The Amityville Horror", a
|
||
fine documentary film based on an actual book. Or call in a licensed
|
||
electrician, who is trained to spot the signs of demonic possession,
|
||
such as blood coming down the stairs, enormous cats on the dinette
|
||
table, etc.
|
||
-- Dave Barry, "The Taming of the Screw"
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
"Yow! Am I having fun yet?"
|
||
-- Zippy the Pinhead
|
||
%
|
||
YOW!! Everybody out of the GENETIC POOL!
|
||
%
|
||
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.
|
||
%
|
||
At first, I just did it on weekends. With a few friends, you know...
|
||
We never wanted to hurt anyone. The girls loved it. We'd all sit
|
||
around the computer and do a little UNIX. It was just a kick. At
|
||
least that's what we thought. Then it got worse.
|
||
|
||
It got so I'd have to do some UNIX during the weekdays. After a
|
||
while, I couldn't even wake up in the morning without having that
|
||
crave to go do UNIX. Then it started affecting my job. I would just
|
||
have to do it during my break. Maybe a `grep' or two, maybe a little
|
||
`more'. I eventually started doing UNIX just to get through the day.
|
||
Of course, it screwed up my mind so much that I couldn't even
|
||
function as a normal person.
|
||
|
||
I'm lucky today, I've overcome my UNIX problem. It wasn't easy. If
|
||
you're smart, just don't start. Remember, if any weirdo offers you
|
||
some UNIX,
|
||
|
||
Just Say No!
|
||
%
|