Quotes

A collection of quotes that I’ve found interesting at one point or another over the years.

A pronounced deficiency in IQ | Metafilter

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Something interesting (sorry if I’m repeating someone above): ‘nuclear’ is the adjectival form of ‘nucleus’, which comes from the Latin ‘nuculeus’, from ‘nucula’ the diminutive of ‘nux’, meaning ‘nut’. So the at some point the ‘u’ between the ‘c’ and ‘l’ was dropped (and at that point would have probably been considered a mispronunciation).

My theory – it’s Bush’s comprehensive knowledge of and fluency in Latin that leads to his pronunciation.

— adamdegen

iTunes “Al-Salooq” by Ozric Tentacles from the album Arborescence (1994, 5:02).

What do you write about?

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From Samantha:

“What do you write about?”

This gives me pause. Do I give him the simple answer, or the complicated one? I’ve spent most of the last week by myself, pacing, waiting for things to happen. I’m impatient and, admittedly, a little grumpy. “I write about, um, memory.”

“I don’t understand.”

This doesn’t surprise me. “Well. You know how, when you have a memory, it’s really just a series of images that are vague, with a couple of points sticking out for reference? And then, when you try to put your memory in words, to tell it to someone, it comes out a little different than how you thought it looked in your head? What I do is, I try and find a way to make the words fit. I try to bring my life into focus. I bite my fingernails and try to tell people the contours of the jagged edges. You know. Like that.”

Sounds good to me — and, admittedly, it’s something I need to work on.

Maybe that’ll be a resolution for the upcoming year.

iTunes “People Everyday (Reprise)” by Arrested Development from the album 3 Years, 5 Months and 2 Days in the Life of… (1992, 4:56).

Works for me…

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From Mickey:

Had a realization about what bugs me about an awful lot of horror with the “vanity kills” moral to it. Usually the girl (almost always a girl) is being harassed by her male significant other about how she’d look better if she lost a few pounds, had bigger tits, etc… She decides to do something stupid (not unlike a lot of girls in real life) and has horrible retribution visited upon her for her(?) sin of vanity.

Just once I’d like to see the psycho killer show up, hand the girl an entire Sara Lee cheesecake and say, “Eat up. I’ll go take care of the asshole for you.”

iTunes “Damned for All Time/Blood Money” by Brox, Victor/Head, Murray/Keith, Brian/Choir from the album Jesus Christ Superstar (1970, 5:08).

Prognostication

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You know, back in 2000 a Republican friend of mine warned me that if I voted for Al Gore and he won, the stock market would tank, we’d lose millions of jobs, and our military would be totally overstretched. You know what? I did vote for Al Gore, he did win, and I’ll be damned if all those things didn’t come true.

— James Carville

(via Generik)

Dreams

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So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.

— Christopher Reeve (as found in this MeFi thread)

Debate rules

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Just overheard on KEXP, during a momentary digression to talk about tonight’s presidential debate…

“You’ll be happy to know that the podiums are lucite, clear. So there won’t be anybody scratching their balls during this debate.”

(long pause)

“Did you just say what I think you did?”

“Yup.”

“I don’t know if you can say that!”

“Oops! I hope the boss wasn’t listening.”

“We crossed a line. I didn’t know there were any left.”

— Cheryl and John

Incidentally, they’re in the midst of their pledge drive. If you don’t listen to KEXP yet (and you don’t even have to live in Seattle, thanks to the miracle of streaming audio), you should…and if you do, toss ’em a few dollars. I just did. :)

Movie scenes that need to be made

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From an IM conversation between Prairie and I tonight…

Prairie: (has a sudden mental image of a cat fight in a porn store that really makes her laugh)

Me: (laughs) now that could be entertaining

Prairie: all the things to reach for to hit the other girl with…

Me: (laughs) now there’s a fight scene that needs to be made!

Prairie: haha–two girls whopping each other with dildos… it’s been made, but they call it S&M porn…

Me: somehow, I could see Quentin Tarantino having a blast putting that fight in one of his films

Prairie: oooh–no kidding! that would work great in one of his movies!

Me: if only I had his e-mail address…

Prairie: “Dear Mr. Tarrantino, Could you please put a scene in your next movie where two women fight in a porn store, preferably with lots of dildos lying about, and ending when one strangles the other with a feather boa after shoving a thong into her mouth so she can’t scream? Thanks.”

Then, later, after discussing how she was staying up later than usual (benefits to summer vacation time when one lives on a school year schedule)…

Prairie: haha–yeah, I do tend to stay up a little later when in Seattle — but when I’m at home it takes a conversation about brutally beating another woman with a blow-up doll to keep me up this late

I am such a sucker for someone with a good dark sense of humor. :)

iTunes: “So Happy Birthday” by Anderson, Laurie from the album United States Live (1984, 6:23).

Rights

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The rich have the right to buy more homes than anyone else. They have the right to buy more cars than anyone else, more gizmos than anyone else, more clothes and vacations than anyone else. But they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else.

— Bill Moyers, “The Fight of our Lives”

iTunes: “Satellite” by Pigface from the album Preaching to the Perverted (1992, 4:11).