July 18th, 2010

Quotes of the week

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt, from an address called "Citizenship in a Republic" given at the Sorbonne, April 23, 1910.

'I arise in  the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy  the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.'  E.B. White 

I can't promise that I'll do it, and I can't even promise that I'll try. But I'll try to try.

—Bart Simpson

Poem of the Week

The finger  by Charles Bukowski

the drivers of automobiles
have very little recourse or
originality.
when upset with
another
driver
they often give him the
FINGER.

I have seen two adult
men
florid of face
driving along
giving each other the
FINGER.

well, we all know what
this means, it's no
secret.

still, this gesture is
so overused it has
lost most of its
impact.

some of the men who give
the FINGER are captains of
industry, city councilmen,
insurance adjusters,
accountants and/or the just plain
unemployed.
no matter.
it is their favorite
response.

people will never admit
that they drive
badly.

the FINGER is their
reply.

I see grown men
FINGERING each other
throughout the day.

it gives me pause.
when I consider
the state of our cities,
the state of our states,
the state of our country,
I begin to
understand.

the FINGER is a mind-
set.
we are the FINGERERS.
we give it
to each other.
we give it coming and
going.
we don't know how
else to respond.

what a hell of a way
to not
live.

Best of Craig’s List of the week

How not to get your bike back (thanks brother Rob)

You can’t make up such a thing as that, I dare you to even try

Richard pryor had trouble with smoking and fire a long time before he made the news with it.

And finally, the culmination of millennia of scientific endeavor

7 Reasons the 21st Century is Making You Miserable