Quotation for Friday, April 1, 2005:

"Can a mortal ask questions which God finds unanswerable? Quite easily, I should think. All nonsense questions are unanswerable. How many hours are there in a mile? Is yellow square or round? Probably half the questions we ask--half our great theological and metaphysical problems--are like that."

A Grief Observed

Word of the Day for Friday March 25, 2005

pestiferous \pes-TIF-uh-ruhs\, adjective:
1. Bearing or bringing disease.
2. Infected with or contaminated by a pestilential disease.
3. Morally evil or dangerous to society; pernicious.
4. Bothersome; troublesome; annoying.

Quotation for Thursday, March 24, 2005:

"It is terrible to find how little progress one's philosophy and charity have made when they are brought to the test of domestic life."

source unknown

Quotation for Sunday, March 20, 2005:

"In a circle of true Friends each man is simply what he is: stands for nothing but himself. No one cares twopence about any one else's family, profession, class, income, race, or previous history...That is the kingliness of Friendship. We meet like sovereign princes of independent states, abroad, on neutral ground, freed from our contexts."

The Four Loves
(C.S. Lewis)

Is gender-based pricing fair?

Uh...NO! Of course not. Read on...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Most women, accustomed to paying more than men for goods and services like clothes and hair cuts, simply shrug it off as part of life, but an Ontario legislator hopes to end all that.

Lorenzo Berardinetti wants to brand so-called gender-based pricing a human rights violation and he has introduced a bill in the Ontario legislature to make the practice illegal.

Berardinetti said on Tuesday he was shocked when he and his wife took clothes to a dry cleaners and she ended up paying more for similar items.

"I get charged one price and she gets charged another price for virtually the same material," he said.
(click here for the rest of the story)

Word of the Day

fugacious \fyoo-GAY-shus\ adjective

Lasting but a short time; fleeting.

The fugacious nature of life and time.
--Harriet Martineau, Autobiography

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Quotation for Wednesday, March 16, 2005:

"How difficult it is to avoid having a special standard for oneself."

Mere Christianity

Quotation for Sunday, March 13, 2005:

"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good."

Mere Christianity

A Joke from the "Hope Springs Eternal" Department

An elderly looking gentleman, very well dressed, hair well groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel, smelling slightly of a good after shave, presenting a well-looked-after image, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge.

Seated at the bar is an elderly looking lady.

The gentleman walks over, sits alongside of her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her and says, "So tell me, do I come here often?"

Good news for me

Yesterday my boss made the announcment: I've been promoted to Business Lead/Management Trainee

More responsibility, hopefully more opportunity and a small raise. Overall...a very good thing.

Smashmouth is in the studio

From the Smash Mouth site:
Smash Mouth has invaded Oakland's 880 Studios to bash out their fifth release. The new tunes are fast and rockin' with an aggressive sound that harkens back to Smash Mouth's multi-platinum "Fush Yu Mang".

Hurry up, guys!

Thanks, but no thanks

BERLIN (Reuters) - An apparently friendly motorist in Germany stopped to tow a broken-down car, stranded the owners as he sped away, crashed their car into a gas station and then drove off, police said Thursday.

"After attaching it, the man sped off so fast that the two hadn't even got into the car -- and were left gesticulating wildly," said police in Aachen. The man then drove toward the gas station, swerving his own car at the last minute.

"But the trailing vehicle went straight on and smashed into the air pump," police said. "The station attendant was roused by the noise and saw a man uncoupling his car from the battered vehicle before departing without further ado."

Police said there was no trace of the reckless driver.

Word of the Day

salubrious \suh-LOO-bree-us\, adjective:
Favorable to health; promoting health; healthful.

A physician warned him his health was precarious, so Montague returned to the United States, shelved his legal ambitions and searched for a salubrious climate where he might try farming.
--"Teeing Off Into the Past At Oakhurst," New York Times, May 2, 1999

For years, her mother has maintained that the sea air has a salubrious effect on both her spirits and her vocal cords.
--Anita Shreve, Fortune's Rocks

Finding Neverland

What a beautiful movie! I loved every minute. Much as I love Johnny Depp, my favorite thing in the movie was the little boy whole played Peter. He was fantastic.

Just so you know, I'm not the only one who liked it...Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 84%.

Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Here's an excerpt from the book, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss:
"Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, "Good food at it's best", you deserve to be struck by lightening, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave."
(hence the subtitle of the book "A Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation")

If you'd like to test your own punctuation abilities, you can play the Punctuation Game by clicking here. See if you're a stickler like Lynne. Good luck!

Quotation for Saturday, February 19, 2005:

"The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it."

The Abolition of Man

Look, Jim...one of our favorite words!

perspicacity
(Pronunciation: pur-spuh-KAS-uh-tee) n.
Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding.

Definition:
[n] the capacity to assess situations or circumstances shrewdly and draw sound conclusions

Synonyms:
astuteness, judgement, perspicaciousness, shrewdness, sound judgement
See Also:
acumen, craftiness, cunning, foxiness, guile, insightfulness, intelligence, knowingness, slyness, street smarts

Quotation for Friday, February 18, 2005

This one's got me thinking. I don't remember this line from the book. I need to go back and read this in context to understand his whole thought process on it:

"You can't, in most things, get what you want if you want it too desperately; anyway, you can't get the best out of it."

A Grief Observed
(C.S. Lewis)

Today's new word

perfervid

adj : characterized by intense emotion; "ardent love"; "an ardent lover"; "a burning enthusiasm"; "a fervent desire to change society"; "a fervent admirer"; "fiery oratory"; "an impassioned appeal"; "a torrid love affair" [syn: ardent, burning(a), fervent, fervid, fiery, impassioned, torrid]

Happy Birthday to me!

I was born on this date in 1964. That was obviously the year of the Beatles here in the States...

• "Can't Buy Me Love" and "She Loves You" were hits in 1964
• John Lennon's book "In His Own Write" was released in 1964.
• Apparently there were no reports of juvenile crime in New York City the day the Beatles came to town....which proves I wasn't the only good thing to come along that year!