Strolling through my mail archives (outgoing), I find the occasional bon mot worth repeating.
1998 March 12:
Mind you, being a bit of a romantic (former member of the Society for Creative Anachronism), I confess I do find “High-Tech-Middle Ages” rather appealing. Everyone a noble, with machines for peasants; every [household] a semiautonomous fief, with [its own] banner flying . . .
1998 March 14:
Everyone participates [in a free market], even if we cannot all participate equally. I’d like to participate equally with Martin Cradick or Donald Knuth, but I haven’t got the talent; who will correct that maldistribution?
2001 May:
A few weeks ago there was a “botball” tournament at Ames [a NASA facility in Mountain View, California]. I got as far as the gate. A sign said that visitors had to show papers, on account of “heightened security”; and I had neglected to add my DL to my wallet that day. (Normally I carry it only when renting a car; that day I was on borrowed wheels.)
Terrorists, of course, can’t get driving licenses. <sheesh>
2001 September 11:
Why, just think, if the great powers had not intervened after the Sarajevo assassination, the Southern Slavs could have been in turmoil for months; and if the British and French governments had not stood up to Hitler, Poland might have suffered under foreign domination for thirty years.
2001 October 23:
Conjugation:
- “I take a moment for sober reflection on the big picture”
- “You shamelessly exploit disaster to advance your agenda”