Quotable: Feb 16, 2009 edition

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My wife, Diane, and I made up our own quotable yesterday as we were driving around.

"He who hesitates . . . screws the person waiting behind him at the traffic light."

This ain't peanuts: Today's quotable

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The recent testimony before congress, or should I say deliberate NON-testimony (taking the fifth), of executives of the Peanut Corporation of America brought to my mind a line from the movie "Silverado."

"We're gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging."

We seem to have a tradition of relative wrist slaps for corporate "white collar" criminals in this country. I hope these peanut executives, along with Bernard Madoff, set a new precedent. If guilty as alleged, all these men have destroyed lives with their callous disregard for ethics and decency toward their fellow human beings (although I classify Madoff and Co. among "humans" with some reservation).

Such persons deserve to be in an environment that will forcefully broaden their appreciation for the concept of justice, not to mention the diameter of their rectal apertures.

Quotables - 1/27/2009 Edition

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"Darling, Everybody's broke these days. Or if they're not, they pretend to be."

A line from "Double Harness", a 1933 (depression era) film that is all too relevant today.

Recent Quotables

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I like to log for myself and share with others when I hear good quotes. Here are two I've come across in the last week or so:

The first one is a bit of a a paraphrase, and I wish I could be more specific on the source, but I'm 99% sure it was referenced by someone in a podcast I listened to recently. I just can't remember which one.

"An optimist is one who believes we live in the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist is one who fears the optimist may be right."

This second quote is food for ironic thought from a 19th-century French philosopher named Auguste Compte, and was referenced on Garrison Keillor's Jan. 19 edition of The Writer's Almanac:

"Everything is relative, and only that is absolute."


THIS JUST IN: from tonight's presentation of "Dr. Strangelove" on Turner Classic Movies and spoken by the character of U.S. President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers in one of his three roles in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film), as General Turgidson (George C. Scott) scuffles with the visiting Russian Ambassador:

"Gentlemen! You can't fight in here. This is the WAR ROOM!"