While the engineer developed his thesis, the director leaned over to his assistant and whispered, "Did you ever hear of why the sea is salt?" "Why the sea is salt?" whispered back the assistant. "What do you mean?" The director continued: "When I was a little kid, I heard the story of `Why the sea is salt' many times, but I never thought it important until just a moment ago. It's something like this: Formerly the sea was fresh water and salt was rare and expensive. A miller received from a wizard a wonderful machine that just ground salt out of itself all day long. At first the miller thought himself the most fortunate man in the world, but soon all the villages had salt to last them for centuries and still the machine kept on grinding more salt. The miller had to move out of his house, he had to move off his acres. At last he determined that he would sink the machine in the sea and be rid of it. But the mill ground so fast that boat and miller and machine were sunk together, and down below, the mill still went on grinding and that's why the sea is salt." "I don't get you," said the assistant. -- Guy Endore, "Men of Iron"

White Bar A bar or tavern in a simple room. The room is either plain, light wood, or wood painted white. The bar is a wooden table or a long board. Only clear liquors are served. The liquors are lined up on the bar or on shelves behind the bar. There are many rows of clean glasses. On the bar, there is a bowl of limes. 1964 Los Angeles, California ~ Ken Friedman

Not me, guy. I read the Bash man page each day like a Jehovah's Witness reads the Bible. No wait, the Bash man page IS the bible. Excuse me... -- More on confusing aliases, taken from comp.os.linux.misc

The official color of California's Golden Gate Bridge is International Orange.

If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is found in structure, and structure alone. ~ Alfred Korzybski

Everyone knows nowadays that people 'have complexes'. What is not so well known, though far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us. -- Carl Jung

I will make a bargain with the Republicans. If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. ~ Adlai Stevenson

More than iron More than lead More than gold I need electricity I need it more than I need lamb or pork or lettuce or cucumber I need it for my dreams ~ Racter (The Policeman’s Beard is Half Constructed)

(Refering to his conclusion to the Barber paradox or Russell's paradox.) Probably I am very naive, but I also think I prefer to remain so, at least for the time being and perhaps for the rest of my life. ~ Edsger W. Dijkstra

"I never leave until I bleed 'em out of house and Launch Pad." ~ Anonymous note (could be Cleve)

Some people have no respect for age unless it's bottled.

REAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERS DON'T READ DUMPS

It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

Governments are good at cutting off the heads of a centrally controlled networks like Napster, but pure P2P networks like Gnutella and Tor seem to be holding their own. -- Satoshi Nakamoto; Nov 6, 2008

The average cat can jump 5 times as high as its tail is long.

There are only two kinds of tequila. Good and better.

follow the leader a metadrama two people nude and smiling one leads other follows. after a while follower no longer follows leader does not change roles. they look at each other. leader does something follower does something different. follower does something leader does that thing. leader follows the other away. ~ Dick Higgins [NYC, Sept-Oct, 1985]

You will have good luck and overcome many hardships.

[When under stress I thought of] the books I had read [and applied] them to myself. I [imagined I was] one of the characters [and soon found myself] in made-up circumstances which were most agreeable to my inclinations. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Verily and forsooth," replied Goodgulf darkly. "In the past year strange and fearful wonders I have seen. Fields sown with barley reap crabgrass and fungus, and even small gardens reject their artichoke hearts. There has been a hot day in December and a blue moon. Calendars are made with a month of Sundays and a blue-ribbon Holstein bore alive two insurance salesmen. The earth splits and the entrails of a goat were found tied in square knots. The face of the sun blackens and the skies have rained down soggy potato chips." "But what do all these things mean?" gasped Frito. "Beats me," said Goodgulf with a shrug, "but I thought it made good copy." -- Harvard Lampoon, "Bored of the Rings"