Classic Comments on the Quote

[LLapp]

"Advertising is the modern substitute for argument; its function is to make the worse appear the better." — George Santayana

Johnlocke
April 1, 2019, 9:24 pm
I think Abraxas was my favorite album by him.

[LLapp]

"The buck stops with the guy who signs the checks." — Rupert Murdoch

montyb
January 8, 2016, 3:22 pm
Then the bucks stay with him. So much for trickle-down economics.

kb83
April 6, 2016, 4:32 am
The buck checks with the sign that stops the guy.

Roxanne
November 28, 2018, 5:38 am
This is precisely why I now pay bills online instead of by check. On check-writing day, I used to look up from my kitchen table and there would be a six-point buck standing outside, ripping a hole in the porch screen with his antlers and grunting. This only happened outside of hunting season, mind you.

[montyb]

"Why has God given me such magnificent talent? It is a curse as well as a great blessing."
— Albrecht Dürer

LLapp
October 12, 2018, 11:16 am
I mutter this same exact gripe every morning when I get up and stumble toward the coffeemaker.

[Eureka]

"I am become death, shatterer of worlds. "
— Julius Robert Oppenheimer

puzzleme
September 4, 2011, 2:03 am
This is not an original Oppenheimer quote. It is from The Bhagavad GÄ«ta and was quoted by Oppenheimer in an interview where he discussed his role in the development of the atomic bomb.

Kgun5
June 14, 2013, 2:33 am
His delivery of it was dynamite, though.

geeko321
February 10, 2014, 8:00 am
Is this grammar correct? Seems awkward.

dovid1946
February 24, 2015, 7:22 am
The bhagavad vita actually includes an account of a nuclear war fought by aliens above the earth milleniia ago.

CarpeLanam
October 12, 2017, 2:44 am
As for the grammar, "become" is a linking verb, meaning the subject and predicate are the same thing. I = Death. I am Death. I (have) become Death. It's similar to the grammar of French "Je suis devenu la mort." (For a transitive verb it would be "J'ai vu...") And there is an interesting article here: (link)

MamaB
March 5, 2018, 1:18 pm
Thanks, Carpe.

DrCryptell
October 5, 2018, 7:57 pm
"I am" is the shortest sentence in the English language, For another verb to follow it is grammatically incorrect. making this difficult to solve.

MamaB
February 21, 2019, 5:04 am
Tell that to the bhagavad vita. I still like Carpe's explanation.

oddcouple
May 11, 2019, 2:26 am
"I am" may be the shortest sentence, but "I do" is the longest.

Queethebean
May 20, 2019, 9:45 pm
And a rim shot for oddcouple!

abra
August 22, 2019, 8:04 pm
Great comment, kgun5.

[LLapp]

The 59th St. Bridge thread

"Light, when suddenly let in, dazzles and hurts and almost blinds us: but this soon passes away, and it seems to become the only element we can exist in." — Augustus William Hare

LLapp
April 27, 2017, 3:33 pm
I liked "dapples" -- very painterly.

Queethebean
September 19, 2017, 12:40 am
I also had dapples.

Persephone59
April 24, 2018, 8:38 pm
I as well. I'm not easily dazzled.

montyb
August 17, 2018, 8:15 am
Let's hear it for all us dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep people. Let the morningtime drop all its petals on us.

abra
December 30, 2018, 6:13 pm
All is groovy. Dappling sounds less painful than dazzling.

LLapp
January 18, 2019, 10:02 pm
Slow down, nanrich! You move too fast.

Eureka
April 8, 2019, 10:50 pm
And that's why I like my transition lenses.

[Fudi]

"Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate it. A child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise."
— Cyril Connolly

LLapp
April 3, 2015, 7:20 pm
Unless the child is a girl.
LLapp
January 9, 2016, 3:56 pm
As I used to tell my daughter, "Stop being afraid of noises, or you'll grow up to be a man!"
abra
June 3, 2019, 2:22 am
Right, LLapp, He should have said ''an adult', or a ''boy'' who fears noise''.
montyb
October 22, 2019, 2:50 pm
Would you all please pipe down? Geez, who can solve cryptograms with this cacophony all around?

[LLapp]

"The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet - the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot." — Salvador Dali

ernests
August 23, 2018, 6:41 pm
The third was a poet again, but this time writing a comic verse about the second guy. The fourth was just some drunk guy. After that, pretty much everyone was doing it for a while before it went out of fashion and comparing foreheads to alabaster became the in thing.

[Eureka]

"I have had dreams and I have had nightmares, but I have conquered my nightmares because of my dreams."
— Jonas E. Salk

bansaisequoia
November 2, 2009, 10:42 pm
This man is an inspiration. When he developed the Polio Vaccine, he gave it to all humankind and did not apply for patent. When asked why, he said "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" All the pharmaceutical company executives we see in the Fortune 400 should open up their eyes and start thinking of the enrichment of the world, not the enrichment of their assets.

wvwoman
September 23, 2012, 6:14 am
they probably wouldn't understand that concept.

wvwoman
December 2, 2013, 11:02 am
and well said, bansai.

skeeter
April 25, 2015, 4:26 am
I think of him whenever I recall all the children of my childhood who had to wear the polio braces. It was a common sight then, but an extremely rare one now.

abra
June 6, 2015, 10:54 am
Those of us who are old enough to remember children with Polio, know how great this man was. I didn't know the information that bansai gave us. It makes him a giant. We need more giants.

Capy
July 3, 2016, 9:35 pm
Thank you for that Bansai

SippyGurl
December 10, 2016, 9:49 am
thanks bansai! now i understand more fully why so many hold him in such high regard

LLapp
February 4, 2019, 8:24 pm
I was born in 1956, and I lived until age 5 on a street where I sometimes watched my sister and other older girls jump rope on the sidewalk. All these years later, there are still two sights I've not forgotten. First was the two girls jumping in and out of Double Dutch -- my first experience of jaw-dropping spectacle. And second was our quiet "steady ender" -- the young girl in the wheelchair, legs paralyzed by polio, glad to be turning the rope at her end.

letfreedomring
September 18, 2019, 12:33 pm
^A nice reminder, as we bicker politically, to take a step back to count our blessings.

[LLapp]

"When we cannot get what we love, we must love what is within our reach." — French Proverb

puffybob
October 14, 2011, 1:43 am
From the French translation of Stephen Stills.

[LLapp]

"Virtue is an angel, but she is a blind one, and must ask Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal." — Horace Mann

darkyr
January 6, 2017, 5:42 am
But Knowledge is deaf and has to ask Patience to translate for him.

Eureka
October 24, 2018, 11:58 am
And Patience has no sense of smell, so has to ask Kindness if the milk is okay to drink.

momn8r
March 23, 2019, 3:38 pm
Tap,tap...tap...flap,flap,flap. Tap..flap,flap. Tap, tap,tap,...tap, tap...flap,flap, SPLAT!

blueladyblue
November 19, 2019, 5:20 pm
But Kindness, being deaf, can't hear Patience asking him to smell the milk, so Patience asks Love to taste the milk, even though Love has no taste.

[LLapp]

Parental advisory: Immature content.


"The study of error is not only in the highest degree prophylactic, but it serves as a stimulating introduction to the study of truth." — Walter Lippmann

pootie49
March 30, 2009, 6:35 pm
Deep!!

pocahontasaurus
December 26, 2009, 2:30 am
STUPID

bansaisequoia
October 17, 2012, 8:10 pm
Can he use that word on a family website?

WlayneM
March 13, 2013, 11:53 pm
Bansai, my thoughts exactly. lmao!

montyb
May 11, 2013, 1:56 am
Of course he can use "prophylactic"; it has some positive connotation about milk, doesn't it?

kjmcaj
June 13, 2013, 4:23 pm
63 seconds. Prophylactic as a verb? Never heard of it.

montyb
June 14, 2013, 3:03 am
I think he is using it as an adjective here.

WRQ9
August 19, 2013, 1:57 pm
Technically an adverb, but is it celsius or fahrenheit?

marnita
June 14, 2014, 9:50 am
It's an adjective, and the basic meaning is just "preventive" or "protective," from a Greek word meaning guarding in advance or warding off. The more specialized use with a sexual connotation is quite modern, I think.

kb83
January 19, 2015, 8:00 am
The study of prophylactic error serves as a truthful introduction to the study of the highest degree of stimulation.

LLapp
February 21, 2015, 6:31 pm
Anywhere you have a stimulating introduction, it's a good idea to have prophylactics.

dovid1946
April 2, 2015, 9:50 am
Only about half of the people understood even a quarter of what Lippman wrote

Persephone59
August 3, 2017, 11:36 pm
This gentleman would have been the life of any cocktail party.

marnita
January 27, 2018, 2:20 pm
Apparently no one on this site can envision guarding against anything other than pregnancy or STDs.

blueladyblue
January 31, 2018, 1:24 pm
You do NOT want an error with your prophylactic! Uh uh, no sir.

ruxpin66
May 2, 2018, 2:43 am
Yes, the prophylactic was deep.

Roxanne
July 13, 2018, 12:41 am
Reading these comments is like going back in time to one of those moments in high school when the English teacher could not control the class.

LLapp
November 8, 2018, 4:05 pm
Roxanne -- perfect.

[LLapp]

"Thinking to get at once all the gold the goose could give, he killed it and opened it only to find - nothing." — Aesop

Lurker
December 29, 2010, 1:03 am
Not even foie gras? That stuff is expensive.

[LLapp]

The OCD Thread

"To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way." — Pat Riley

montyb
July 17, 2016, 3:17 pm
I have to make sure that the bills in my wallet are sorted by denomination, and then put in serial number order. Does that count?

puzzleme
June 10, 2017, 10:26 pm
My friend was a brilliant psychologist... with a touch (ha!) of OCD. She kept her spices in alpha order, her clothes by use and color, her books by subject and author. I thought it all just exhausting but she found it comforting and utile.

maradnu
June 13, 2017, 2:44 pm
I keep my bill sorted by denomination and all turned the same way. I don't care about serial numbers though. I keep my clothes sorted by type - shirts, pants, jackets, etc.

skeeter
December 25, 2017, 4:25 pm
Uh, oh. I guess I'm in trouble. My spices are in alphabetical order; my clothes are sorted by color, and my books are grouped by subject.

LLapp
January 1, 2018, 2:16 pm
My spices are sorted by size and how often I use them; my clothes are sorted by level of formality and/or warmth; my money is sorted by toll-booth change versus pocket cash.

abra
January 11, 2018, 2:49 pm
My husband sorts his money by denomination large bills to front or inside, definitely facing the same direction. I don't think that he does them by serial number, but I know that he always checks the serial numbers. My money is sorted the same way, but not because of obsession. It's just easier that way.My spices are in a spice drawer, not sorted. My clothes aren't sorted except by type.

darkyr
February 8, 2018, 2:44 am
Such a fun game. My bills are sorted by denomination, faced the same way. I have two compartments for bills. One has the spending cash, the other has eleven dollars and one foreign bill that I keep to attract all the other money. My spices are mostly in one cabinet, the most common ones I use are the closest to the front because I put them away last. My clothes are everywhere. I have my work clothes on a hanger arranged in no particular order. I have five hangers, and each day it gets easier to choose. The rest of my clothes is in hampers, clean clothes piles, forgotten clothes piles, boxed clothes in the attic, and possibly a drawer or two. It's a project I haven't yet started, and I don't recommend taking it up as a hobby. I won't be writing a book about my system anytime soon, if ever.

artcnet
March 14, 2018, 9:58 am
oh,oh - I throw everything in the bottom of my purse - money, change, spices, clothes - guess i'll never be successful : - )

abra
April 19, 2018, 12:10 pm
darkyr, I'm intrigued by the money you keep to attract money. Is there a reason why it's $11? Is the foreign bill necessary, and does it matter what country it's from?

NotTooOld
May 5, 2018, 11:19 pm
To have everything sorted and in order sounds delightful. I wish someone would organize my stuff for me. I don't have the energy.

marnita
November 4, 2018, 3:25 pm
This is quite inspiring. I'm sure I would be happier if my clothes were arranged in some sort of order. As it is, I never can find what I want to wear.

rnodding
December 26, 2018, 9:55 am
I sort my clothes by colour and it is easy because everything is black. Shoes, socks, underwear, pants, shirts and jackets. Don't wear gloves or hats. They all match and are all basic except for a couple of sports jackets.Very little money, I use a credit card on which I get cashback. Spices need to be in alphabetical order because there are so many. Books are not sorted and are everywhere there is a flat surface.

lesliecomelastly
May 1, 2019, 3:50 am
This quote has a ton of comments. I think it's sorta cute that so many of us have a touch of OCD. (Me too ... with cash and my clothes; but my office is sort of a mess, even though I know where everything is ... there is a method to my madness). It's sort of curious. A correlation between OCD and cryptoers? Who knew? What does it all mean???

Queethebean
June 2, 2019, 5:23 pm
There are people who don't sort their spices alphabetically?

dmford60
November 29, 2019, 6:49 pm
I keep track of my office clothes and make sure I don't wear the same outfit more than once in a 30-day period. And they tend to get cycled in order unless the weather dictates a change of order. And my DVDs used to be in strict alphabetical order...until our apartment complex did a big rewiring project a few months ago and everything had to be gathered in the center of each room. Haven't bothered to reorder them yet since putting the furniture back.

[LLapp]

"The pretentiously-named ensuite bathroom is a major factor in divorce. Privacy is paramount in marriage." — Unattributed

dpm39560
April 28, 2011, 9:48 pm
I don't think many gamers would weep were this quote deleted from the database.

abra
January 22, 2014, 2:59 pm
It would be better if we knew who said it.

gryhnd51
February 19, 2014, 8:30 pm
You can only appreciate this quote if you've experienced it first-hand. Thank god they don't build bathrooms that way any longer. Intimacy is one thing, privacy is quite a different matter.

universalmom
April 25, 2014, 12:49 pm
Oh I don't know...it's kind of companionable to brush our teeth side by side!

momn8r
February 18, 2015, 1:42 pm
HGTV made me think it was essential!

abra
April 26, 2016, 6:00 pm
I want the bathroom to myself. I see no reason for two sinks. We had a battle or two, over privacy, in our first months of marriage. I won. It would have been a deal breaker.

LLapp
May 15, 2016, 5:25 pm
I'd never heard of an "ensuite bathroom," so I just looked it up. Turns out it's not the 2-sink deal; it's simply the arrangement where the bathroom is entered only from the bedroom -- the bathroom is *in the bedroom suite* as it were. We have this very thing, and that attached bathroom is all mine; he gladly owns the full bath off the hallway, a few steps away. And I totally agree, separate bathrooms is excellent for marital peace . . . and it's also a remarkable luxury.

maradnu
July 9, 2016, 3:31 pm
My marriage would not have lasted so long if we hadn't had two bathrooms

darkyr
July 12, 2016, 7:50 am
I don't see bathroom or privacy listed in any top ten list for divorce.

abra
July 29, 2016, 9:51 am
LLapp, an ensuite bathroom is probably just fine as only one of you is using it. I like even teeth brushing to be done in private. darkyr, maybe people don't mention it, but it's a factor, or else the people who commented here are all anomalies Except for Universalmom who even likes to brush her teeth with her husband, and that's sweet..

killdozer
August 15, 2016, 8:10 am
26 years and sharing a bathroom has never been a problem for us. I've seen her give birth three times. There's no mystery.

larry149
August 19, 2016, 7:20 am
Brushing your teeth together is one thing. Brushing your teeth while the other person is doing something else can be totally disgusting.

jnoodles
September 1, 2016, 3:27 pm
Suites are bad for your teeth.

marnita
September 4, 2016, 3:19 am
So just use the bathroom one at a time, and close the door. What's the big deal?

abra
December 30, 2016, 3:11 pm
Clever, jnoodles. If that's the actual definition of en suite, then I don't understand the quote. I didn't think it necessarily meant two sinks, but I thought it meant the sink part of the bathroom was located outside the bathroom itself.

LLapp
February 11, 2017, 10:15 am
I'll take the last sentence by itself.

gerrissister
March 22, 2017, 1:49 am
I think Joanne Woodward said this about Paul Newman and the secret to a successful marriage.

munchlet
August 16, 2017, 1:51 am
I think having a bathroom at all is a great luxury -- and incidentally, one I would not part with, not even for a day or two. Camping? No, thanks. Yeah, I'm a wuss. Like, totally.

abra
August 21, 2017, 1:20 pm
That's the first reason I don't camp. The other reason is there are creepy crawlies out their.

maradnu
September 9, 2017, 7:19 am
Not into camping either. I like beds and bathrooms, running water and plumbing.

momof7
September 23, 2017, 5:32 pm
Almost the whole family shares one bathroom, with the girls having their own in the basement, but their stall shower is so tiny they won't use it, so we all use one tub/shower. We manage. It hasn't impacted my marriage.

LLapp
November 23, 2017, 9:34 pm
I am 61, and I lived all my life until age 56 with 1 full bathroom we all shared plus 1 powder room (which doubled as the laundry room when I was a single mom). These past 5 years of having my own bathroom have been so luxurious that I fear I may have become out of touch with human suffering . . . but still I would never go back by choice to sharing.

Spellbinder44
December 6, 2017, 8:06 am
Lots of married people here.

badbob
February 15, 2018, 11:22 pm
attention all men. if the door is closed, go pee outside. one of the luxuries of manhood

LLapp
April 12, 2018, 7:43 pm
Women can pee outside too, but we don't because we are not animals. Now get off my lawn!

Persephone59
June 26, 2018, 10:54 pm
And I live alone and have 2 1/2 baths. So many choices.

NotTooOld
July 23, 2018, 11:33 pm
I have lived with just an outhouse. Now my home has three full baths. Would you think less of me for complaining that it is a pain to keep them all clean?

Deanna48
October 1, 2018, 1:14 am
Love the remarks! I think this is my favorite thread yet.

CryptoBee
October 19, 2018, 1:37 pm
Such entertaining comments!

MadDoctor
November 10, 2018, 8:26 pm
All these great comments, but notice that the first one was to delete this quote.

skeeter
March 10, 2019, 12:04 pm
This is the longest non-political comments thread I have seen on this site.

momn8r
March 20, 2019, 2:53 pm
I could have redone my entire en suite in the time it took to read all these comments. With a double vanity, urinal, bidet, walk-in shower, and soaking tub! Fun for the whole family!

Eureka
March 25, 2019, 7:42 pm
When I was growing up, most homes only had one bathroom. We all survived. I think we are spoiled today.

badbob
July 21, 2019, 6:39 pm
i can't leave a comment, i have to go potty

abra
August 10, 2019, 8:46 pm
The yard, BadBob, the yard.

[oddcouple]

"Advertising may be described as the science of arresting human intelligence long enough to get money from it."
— Stephen Leacock


montyb
February 21, 2015, 7:43 am
don't bother me; I'm filling out an order for my 14th set of Ginsu knives.
puzzleme
June 22, 2015, 4:22 pm
Don't forget your Floating Golf Ball, monty.
skeeter
July 26, 2015, 4:14 pm
But wait! There's more!
montyb
April 8, 2017, 3:39 pm
Floating golf ball!!! I could have used that today!
maradnu
May 10, 2017, 12:55 pm
Even if it floats, unless the water is shallow, how do you play that lie?
Andy451
June 12, 2017, 10:32 am
"Step Right Up" is my favorite song by Tom Waits. The quality goes in before the name goes on, people! Good quote, Stephen.
writeon
November 12, 2017, 5:49 pm
Hurry, monty. If you act right now you can get a second set for free. In the factory we manufacture lipstick, in the store we sell hope.--Charles Revson, Revlon Corp.
jbb33054
January 22, 2019, 10:23 am
50
pickleball
June 26, 2019, 10:35 am
limited -time-only