About Me

AO 41 USS Mattoponi, my father's ship in World War II

 
Favorite Quotations
Ah, there's nothing more exciting than science.
You get all the fun of sitting still, being quiet,
writing down numbers, paying attention.  Science
has it all.

-- Principal Seymour Skinner
Let him go ahead.
Ares is a democrat.
There are no privileged people
On a battlefield

 -- Archilochos, (Fragment 3)
The highly polished minds
Of accomplished frauds

-- Archilochos, (Fragment 62)
His attachment to the despicable
Is so affectionate and stubborn,
Argument can't reach him.

-- Archilochos, (Fragment 108)
[H]e calls up all his little devils with horrid names,
his microscope, his horoscope, his telescope, and all his scopes.

 -- Aphra Behn, The Emperor of the Moon (1687)
The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face,
his hair and beard long, ragged and singed in several places.  His
clothes, shirt and skin were all of the same colour.  He had been eight
years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were
to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in
raw inclement summers.

--Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (1723)
Truth-loving Persians do not dwell upon
The trivial skirmish fought near Marathon.
As for the Greek theatrical tradition
Which represents that summer's expedition
Not as a mere reconnaissance in force
By three brigades of foot and one of horse
(Their left flank covered by some obsolete
Light craft detached from the main Persian fleet)
But as a grandiose, ill-starred attempt
To conquer Greece--they treat it with contempt;
And only incidentally refute
Major Greek claims, by stressing what repute
The Persian monarch and Persian nation
Won by this salutary demonstration:
Despite a strong defense and adverse weather
All arms combined magnificently together.

         -- Robert Graves, "The Persian Version"
WWJD, or JC makes an oblique comment on prayer in public schools:

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they
love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners,
that they may be seen by men.  Truly, I say to you, they have their
reward.  But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and
pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who is in secret
will reward you." -- Matthew 6:5-6.

 
 
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