Dot's a wrap

Tonight's batch of three-dot splendor comes from loose notes from the late 1990s.

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Neologism file: anomalicious—not just strange, but evil. (1995-07-20)

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You got a broken muffler belt. (Rural mechanic diagnosis)

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Marcia's requirements for potential marriage partners: Don't marry anyone until you have (1) seen them vomit, (2) gone on a long car trip, and (3) met their parents. I would add, for those of us of a certain demographic, met their kids.

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A change is as good as a rest. (Lioness's mother on staying busy)

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The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. (Abbie Hoffman)

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Conceit causes more conversation than wit. (La Rochefoucauld)

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It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC; as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. (Edsger J. Dijkstra; I think you could say the same about FORTRAN, my first language.)

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Romeo wasn't bilked in a day. (Walt Kelly)

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Transcendental defenestration (idea for a new cult, 1999-2-21)

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It's difficult to make a good show if the ingredient doesn't bleed or twitch. (Irondad, a fan of the original Japanese Iron Chef)

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Everybody is somebody else's weirdo. (Unix fortune file)

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Kaa's method for getting rid of religious proselytes: say “Well, I'm a nudist. If we're going to talk religion, I've got to be naked.”—and start disrobing.

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My hometown of Hobbs, NM, is not exactly a culinary Mecca. Here are my notes from a trip there in 1998. Chinese Kitchen: rubber General Tso's chicken. Furr's cafeteria: broiled salmon with half a cup of tartar sauce; overcooked carrots; Iceberg lettuce and plastic tomatoes; cold toast; nice new potatoes with onion; German chocolate pie. Got the runs.

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You can't underestimate the power of fear. (Tricia Nixon, according to a Unix fortune)

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Back when Zen Rhino was a chef they had a special called “Happy Trails”: stuffed triggerfish and a Roy Rogers.

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Philately will get you nowhere. (JS 1998-8-26)

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Thank goodness modern convenience is a thing of the remote future. (Walt Kelly)

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I can do without actually having to traipse around in leather lace-up boots and be hit upon by furry men in codpieces. (Sen, on why she doesn't like the SCA or RenFair scenes)

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Ambiguity is a two-edge sword. (JS 1998-6-6)

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Nobody can be like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it. (Talullah Bankhead)

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The public at large tends to confuse the composing of a symphony with the writing of its score. (Edsger J. Dijkstra)

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(1) If my girlfriend calls me passive-aggressive one more time, I'm going to make her pay in ways she won't even be aware of. (2) I'm not going to stop torturing myself until I figure out the cause of my pain. (The late Ycho)

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She's about as stable as a coffee table perched on an epileptic penguin's beak. (Djinn, on an acquaintance of his)

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Visual Basic? I might as well build my program out of mud and popsicle sticks. (nails)

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But it's not *TRUE* object-oriented programming unless you can subclass a semicolon. (jafo, 1997-12-3)

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Do you think reading about cowboys is sufficient to ride a horse? Like horses, real programs tend to throw you. (JS, late 1997, to a programming student)