Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

Arcadia for Straw

One can understand a place by what its people make… Locals [from Orkney] have a special relationship with straw, which they have long used for everything from roofing and bedding to shelving, rainwear and furniture. Perhaps the most famous local … Continue reading →

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Nay, Nay Now. Period

“I am NOT going to use the evil acts of a handful of people to diminish the God-given rights of my fellow Texans. Period. None of these so-called gun-control solutions will work to stop a person with evil intent […] … Continue reading →

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Sexual Fantasies

“My greatest sexual fantasy is just to have regular sex in my own apartment. But, in my fantasy, my apartment has a washing machine and a dryer.” (Mark Cognata, “Sexual Fantasies of Everyday New Yorkers,” The New Yorker, “Daily Shouts”) … Continue reading →

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The Few, the Proud, the Readers

“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.” (Marine General Jim Mattis, from his new book “Call Sign Chaos,” written with … Continue reading →

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“Carnal Tapioca”

Recently in the NYTimes Roberta Smith wrote a spirited appraisal of the exhibition of Renoir’s late nudes at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. Peter Schjeldahl weighs in on the topic in the latest New Yorker. It’s fascinating how … Continue reading →

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Monkey Say, Monkey Think

“The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.” (George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”) (Quoted by David Streitfeld, “Paging Big Brother: In Amazon’s Bookstore, Orwell Gets a Rewrite,” NYTimes, 8-19-19) (c) 2019 JMN

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Four Rules

Krugman is a Nobel laureate with a knack for being right and wry. I value him for his thinking and for his rhetoric. Last year, after an earlier stock market swoon brought on by headlines about the U.S.-China trade conflict, … Continue reading →

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Kudos to Automattic

This commentary by Kara Swisher made me glad to be on WordPress. … Tumblr has landed with WordPress, a former rival and the kind of company that it probably should have been with all along. [Founder, Matt Mullenweg] is one … Continue reading →

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Where Cate Sits

“My father was born in Texas. My mother is Australian. I’m married to a British citizen. So I sit in some weird fork in the road.” (Cate Blanchett, Stephen Colbert Show, 8-12-19)

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Song of Theirselves

I’ve been at Amsterdam dinners where everyone is speaking brilliant English, but the minute I leave the table they switch back to Dutch. If all we know is English, we won’t know what the rest of the world is saying … Continue reading →

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