Rantzilla

(require 'cl)

2010-05-07T08:02:00.002-04:00

Most, if not all, .emacs files I've read worth reading have (require 'cl) somewhere near the top.

Ask Dr Aybabtu: How to make a Gnome behave civilly

2010-04-30T08:35:00.002-04:00

Dear Dr Aybabtu,

I installed Fedora 12 and I can't get the mouse to behave properly. WTF?

Frustrated in Ft Collins,

Foo

Dear Foo,

Allow Dr Aybabtu a Clintonian moment without blue dress collateral damage: I feel your pain. Dr Aybabtu will not editorialize about the reasoning behind Fedora 12's removal of access to the One True Way of dealing with WIMP interfaces, namely that the focus follows the mouse. And no, focus does *not* mean changing the stack order, raising, or anything other than focus. Fortunately, you can put it back. From the mighty command line, issue:

yum install control-center-extra

You may need to sudo that, or do it as root. Then, navigate the Gnome menu thingie at the top of your desktop (or wherever the hell you've put it):

System->Preferences->Windows

Check the box labeled:

Select windows when the mouse moves over them

Under *no* circumstances check the box labeled

Raise selected windows after an interval

Surely madness and damnation lie down that path.

Whatever you do, do not seek advice about this on slashdot or other places on the interwebs, because you'll get answers like "use blackbox" or "I have Steve Jobs' sweat on my iDork and I will never ever wash it!", which may be interesting enough, but not the answer to the question.

HTH,

Dr Aybabtu

Bocce at Leon's

2009-09-01T07:51:00.004-04:00

Nothing works up a thirst like house hunting, and what a better way to slake a thirst than a pint of Victory Hop Devil at Leon's Full Service?

Leon's has a bocce court, which puts it in a special place in my heart. This is from a match I was having with my friend Beth.

I won't say who was green...

Bind and my memory of it are not in sync

2009-09-01T07:39:00.002-04:00

The PostScript bind didn't work the way I remember it working. It only works on operators, not procedures. bind replaces the name by the operator, which saves a look-up at execution. There are times when I want to replace things late, but there are times when I would like to replace things early. PostScript with macros, anyone?

transition

2009-07-28T07:30:00.003-04:00

Right now, a coffee maker is obeying a timer, grinding beans in a kitchen in a house that used to be my home. It's still a home, just not mine. Presently, a woman, once the love of my life, will glide blearily into the kitchen and grope for a cup. She'll smile, thinking of a man that is not me.

And, you know, that's OK.

Naughty, naughty, naughty!

2009-06-24T22:57:00.002-04:00

It's not really naughty, but I just caved into something that I wish I had caved into *years* ago; getting a fountain pen that not only works, but kicks ass. I am so doomed, because I now need -- yes need! -- more pens to sling the ink that needs slinging. The pen: Lamy AL-Star, medium nib. AL is periodic table, not American gazetteer, BTW... The colors: r, g, b, c, m, y, k -- I have k -- and all of the glorious combinations their mingling might produce!

Windows Rules to Live by: The Registry

2009-05-27T17:33:00.002-04:00

Never deploy code that writes to the Windows registry without having tested sister code that removes what was written from the registry.

Thought for the Day: Unit Tests

2009-05-27T13:46:00.002-04:00

Keep your documentation close, but your unit tests closer.

Ah! Post unit test build complete!

Back at it...

GeoPDF Now OGC Best Practice

2009-02-05T18:00:00.002-05:00

After many long years, GeoPDF is open and an OGC best practice. I would have like to have seen this go down in 2003 when I first wrote the specification. It would have been very different, since it would have been designed for external consumption (too many naught bits hang out in the LGIDict specification, but it had to get done in about a day and a half...), but it should have been open from the get-go, IMO. A little gruntle for the ranting set, too...

In Praise of Mavericks

2008-07-10T07:51:00.002-04:00

Col. Michael Wyly's AFJ article made me think about what "professional" means. John Boyd, mentioned in the article, was an interesting cat.

C++ Frequently Questioned Answers

2008-04-27T15:18:00.001-04:00

The C++ FQA is priceless.

Artistic License

2008-04-21T19:37:00.002-04:00

Go forth and take (get) your artistic license. Be sure to click on the license itself so you can take in the grandeur that are the codes.

Teach Yourself Programming in 10 Months

2008-04-19T13:01:00.003-04:00

We'll almost no matter what you do, you can't learn programming in 10 months. However, Eli Bendersky shows one how to make the most of your first 10 months of the process. I'll leave it to
Peter Norvig to explain why learning to program is takes more than a few weeks with a "21 days" book...

When ever you hear...

2008-04-09T21:44:00.002-04:00

"linux", substitute "mobile". Pictures get a whole lot more interesting...

Phil Baugh: Country Guitar

2007-10-26T20:10:00.000-04:00

I was doing time on the connector when what wafted through the aether on WRFG? Phil Baugh's Country Guitar. I don't know why, but it really struck my fancy

New Acronym: WTFW?

2007-08-29T20:42:00.000-04:00

Do you ever wonder from whence something came? I do. I love thesarui, e. g.

WTFW?

Where TF Whence?

QOTD

2007-07-25T09:25:00.000-04:00

Software can't solve the dumb-ass problem. -- Dr Aybabtu

Duff's Template

2007-05-11T08:27:00.000-04:00


template <class T>
void
duff(T* to, T* from, T count) {
  T n = (count+7)/8;
  switch (count % 8) {
    do {
    case 0: *to = *from++;
    case 7: *to = *from++;
    case 6: *to = *from++;
    case 5: *to = *from++;
    case 4: *to = *from++;
    case 3: *to = *from++;
    case 2: *to = *from++;
    case 1: *to = *from++;
    } while (--n > 0);
  }
}

How to Make a Grown Hacker Cry

2007-04-20T08:26:00.000-04:00

From Yaml for Ruby:


Man 1: What's Yaml?
Man 2: It's for writing data structures in plain text.
Man 1: And?
Man 2: And what? That's not good enough for you?

Top Tech RD

2007-04-18T20:36:00.000-04:00

Note to self: Top Tech RD spenders. Got some Adobe verbiage in there...

Cool Timeline Web API

2007-04-09T16:03:00.000-04:00

MIT Simile.

Key to World Domination

2007-04-09T15:40:00.000-04:00

Note to self: read this. Key to PSan's Big Idea...

Google Talk

2007-04-03T10:17:00.000-04:00

Note to self: investigate Google Talk

Oh! It is very wonderful!

2007-02-02T08:14:00.000-05:00

How indenting with a tab key! What's all this now? Emacs Enviroment to Eclipse, or EE2E. Here is some cut-and-paste right off of the main project page:

How to use EE2E

Push a TAB key!
Then, it will indent!!
This is the most important function of EE2E.

Click the tab (ok, here) to understand how very wonderful indenting with a tab key!

Or something like that.

Ruby Rant

2007-01-30T19:52:00.000-05:00

I haven't gotten a really good rant on for a while, but I can still recognize a good one when I see one:

ie_hack: Internet Explorer is the worst piece of crap to have ever been written, with the possible exception of Windows itself. Since IE is unable to parse proper XML, we have to provide a hack to generate XML that IE’s limited abilities can handle. This hack inserts a space before the /> on empty tags. Defaults to false.

Chortle.

Oh, The Beemanity!

2007-01-24T09:40:00.000-05:00

I like bees. Still, I can't help but laugh at man v. bee. I wonder if any alcohol was involved...

Google Busts a Move

2007-01-23T20:08:00.000-05:00

Google just busts a move .

Limited Edition Vista, Anyone?

2007-01-21T10:40:00.000-05:00

W... T... F...

Hillary Throws Her Hat In The Ring

2007-01-20T19:53:00.000-05:00

Yow!. The right-wing talk-radio newspeakers have all but destroyed any chance of meaningful consideration of Senator Clinton by a huge segment of our population. I'm not sold on the Honorable Senator from the (truly) Great State of New York, but she deserves a fair look.

Rosemary's Perl

2007-01-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

*nix like environments are a funny thing. There are different tools (really, languages) for doing different things, and which one you reach for differs by context. One of the things that I never seem to learn is that just about anything I write is going to grow, eventually, and I should just start with SCSH and be done with it. But, no, BASH it is. Anyway, tucked away at the top of a growing file deployment script is


function die () {
    echo $@
    exit 1
}

and, later


test -d $ns || die "Directory $ns does not exist."

I have just birthed a little Perl demon baby...

Does bracket alignment matter?

2007-01-18T10:13:00.000-05:00

I'm in the throes of trying to get some code out and it looks to be an anti-Massonian proposition. Along with other design and coding duties, I'm promulgating formal coding standards, project architecture, et cetera ad infinitum. One of the things that there seems to be near uniform consensus among our programming group is that brackets should align, in all contexts, thus:


if (! brackets_aligned_p)
{
  go_apeshit_ballistic();
}

For a while, I was fairly ambivalent about this, but GNU did give me the heebie jeebies:


if (brackets_gnu_aligned_p)
    {
        all_hail_emacs();
    }

C++ has put me over the edge in the other direction with namespaces. I simply cannot abide:


namespace foo
{
  namespace bar
  {

    // your nested namespace code here

    class CodeBastard : public CynicalBastard
    {

    };

  } // end namespace bar
// end namespace foo

Unanimous vote minus one for this. I cannot put my finger on the source of my loathing, and why I find:


namespace foo {
  namespace bar {

    // your nested namespace code here

    class CodeBastard : public CynicalBastard
    {

    };

  } // end namespace bar
// end namespace foo

soooooo much less offensive, and


namespace foo {
  namespace bar {

    // your nested namespace code here

    class CodeBastard : public CynicalBastard {

    };

  } // end namespace bar
// end namespace foo

now strangely compelling when at one time I didn't give a rat's ass. I never noticed it before, because I always did namespace brackets on the same line, regardless of the other ways we were doing functions and control structures. Even the GNU stuff was shudder and get on with it. Now I care, and I don't know why. Back at it.

Ghostscript with X11 Device on Cygwin

2007-01-10T16:01:00.000-05:00

Note to self: (setq ps-run-x '("/usr/X11R6/bin/gs" <args>)). Something like that. Get all of my emacs stuff back into subversion.

Student of Strategy

2007-01-10T07:47:00.000-05:00

Lately, I've been on a student of strategy kick. It's a recurring theme, wherein I dust off The Book of Five Rings and The Art of War and see if they're applicable to anything I have to deal with.

Turns out, they are, and I'll distill it into a bon mot: Tactics without strategy is tomfoolery.

Surge!

2006-12-20T18:58:00.000-05:00

They're surgin'! Oh, ya, you betcha! Three words Blaze of Glory. As of posting the fine video. It's strangely appropriate... sadly.

The Data Are Not The Map

2006-12-02T08:32:00.000-05:00

There's much more to a map than the data used to create it. I'd argue, knowing what to elide is what makes a great cartographer, and those maps with nothing left to remove are the best (and beautiful) maps.

Nerd Tongue Twister

2006-10-27T12:46:00.000-04:00

How many bits would an eight bit byte bite if an eight bit byte could bite?

As of writing a Google search for byte-could-bite came up with zilch, leading me to believe that this twist on the venerable woodchuck twister chucks wood.

Dadgummit! Distracted Again!

2006-10-13T19:09:00.000-04:00

Python Challenge. Don't ask how I found it. I guess the Python is there because it's Python hackers who put it together? I don't know... I just found it. I could be the Emacs challenge, because I hit upon one solution accidentially trying to go to the beginning of a string... during a Slime session with CLisp as the inferior lisp...

Ah Emacs

2006-10-12T12:24:00.000-04:00

I love emacs. It never ceases to amaze me. It's the distillation of people-centuries worth of hacker wisdom, and if it doesn't do something you think that it *should*, chances are you just haven't uncovered yet. I was reading a manual entry, which made reference to a file in etc. I was wondering if there was a key binding to open the file at the point. Hitting return answered that question in the affirmative...

C-u 100 M-x all-hail-emacs

Google Code Search: Yikes!

2006-10-11T09:21:00.000-04:00

As of posting, the top three hits for lang:c kludge are in openssl code! Zoiks! No hits for anything for ocaml, caml, or ml. SCSH come in high for generic scheme searches. Cool beans!

Interview with Steve Wozniak

2006-10-07T09:26:00.000-04:00

This interview with Steve Wozniak is a great read. In this day of the swashbucking privateers of capitalism, this advice seems refreshing:

Wozniak: First of all, try to have the highest of ethics and to be open and truthful about things, not hiding. If you have to hide something for company reasons, at least explain what you're doing. Don't mislead people. Know in your heart that you are a good person with good goals because that will carry over to your own self-confidence and your belief in your engineering abilities. Always seek excellence: make your product better than the average person would.

If you can just quickly whip something out and it's done, maybe it's time, once in a while, to think and think and think, "can I make it better than it is, a little superior?" What it does is not necessarily make the product better in the end, but it brings you closer to the product and your own head understands it better. Your neurons have gone through the code you wrote, or the circuits you designed, have gone through it more times, and it's just a little more solidly in your head and once in a while you'll wake up and say, "Oh my God, I just realized a bug that's in there, something I hadn't thought of."

Keyboard Shortcuts in Gmail

2006-10-06T08:08:00.001-04:00

If you have a gmail account, turn on your keyboard shortcuts right away.

Word Annoyances

2006-10-05T10:01:00.000-04:00

Word, I'm sure, is a fine product for many folks. Commenting and revision tracking is cool enough. However, it has some quirks that drive me bonkers. What's doubly troubling is that I've as of yet been able to find any way to circumvent said behavior by thinking.

I'm in the throes of writing requirements for some software we're going to be pushing out. We've got some boilerplate subsections for features, and it's a hassle to write the titles and set them to their proper formatting, etc. I'm sure that there is a quick and easy method for writing a macro to insert this very stuff, but wouldn't it be easier to just copy-and-paste the boilerplate? You would think so (in the near term).

But no.

For some reason, the numbering on the last subsection would disappear after the copy and paste. If you copy that last section and pasted it after its parent section, you'd get numbers. Moreover, there wasn't any way to get that pasted text (AFAICT) to have the proper number. That is, I could remove the formatting, then reset the formatting and no number. There is no way to meaningfully get at the numbering interface with a few point and clicks. Fug.

The fix was intuitively obvious. I copied the subsection preceding the troublesome bit and pasted it after the same. I renamed the pasted section to that of the troublesome one and deleted Nemesis's text. It worked. Feh.

Don't even get me started on "page setup" going AWOL...

Done Dosing

2006-09-13T08:05:00.000-04:00

Gonna give the dose a rest for a while. See if I can't come up with something a little more interesting...

Ambrose's Antidote: COMPROMISE

2006-09-12T07:47:00.000-04:00

COMPROMISE, n. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as gives each adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he ought not to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due.

daily dose of w

2006-09-12T07:46:00.000-04:00

We cannot start Mitchell, the Mitchell Plan, until the cycle of violence has been crushed and broken.

GWB
20 Jun 2001
Washington, D.C.

Ambrose's Antidote: COMMONWEALTH

2006-09-11T07:53:00.000-04:00

COMMONWEALTH, n. An administrative entity operated by an incalculable multitude of political parasites, logically active but fortuitously efficient.


  This commonwealth's capitol's corridors view,
  So thronged with a hungry and indolent crew
  Of clerks, pages, porters and all attaches
  Whom rascals appoint and the populace pays
  That a cat cannot slip through the thicket of shins
  Nor hear its own shriek for the noise of their chins.
  On clerks and on pages, and porters, and all,
  Misfortune attend and disaster befall!
  May life be to them a succession of hurts;
  May fleas by the bushel inhabit their shirts;
  May aches and diseases encamp in their bones,
  Their lungs full of tubercles, bladders of stones;
  May microbes, bacilli, their tissues infest,
  And tapeworms securely their bowels digest;
  May corn-cobs be snared without hope in their hair,
  And frequent impalement their pleasure impair.
  Disturbed be their dreams by the awful discourse
  Of audible sofas sepulchrally hoarse,
  By chairs acrobatic and wavering floors --
  The mattress that kicks and the pillow that snores!
  Sons of cupidity, cradled in sin!
  Your criminal ranks may the death angel thin,
  Avenging the friend whom I couldn't work in.

K.Q.

daily dose of w

2006-09-11T07:52:00.000-04:00

I am a person who recognizes the fallacy of humans.

GWB
19 Sep 2000
Comment made on TV talk show, Oprah.

Ambrose's Antidote: COMMERCE

2006-09-08T07:59:00.000-04:00

COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.

daily dose of w

2006-09-08T07:58:00.000-04:00

I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs.

GWB
12 Sep 2000
Quoted by Slate magazine from comments in Orlando, Florida.

Ambrose's Antidote: COMMENDATION,

2006-09-07T07:42:00.000-04:00

COMMENDATION n. The tribute that we pay to achievements that resembles, but do not equal, our own.

daily dose of w

2006-09-07T07:41:00.000-04:00

I've supported the administration in Colombia. I think it's important for us to be training Colombians in that part of the world. The hemisphere is in our interest to have a peaceful Colombia.

GWB
11 Oct 2000
Presidential Debate in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Ambrose's Antidote: COMFORT

2006-09-06T07:44:00.000-04:00

COMFORT, n. A state of mind produced by contemplation of a neighbor's uneasiness.

daily dose of w

2006-09-06T07:42:00.000-04:00

The point is, is that I want America to lead the nation -- lead the world -- toward a more safe world when it comes to nuclear weaponry.

GWB
27 Jan 2000
Quoted in the New York Times.

Ambrose's Antidote: COENOBITE

2006-09-05T07:59:00.001-04:00

COENOBITE, n. A man who piously shuts himself up to meditate upon the sin of wickedness; and to keep it fresh in his mind joins a brotherhood of awful examples.


  O Coenobite, O coenobite,
      Monastical gregarian,
  You differ from the anchorite,
      That solitudinarian:
  With vollied prayers you wound Old Nick;
  With dropping shots he makes him sick.

Quincy Giles

daily dose of w

2006-09-05T07:59:00.000-04:00

Our nation must come together to unite.

GWB
4 Jun 2001
Remark made in Tampa, Florida.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLOSE-FISTED

2006-09-01T08:09:00.001-04:00

CLOSE-FISTED, adj. Unduly desirous of keeping that which many meritorious persons wish to obtain.


  "Close-fisted Scotchman!" Johnson cried
      To thrifty J. Macpherson;
  "See me -- I'm ready to divide
      With any worthy person."
  Sad Jamie:  "That is very true --
      The boast requires no backing;
  And all are worthy, sir, to you,
      Who have what you are lacking."

Anita M. Bobe

daily dose of w

2006-09-01T08:09:00.000-04:00

She is a member of a labor union at one point.

GWB
2 Jan 2001
The president-elect, announcing Linda Chavez as his nomination to be secretary of the Department of Labor.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLOCK

2006-08-18T08:23:00.000-04:00

CLOCK, n. A machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concern for the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him.


  A busy man complained one day:
  "I get no time!"  "What's that you say?"
  Cried out his friend, a lazy quiz;
  "You have, sir, all the time there is.
  There's plenty, too, and don't you doubt it --
  We're never for an hour without it."

Purzil Crofe

daily dose of w

2006-08-18T08:08:00.000-04:00

One for the children. Over and out. For a while...

The illiteracy level of our children are appalling.

W
Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004

The public education system in America is one of the most important foundations of our democracy. After all, it is where children from all over America learn to be responsible citizens, and learn to have the skills necessary to take advantage of our fantastic opportunistic society.

W
Santa Clara, CA
1 May 2002

I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial profiling, which is illiterate children.

W
Presidential Debate.
11 Oct 2000

Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis.

W
CNBC
15 April 2000

Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?

W
Florence, S.C.
11 Jan 2000

Ambrose's Antidote: CLIO

2006-08-17T07:47:00.000-04:00

CLIO, n. One of the nine Muses. Clio's function was to preside over history -- which she did with great dignity, many of the prominent citizens of Athens occupying seats on the platform, the meetings being addressed by Messrs. Xenophon, Herodotus and other popular speakers.

daily dose of w

2006-08-17T07:46:00.000-04:00

We like living in the White House. It's a nice place to live.

GWB
25 Aug 2001
Speaking to a reporter at his Crawford, TX ranch.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLERGYMAN

2006-08-16T07:43:00.000-04:00

CLERGYMAN, n. A man who undertakes the management of our spiritual affairs as a method of better his temporal ones.

daily dose of w

2006-08-16T07:41:00.000-04:00

Reading is the basics for all learning.

GWB
28 Mar 2000
Comment from campaign stop in Reston, Virginia. The candidate was announcing his "Reading First" initiative.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLARIONET

2006-08-15T10:07:00.000-04:00

CLARIONET, n. An instrument of torture operated by a person with cotton in his ears. There are two instruments that are worse than a clarionet -- two clarionets.

daily dose of w

2006-08-15T10:06:00.000-04:00

It's amazing to be interested in history and living -- making history. It's an interesting coincidence.

GWB
5 Feb 1999
From a C-Span interview and as quoted in the Jewish World Review.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLAIRVOYANT

2006-08-14T07:58:00.000-04:00

CLAIRVOYANT, n. A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron, namely, that he is a blockhead.

daily dose of w

2006-08-14T07:57:00.000-04:00

I don't think we need to be subliminable about the differences between our views on prescription drugs.

GWB
12 Sep 2000
Quoted by Slate magazine from comments in Orlando, Florida.

Ambrose's Antidote: CLAIRVOYANT

2006-08-11T07:50:00.000-04:00

CLAIRVOYANT, n. A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron, namely, that he is a blockhead.

daily dose of w

2006-08-11T07:49:00.000-04:00

We're concerned about AIDS inside our White House. Make no mistake about it.

GWB
7 Feb 2001
Washington, D.C.

Ambrose's Antidote: CIRCUS

2006-08-10T07:56:00.001-04:00

CIRCUS, n. A place where horses, ponies and elephants are permitted to see men, women and children acting the fool.

daily dose of w

2006-08-10T07:56:00.000-04:00

There's a huge trust. I see it all the time when people come up to me and say, 'I don't want you to let me down again.'

GWB
3 Oct 2000
Boston, Massachusetts

Ambrose's Antidote: CHRISTIAN

2006-08-09T07:38:00.001-04:00

CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin.


  I dreamed I stood upon a hill, and, lo!
  The godly multitudes walked to and fro
  Beneath, in Sabbath garments fitly clad,
  With pious mien, appropriately sad,
  While all the church bells made a solemn din --
  A fire-alarm to those who lived in sin.
  Then saw I gazing thoughtfully below,
  With tranquil face, upon that holy show
  A tall, spare figure in a robe of white,
  Whose eyes diffused a melancholy light.
  "God keep you, strange," I exclaimed.  "You are
  No doubt (your habit shows it) from afar;
  And yet I entertain the hope that you,
  Like these good people, are a Christian too."
  He raised his eyes and with a look so stern
  It made me with a thousand blushes burn
  Replied -- his manner with disdain was spiced:
  "What!  I a Christian?  No, indeed!  I'm Christ."

G.J.

daily dose of w

2006-08-09T07:38:00.000-04:00

I'm sure there'll be moments when we don't agree 100% of the time.

George W. Bush
December 2, 2000
Speaking to press. Referring to relationship between himself and Republican
Congress.

Ambrose's Antidote: CHILDHOOD

2006-08-08T08:02:00.000-04:00

CHILDHOOD, n. The period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy and the folly of youth -- two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age.

daily dose of w

2006-08-08T08:01:00.000-04:00

You know, I hear people say, well, civil war this, civil war that. The Iraqi people decided against civil war when they went to the ballot box.

George W Bush
Prairie Chapel Ranch
Crawford, Texas
7 August 2006

Ambrose's Antidote: CERBERUS

2006-08-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

CERBERUS, n. The watch-dog of Hades, whose duty it was to guard the entrance -- against whom or what does not clearly appear; everybody, sooner or later, had to go there, and nobody wanted to carry off the entrance. Cerberus is known to have had three heads, and some of the poets have credited him with as many as a hundred. Professor Graybill, whose clerky erudition and profound knowledge of Greek give his opinion great weight, has averaged all the estimates, and makes
the number twenty-seven -- a judgment that would be entirely conclusive is Professor Graybill had known (a) something about dogs,and (b) something about arithmetic.

daily dose of w

2006-08-07T08:59:00.000-04:00

I want you to know that farmers are not going to be secondary thoughts to a Bush administration. They will be in the forethought of our thinking.

GWB
10 Aug 2000
Salinas, California

Ambrose's Antidote: CENTAUR

2006-08-04T08:10:00.000-04:00

CENTAUR, n. One of a race of persons who lived before the division of labor had been carried to such a pitch of differentiation, and who followed the primitive economic maxim, "Every man his own horse." The best of the lot was Chiron, who to the wisdom and virtues of the horse added the fleetness of man. The scripture story of the head of John the Baptist on a charger shows that pagan myths have somewhat sophisticated sacred history.

daily dose of w

2006-08-04T08:09:00.000-04:00

There is a lot of speculation and I guess there is going to continue to be a lot of speculation until the speculation ends.

GWB
October 18, 1998
The Texas governor commenting on the possibility of his running for the presidency. Reported by the Austin American-Statesman

Ambrose's Antidote: CEMETERY

2006-08-03T08:04:00.000-04:00

CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager. The inscriptions following will serve to illustrate the success attained in these Olympian games:


      His virtues were so conspicuous that his enemies, unable to
  overlook them, denied them, and his friends, to whose loose lives
  they were a rebuke, represented them as vices.  They are here
  commemorated by his family, who shared them.
      In the earth we here prepare a
      Place to lay our little Clara.

Thomas M. and Mary Frazer

      P.S. -- Gabriel will raise her.

daily dose of w

2006-08-03T08:03:00.000-04:00

There's not going to be enough people in the system to take advantage of people like me.

GWB
9 Jun 2000
Referring to a possible Social Security crisis. Wilton, Connecticut.

Ambrose's Antidote: CAVILER

2006-08-02T07:46:00.001-04:00

CAVILER, n. A critic of our own work.

daily dose of w

2006-08-02T07:46:00.000-04:00

Do not subscribe---I mean, you know, you cannot subscribe those views to me...

GWB
13 Feb 2000
Comment made on NBC's Meet the Press. Mr. Bush was referring to whether or not he agreed with the views espoused by the chancellor of Bob Jones University.

Ambrose's Antidote: CAT

2006-08-01T07:35:00.000-04:00

CAT, n. A soft, indestructible automaton provided by nature to be kicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle.


  This is a dog,
      This is a cat.
  This is a frog,
      This is a rat.
  Run, dog, mew, cat.
  Jump, frog, gnaw, rat.

Elevenson

daily dose of w

2006-08-01T07:34:00.000-04:00

I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.

GWB
29 Jan 2001
Washington, D.C.

Ambrose's Antidote: CARTESIAN

2006-07-31T07:56:00.000-04:00

CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, author of the celebrated dictum, Cogito ergo sum -- whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictum might be improved, however, thus: Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum -- "I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made.

daily dose of w

2006-07-31T07:55:00.000-04:00

They just got a different tool to use than we do: They kill innocent lives to achieve objectives. That's what they do. And they're good. They get on the TV screens and they get people to ask questions about, well, you know, this, that or the other. I mean, they're able to kind of say to people: Don't come and bother us, because we will kill you.

GWB
28 July 2006
Joint news conference with Tony Blair.
East Room of the White House
Washington D. C.

Ambrose's Antidote: CARNIVOROUS

2006-07-28T07:50:00.000-04:00

CARNIVOROUS, adj. Addicted to the cruelty of devouring the timorous vegetarian, his heirs and assigns.

daily dose of w

2006-07-28T07:49:00.000-04:00

John, we're going to get a good bill. I mean, one of the things I've learned is not to try to negotiate with you or me on national TV.

GWB
25 Apr 2001
Comment made during interview with CNN's John King.

Ambrose's Antidote: CARMELITE

2006-07-27T07:59:00.000-04:00

CARMELITE, n. A mendicant friar of the order of Mount Carmel.


  As Death was a-rising out one day,
  Across Mount Camel he took his way,
      Where he met a mendicant monk,
      Some three or four quarters drunk,
  With a holy leer and a pious grin,
  Ragged and fat and as saucy as sin,
      Who held out his hands and cried:
  "Give, give in Charity's name, I pray.
  Give in the name of the Church.  O give,
  Give that her holy sons may live!"
      And Death replied,
      Smiling long and wide:
      "I'll give, holy father, I'll give thee -- a ride."

      With a rattle and bang
      Of his bones, he sprang
  From his famous Pale Horse, with his spear;
      By the neck and the foot
      Seized the fellow, and put
  Him astride with his face to the rear.

  The Monarch laughed loud with a sound that fell
  Like clods on the coffin's sounding shell:
  "Ho, ho!  A beggar on horseback, they say,
      Will ride to the devil!" -- and _thump_
      Fell the flat of his dart on the rump
  Of the charger, which galloped away.

  Faster and faster and faster it flew,
  Till the rocks and the flocks and the trees that grew
  By the road were dim and blended and blue
      To the wild, wild eyes
      Of the rider -- in size
      Resembling a couple of blackberry pies.
  Death laughed again, as a tomb might laugh
      At a burial service spoiled,
      And the mourners' intentions foiled
      By the body erecting
      Its head and objecting
  To further proceedings in its behalf.

  Many a year and many a day
  Have passed since these events away.
  The monk has long been a dusty corse,
  And Death has never recovered his horse.
      For the friar got hold of its tail,
      And steered it within the pale
  Of the monastery gray,
  Where the beast was stabled and fed
  With barley and oil and bread
  Till fatter it grew than the fattest friar,
  And so in due course was appointed Prior.

G.J.

daily dose of w

2006-07-27T07:55:00.000-04:00

The important question is: How many hands have I shaked?

GWB
23 Oct 1999
Quoted by the New York Times. This was candidate Bush's response to a question about why he hadn't spent more time in New Hampshire.

Ambrose's Antidote: CAPITAL

2006-07-26T07:54:00.000-04:00

CAPITAL, n. The seat of misgovernment. That which provides the fire, the pot, the dinner, the table and the knife and fork for the anarchist; the part of the repast that himself supplies is the disgrace before meat. Capital Punishment, a penalty regarding the justice and expediency of which many worthy persons -- including all the assassins -- entertain grave misgivings.

daily dose of w

2006-07-26T07:49:00.000-04:00

I'll start -- do you want to start? Go ahead.

GWB
25 Jul 2006
East Room of the Whitehouse
Washington, DC

Ambrose's Antidote: CANONICALS

2006-07-25T07:53:00.000-04:00

CANONICALS, n. The motley worm by Jesters of the Court of Heaven.

daily dose of w

2006-07-25T07:51:00.000-04:00

The administration I'll bring is a group of men and women who are focused on what's best for America -- honest men and women, decent men and women, women who will see service to our country as a great privilege and who will not stain the house.

GWB
15 Jan 2000
Spoken during the Republican debate in Des Moines, Iowa.

He often says what he means, but this doesn't make sense unless he means it literally. That's probably the case.

Ambrose's Antidote: CANNON

2006-07-21T07:56:00.000-04:00

CANNON, n. An instrument employed in the rectification of national boundaries.

daily dose of w

2006-07-21T07:52:00.000-04:00

I hope to get a sense of, should I be fortunate enough to be the president, how my administration will react to the Middle East.

GWB
12 Oct 2000
From comments made in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Add equal parts handgun, gasoline, and tequila...

Ambrose's Antidote: CANNIBAL

2006-07-20T07:59:00.000-04:00

CANNIBAL, n. A gastronome of the old school who preserves the simple tastes and adheres to the natural diet of the pre-pork period.

daily dose of w

2006-07-20T07:47:00.000-04:00

You see, the thing is, what they need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.

GWB
17 July 2006
Conversation with Tony Blair in St Petersburg, Russia.

A Letter From Dick Cheney

2006-07-19T19:01:00.000-04:00

The National Republican Congressional Committee sent me a letter on behalf of Dick Cheney, if the fake signature is to be believed. In other times, I might be moved to send a real conservative (you know -- gummint out of my and everyone else's personal life, spending less than you take in, free trade) a buck or two, but I'm not so inclined these days. Here's a line that gave me a grim chuckle:

When the President and I took office, we were determined to get beyond the tired old debates and petty partisanship. We were determined to solve problems, not just pass them on to the next generation.

Mr. Vice President, may I present a problem that we didn't have before you got into office and one with which we'll be saddled long after you depart: Iraq. May I present another: the budget deficit. May I present a problem that needed solving that you simply failed to solve: Afghanistan.

Anyone got a problem that this crowd actually solved?

Anyone?