Decades of students discovered that if they did not pay attention in class, Dr. Lang would throw chalk. "He would rant and rave in front of his students," Dr. Ribet said. "He would say, 'Our two aims are truth and clarity, and to achieve these I will shout in class.' "

"Hey dude, something's wrong with our plane."   - a passenger on today's JetBlue flight 292

From a newspaper article (italics mine): About 20 minutes before they landed, the crew instructed the passengers to prepare for landing by practicing the brace position, bending over and grabbing their ankles or the seat in front of them, I know I'm easily amused, but really--how often do you see that phrase in a straight news item?

And. In the text of a 700+ word article in the NY Times about flight 292, one (1) word was underlined as a link to another web page. The word: Ohio. The article is about an emergency that happened in California, involving a plane operated by an airline based in New York. Los Angeles and New York are known quantities and don't need links to more info. But when Ohio was mentioned it was with a helpul link, for Times readers who might be intrigued to read about an obscure fly-over state. I'm reminded of A View of the World from 9th Avenue, the famous New Yorker cover (by Saul Steinberg) from March 29, 1976.

One thing I hate is being asked questions like these:

  Do you prefer physics to biology?
  Did you like that play?
  Do you like Wagner?
  Did you enjoy your year abroad?

What makes us want to compress so much into such inexpressive summaries as "like," "prefer," and "enjoy"?  ...  Neither the state of the world nor that of the mind is ever so simple that it can be expressed in a single, one-dimensional judgment.  ...  So we ought to be suspicious when we find ourselves liking something very much, because that might mean some of our agencies are forcefully suppressing other possibilities.

The surer you are that you like what you are doing, the more completely your other ambitions are being suppressed.

Copulation is spiritual in essence -- or it is merely friendly exercise. On second thought, strike out "merely." Copulation is not "merely"--even when it is just a happy pastime for two strangers. But copulation at its spiritual best is so much more than physical coupling that it is different in kind as well as in degree.

The saddest feature of homosexuality is not that it is "wrong" or "sinful" or even that it cannot lead to progeny--but that is more difficult to reach through it this spiritual union. Not impossible--but the cards are stacked against it.

But--most sorrowfully--many people never achieve spiritual sharing even with the help of male-female advantage; they are condemned to wander through life alone.

I am convinced that for most natures and perhaps for all, a certain degree of ascetic practice is necessary if the individual it to attain his highest possibilities. [...] Man wins power in any direction by concentration of effort in the appropriate sense, but this involves inevitably a suppression of diffused activity.

[...]

But after all is said and done, asceticism related to the carnal nature belongs only to the kindergarten stage of the training for the Higher Life of man. The higher and genuinely adult asceticisms are of an entirely different nature. Thus, when a man learns to become detached with respect to his pet opinions or ideas, and is willing to accept conclusions quite counter to his preferences when either evidence of logic points that way, then he is practicing asceticism in a higher and nobler sense.

Pathways Through to Space, chapter 75