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Greetings, Quotaholics:
In February 2005 a drunk guy was arrested in Manchester, Connecticut.
He was in a bar parking lot sitting in his car. He had remotely started
the car and the engine was running. The keys were not in the ignition.
The car never moved and neither did he – until he was arrested for drunk
driving.
According to the Centers
for Disease Control, 36 people die daily and about another 700 are
injured in motor vehicle crashes where alcohol is a factor. The annual
cost is more than $51 billion. Another 18% of traffic fatalities are related
to drug impairment rather than alcohol.
Nearly one-third of traffic fatalities are caused by impaired drivers
and 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence
of alcohol or narcotics. That represents less than 1% of self-reported
impaired drivers.
Obviously, driving impaired is dangerous. Cell phone use has been attributed
to over 200
deaths and 500,000 injuries per year, according to a Harvard study.
As far back as 2002 one
accident out of every twenty was linked to cell phone use, and the
number of cell phone users has greatly increased since then.
Sleep deprivation
also causes a lack of awareness even if the driver remains awake.
The attention to driving and the alertness of the driver diminishes the
longer one goes without sleep. There are laws governing how many hours
semi truck drivers may drive per day for this reason.
There are lots of ways to be less attentive to driving and therefore causing
accidents. Luckily, with improved car design, many accidents are no longer
fatal. The cost remains very high and vigilance while driving remains
popular.
So, our guy in Connecticut,
what happened to him?
Michael Cyr is now 50 and faces a year in prison and three years probation
following his release. His case has been heard by the Connecticut supreme
court and they found in a 5-0 ruling that he was guilty.
"In starting the engine of his vehicle remotely then getting behind
the steering wheel, the defendant clearly undertook the first act in a
sequence of steps necessary to set in motion the motive power of a vehicle,"
Chief Justice Chase Rogers wrote in the opinion.
The ruling stems from a 1939 Connecticut decision saying that thinking
about driving is tantamount to actually driving – the "motive power"
used above.
They guy may be going to prison for remotely starting his car. He wasn’t
driving drunk. He was sitting drunk, in a car. Were the police correct
in arresting him for drunk driving? Were the courts correct in upholding
the case (which lower courts did not uphold)?
The article does not state how long Cyr was sitting in the car without
driving. It would seem the whole thing could have been avoided if the
police had simply waited for him to drive. But he wasn’t going anywhere.
He was sitting. In the car. Drunk. So he must have sat there too long
for the police to continue waiting for him to decide to drive, as I see
it.
Would more facts help you determine the rightness or wrongness of the
court’s decision. Mr. Cyr is married with two stepchildren, aged 12 and
13. He is the sole support of his family. His wife has been laid off from
her job. They are living hand to mouth as it is. It would be possible
for Cyr to take his case to the US Supreme Court, but he cannot afford
to do so.
Here are a couple other facts. Mr. Cyr had also been arrested for drunk
driving in 1997 and 1998. Does this make a difference?
"It sounds like they’re saying if you’re under the influence, if
you’re impaired, you have no right to go into the car in the driver’s
side and if you do, you do so under you’re own peril with the chance of
being charged with operating under the influence," Steven Tomeo,
Cyr’s lawyer, said. "I just would like them to stick with the facts."
Should police be permitted to arrest people because they are about to
commit a crime? Was this man about to commit a crime or was he well on
his way to passing out behind the wheel in the parking lot? Are we better
now than in 1939 about determining what others are thinking? Should this
Motive Power be cause for action?
Movingly,
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“I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That’s
deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?” - Jean Kerr
“When I’m working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think
only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution
is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.” - R. Buckminster Fuller
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Trailer Park Rules
1. No cars up on blocks for longer than three years.
2. No draining your oil onto the street.
3. No loud and wild parties without inviting the manager.
4. You may have no more than 3 beer can wind chimes each only having
no more than 6 cans each.
5. Drunkenness will not be tolerated in the streets prior to 10 am.
6. While outside of your trailer you must be at least partially clothed.
7. If you prefer to clean your trailer in the nude, please close the
curtains.
8. When bringing in the Jerry Springer or COPS film crews, please
provide the management prior written notice so that certain residents
may be forewarned.
9. Empty beer bottles should not be discarded on the front lawn. However,
they may remain there until you are sober enough to collect them with
the understanding you will collect them within 7 days whether sober
or not.
10. When bringing dates home to your trailer, please be advised that
in the event the sidewalks need to be repaired or replaced due to
the weight of your date, you will be responsible for all cost incurred.
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“Art is the most beautiful deception of all. And although people try to
incorporate the everyday events of life in it, we must hope that it will
remain a deception lest it become a utilitarian thing, sad as a factory.”
“How much has to be explored and discarded before reaching the naked flesh
of feeling.”
“In opera, there is always too much singing.” – all from Claude Debussy
who died on this date in 1918
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E-Mail
the Imp
According
to myth and legend, and letters written by his contemporaries, Plato
loved to lounge around after dinner with his guests and wax eloquent
on almost every scientific and political topic of the day. I can just
imagine Greece’s greatest minds getting ever wilder in their imaginings
as the wine flowed freely.
Almost everything that was discussed during these sessions was eventually
written down by Plato or his students, and what they wrote was fantastic.
They had an uncanny ability to get to the basics of things without scientific
instruments, just using their powers of observation and their intellects.
They also came up with some pretty wild theories and suppositions…sometimes
based on hearsay for things they hadn’t observed, and I’m sure due to
an extra flagon or two of wine.
One
of the things Plato spoke and wrote about has haunted and intrigued
people for the past two thousand plus years. Atlantis…an ancient and
powerful island nation, a perfect society blessed by the Gods that existed
in the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules. It was supposedly destroyed
by earthquake and floods, and sank beneath the waves. Based on the written
record left by Plato, that occurred in 9600 BC.
Ever since Plato’s account of Atlantis was recorded around 360 BC, people
have been searching for evidence of this supposed civilization. I’ve
always had a problem with some of the theories that have risen that
supposedly provide proof that Atlantis did exist.
Atlantis was a sea power, an advanced agricultural society, a culture
marked by advanced architectural achievement, and the possessor of a
supposed super power source. Survivors are said to have washed up on
shores all over the world and jump started other civilizations with
their scientific knowledge. The link between all civilizations and the
Atlanteans is supposed to be the pyramid, a design that has appeared
in one form or another in most ancient civilizations.
Poppycock! Balderdash! Road Muffins! Pyramids are merely the easiest
way to stack rocks in a big pile so they won’t fall and you learn that
by trial and error. If the Atlanteans taught the follow-on civilizations
how to build, they had to be very poor teachers. It would have been
over 50 centuries
from the destruction of Atlantis to the rise of the next civilizations
in Sumeria.
The beginnings of agriculture show in archeological sites dating back
to the supposed hey-day of Atlantis, but it would take another 30
or so centuries before there is any archeological record of purely
agrarian settlements. It sure took those Atlanteans a long time pass
on the techniques of plowing.
The
site of Atlantis has been “determined” to be just about everywhere
since people have started looking for it. Most of the historically proposed
locations are in or near the Mediterranean Sea: islands such as Sardinia,
Crete and Santorini, Sicily, Cyprus, and Malta; land-based cities or
states such as Troy, Tartessos, and Tantalus (in the province of Manisa),
Turkey; and Israel-Sinai or Canaan. The Thera eruption, dated to the
17th or 16th century BC, caused a large tsunami that experts hypothesize
devastated the Minoan civilization on the nearby island of Crete, further
leading some to believe that this may have been the catastrophe that
inspired the story.
It has been proposed that a large island once existed midway between
the Americas and Europe or perhaps it was the Canary Islands, the Azores,
the Bahamas Islands, Cuba, several locations in South America, several
areas off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, and even Antarctica
could be the location of Atlantis.
The
latest location is a site near the Canary Islands. There is large
rectangle of criss-crossed straight lines on the ocean floor about the
size of Wales. One expert says that it looks
like an aerial view of a city’s street layout. There are quite a
few natural formations that at first glance appear to be too “regular”
to occur naturally, such as Ireland’s
Giant’s Causeway and the Bimini
Road. But these are much smaller in scope than this new enigma.
Atlantis? No way. Remnants of another ancient and lost civilization?
Very possible. It could have been the layout of an alien outpost for
the worker bees who spent time here manipulating genes and creating
Homo sapiens. Or it could have been a resort and staging area for time
travelers.
I can’t wait for under water archeologists to investigate and give us
an answer.
The Bad Sied 
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Patti
has some observations to share. Thanks Patti, here’s your 15 minutes!
I
have a dog. She is a cute dog. And she is old. She is eleven now and
her once ginger coat is peppered with gray. She is an odd combination
of breeds, probably corgi and Jack Russell. Her body is elongated and
her legs are very short.
She does some really dumb things so when asked what kind of dog I have
I tend to tell people, "Stupid." But she isn’t really stupid.
She knows several different words. She knows: treat, car, go outside,
and walk. Especially walk. She loves to go for a walk.
Now, if we don’t go for a walk, she will lie around the house all day
and move from couch to her spot right in front of the door. She has
two different beds, one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. And she
has a second couch she likes to rest upon. She moves from spot to spot
and waits for dinner.
She goes outside in the morning when we all first wake up. She goes
outside after she eats her dinner. We always ask if she wants to go
out before we all head for bed and sometimes she does but more often
she doesn’t.
She doesn’t ever ask to go out between breakfast and dinner. She doesn’t
make messes in the house if she isn’t let out.
However, every single time we go for a walk, she feels the need to poop.
She doesn’t poop mid-afternoon unless we go for a walk. Even if I just
go out in the back yard and she comes with me, no pooping. On a walk,
poop.
So on every single walk we take, I have to bring my plastic poop bag.
Sometimes she is so excited about perambulating around the block, she
poops twice. It takes a special skill to use one bag for two poop cleanups,
but I am a responsible pet owner and so I have mastered the trick.
Now, I’m supposed to go green and so I don’t use plastic grocery store
bags. I’ve purchased the reusable cloth totes. Now, instead, I have
to buy poop bags. I used to use the plastic grocery bags for this. So
I’m not ahead any with the plastic bag stuff.
And poop is essentially good for the lawns. It is illegal to leave dog
poop out and about but I’m not really sure why. It is even illegal for
me to let her go in my own back yard and only clean it up every couple
weeks or so. It is okay for me to gather it together in a heap and call
it compost, however.
I would like to know what a dog is thinking as it walks. They all do
this. Are they thinking: I’m out in the world now and this human who
feeds me and gives me water and meets all my needs is giving up time
to take me for a walk. I think, in order to show my appreciation, I
will make my dear, sweet, loving human carry around a bag of poop.
Aw, LC, Mommy loves you. – Patti and her dog in South Carolina.
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Battle
Of The Sexes
I
think it began when an amoeba split and there was a chromosome damaged,
changing one from an X to a Y. Since then, it has been a continual misunderstanding.
It
seems neither sex can truly understand the other. Men cannot understand
how the hormones can take a strong woman and reduce her to a sniveling
cry-baby. Women cannot understand how the hormones can take a strong
man and create a tunnel vision where sex can occur no matter what else
is going on.
Comedians
have built an industry on just this topic. Of course politics also fuels
the comedy steamroller, but we aren’t allowed to talk about that. 
Man-woman interaction and relationships dominate the comedy repertoire.
Comedy is funny when the audience understands the punch-line. Everyone
who has strayed further out than their mailbox understands the topic
of sexual interconnection.
One
comedian, Sean Morey, has a skewed perspective on the subject. He has
created "The Man Song" (lyrics
- video).
But he’s fair, he also created "The Woman Song" (lyrics
& video). He’s not the first, obviously. It was probably another
amoeba that noticed the differences and made the first joke about it.
Science
has been trying, against social political correctness, to prove there
are distinctive differences between men and women. It’s something the
layman has known all along. Take, for example, a woman who starts crying
for no apparent reason as she deals with PMS. Then compare that to a
man who just pummeled his thumb with a hammer who refuses to allow even
a tear, and we see immediately the divergence begins. Personally, I
noticed there was a difference shortly after girls weren’t icky any
more. Maybe even before that since girls had "cooties" and
boys didn’t.
Here’s
your quiz:
What differences, other than the obvious physical ones, have you observed?
Do you feel women and men are equal in all respects?
In general, does the lack of physical prowess in women and the lack
of of the ability to distinguish 9,457 shades of color by men highlight
that there is a difference?
Battle
Of The Sexes - Viva La Difference!
Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature pic’)
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“I
don’t think it is so much the actual bath that most cats dislike; I
think it’s the fact that they have to spend a good part of the day putting
their hair back in place.”
~ Debbie Peterson ~
Today I am blurry of mind, droopy of eye, and untidy of hair. Two of
these things are related, and the third, while not related, just serves
to contribute to the overall appearance of exhaustion. I realize I sound
like a stuck record at times, always talking about how tired I am. But
when my three-year-old wakes up in the middle of the night screaming
for his helicopter, you can hardly blame me. (On a completely seperate
note, I once said something to a twenty-something co-worker about sounding
like a stuck record, and he adopted a dumb-looking expression and said,
“Huh?” This same guy looked equally blank when I referred to Peter Gabriel.
Either I’m old or he’s stupid).
Anyway, what happened was this. Last night both boys went to bed bang
on schedule, and they went to sleep right away. They’re pretty good
that way. It took an entire historical era to get to this point, but
bedtimes in my household are, for the most part, stress-free occasions.
And so by nine thirty last night, I was free to finish getting clothes
and lunches ready for today. By ten, I was relaxing with a nice glass
of wine. By ten thirty, I was in bed and on my way to the Land of Nod.
At about two thirty, I was loudly and abruptly yanked back from the
Land of Nod into the here and now. The source of the disturbance was
an outraged three-year-old, crying, “I want my helicopter”. Initially
I put it down to a bad dream and didn’t pay much attention. James seems
to have a lot of dreams about people taking his stuff. I guess that’s
the kind of thing that preschoolers lose sleep over. I got up, tucked
him in, and went back to bed. For five blissful minutes there was silence.
Then: “I WANT MY HELL-EE-COP-TERRRRRRRR!!!!!”
I was faced with a choice. Do I ignore the helicopter demands and risk
disturbance of the entire apple-cart for the rest of the night? Or do
I get up in the middle of the night and root around in endless toyboxes
for the helicopter? I was pretty tired and wanted more than anything
to go back to sleep, so I chose the rooting-in-toyboxes option. Finding
one toy in my house in the middle of the night is a bit like a blind
man looking for a needle in a haystack, but it was worth a shot. Fortunately
the gods were smiling on me (having first woken me up, of course). The
helicopter was sitting right in the middle of the living room floor,
in plain view. I took it to James, and he grabbed it, tucked it in under
the covers, and fell into a peaceful sleep while holding it close to
him.
Other kids go to sleep with fluffy blankets and teddy bears. Mine needs
a helicopter.
So all of this accounts for the droopy eyes and blurry mind. The hair
is untidy simply because it wouldn’t cooperate. It has days like that.
I can heat-treat it and mousse it to within an inch of its life, and
it just does its own thing. In the end I gave up and tied it back in
an alleged ponytail.
My job is very busy at the moment. When I’m at work I don’t have time
to be tired. This is a good thing. Most of the day passed uneventfully.
At the end of the day I had to attend a two-hour meeting, but I didn’t
actually have to pay attention, so my mind was free to wander for a
while. Coming home from the subway station, I had the bus driver from
hell. The kind that gives you whiplash every time the brakes are applied.
That jerked me into something resembling wakefulness.
The upshot of all of this is that while I had a great topic picked out
for today’s article, I’m lacking the requisite energy to give it the
attention it deserves. I will be back on Friday, complete with energy,
an article that makes sense, and tidy hair.
Kaleidoscopically yours,
Kirsten
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Have you heard of the Conficker worm? This is a real nasty one, and
experts estimate that between
five million and ten million PCs have been infected with it worldwide.
The problem is, they don’t really know how many computers are infected,
or what the worm will do. It hasn’t really caused many problems yet,
so you might not even know you’re infected.
But that’s going to change soon. On April 1st, it is going to activate.
It will “phone home”, so to speak, and get further instructions. It
has the potential to do anything from delete all the files on your
hard drives to record your keystrokes in attempt to steal your banking
information. It could pop up a window trying to sell you fake security
software, it can turn your computer into a spam-spewing zombie, or
use it for a denial of service attack on web sites. Chances are, it
won’t try to damage your PC. Hackers have moved away from creating
havoc for fame and bragging rights, and are now more interested in
getting you to part with your money.
So how can you tell if you’re infected with the Conficker worm? It’s
simple. Try doing a Windows Update. The Conficker worm disables Windows
Update and a few other security programs. The bad guys don’t want
you to be able to update Windows should Microsoft come out with something
that will neutralize it. If you can do a Windows update, you probably
aren’t infected (never say never).
Now, what can you do if you are infected? Well, security expert Sophos
has developed a tool to remove
Conficker. Downloading it requires registration at their site,
and they will ask for your e-mail address. They won’t share it, but
they may use it to send you product advertisements and such. Hey,
they’re a company. They gotta make money somehow. You can opt-out
of their advertisements, but they may still send you e-mail about
security updates. I’m wouldn’t be concerned about it, they are a reputable
company and I read their privacy
policy. In my opinion, they are the best hope for a fix.
This one has me concerned, folks. You see, this worm can change to
avoid detection. I can’t guarantee my advice will work. We won’t know
until April 1st what it can or will do. Please, try to update Windows.
If that fails, try the Sophos remover. But whatever you do, do it
before April 1st. Ten million computers in the hands of a criminal
would be no laughing matter.
Tim (Buffalo, NY)
Not having a Ball with Yarns
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Uses for old newspaper
Place on windshield to prevent icing
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Got a few with that line. Some make-ups
too.
Next opening line…
I got pretty wild on spring break…
Hints:
Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool. http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules. http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm
Submit
Opening Line
Submit
Limerick
As
I walked down the street in the rain
The meaning of life became plain
For a second or two
I quite simply knew -
Now I try to remember in vain - Julian,
England |
As
I walked down the street in the rain
I suddenly felt a great pain
I had stepped in a rut
And fell down on my butt
Next time, I’ll just take the train. - Bonnie |
As I walked
down the street in the rain
I sang out loud and long the refrain
That’s about romance
Then I did a dance . . .
My dream being Gene Kelly’s inane. - E. Cole Aye |
As I walked
down the street in the rain
I got a sever case of eye strain
I really don’t know why
I looked up in the sky
But the rain in my eyes didn’t drain. - E. Cole Aye |
Last night
I had too much green beer
Now I can’t see things too clear
By the can I did wake
With a splitting headache
And it hurts greatly from ear to ear. - E. Cole Aye |
Last night
I had too much green beer
For this is what I thought I did hear:
As two spacemen did talk
Earthlings they did stalk
And their invasion time is near. - E. Cole Aye |
A young
politician from Maine
For himself wanted to make a name
"Since around me is Snow
And I think that does Blow
I think I’ll legalize Cocaine." - E. Cole Aye |
There once
was a stripper from Vegas
Who had a thing for Elvis.
She liked his white suit
And his dark hair to boot!
But loved how he shook his pelvis! - E. Cole Aye |
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Links to online editions of RGQ
http://www.reallygoodquotesonline.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reallygoodquotes/
Re: Microsoft Moans
I’ve heard that even with the piles of money that Microsoft is raking
in, they are spending even more. It can’t be easy writing code where
nine out of ten lines do things that the owner doesn’t want. I really
hope that the Linux community will get off their purity and education
jag, and start accepting tens and twenties to install free sofware for
the rest of us. - Bob
of the North
[I’ve
been a programmer for over 30 years now (mainframe not PC) and I’ve
always said that if I wrote "buggy" code like the average
Microsoft product I wouldn’t have lasted a year! Mainframe shops
don’t allow you to "close all windows and restart" when your
code is bad. You get called in the middle of the night and drag
your A– in and fix it. I’ve always used windows because it comes
on most computers and most programs you want to run will only run on
windows. They got you both ways. I’ve never tried Linux.
I don’t know if I’m PC literate enough to pull that off.]
Mike said: I really need
a new computer. The desktop that I use is getting really slow. My Internet
Explorer tells me it needs to install Flash Player, but when I tell
it to install I get a message that says it can’t. Opera however runs
Flash Player just fine, so it’s already installed.
Another problem
I have concerns FTP. I need to load the images for RGQ to the server,
however when I try I can connect but the load times out. I get an error
message that says my firewall or anti-virus program is blocking me.
At any rate,
it’s probably time to buy a new computer
GET
A MAC!!!  - Mike in Va Beach, VA
[I
think a few more people would have to hit the contribution button for
me to be able to afford a Mac!]
Re: Tim’s Troubles
Tim, just because the cleaning people can get on doesn’t mean that the
password is taped to the monitor. Some employees are required to leave
their computers on 24-7 so others can get into their "shared"
folders during off-hours. - Noella
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Disclaimer- All quotes printed in this publication are believed to be
accurately attributed, but no guarantees are made that some incorrectly
attributed, or even outright false quotes won’t get in here from time
to time. I assure readers that I will do my best to weed out incorrect
quotes, and will print a retraction as soon as I become aware of any errors.
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Click here to see the archives of past issues, or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reallygoodquotes/messages.
If you run across something really outstanding when perusing the archives,
I’d appreciate it if you’d mail me at TheBestOfRGQ@yahoo.com
and point it out to me. I’m in the process of compiling an e-book
called, not surprisingly, The Best of RGQ, and I’d like to hear from you
which pieces impacted you the most. |
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