Mitch Ratcliffe

Computers have enabled people to make more mistakes faster than almost any invention in history, with the possible exception of tequila and hand guns.

(Mitch Ratcliffe is a technology journalist, media executive, and entrepreneur.)

Humble Pie

Newcastle Brown

It can sure smack you down 

Take a greasy whore

And a rollin' dance floor 

It's got your head spinnin' round 

30 days in the hole 

(That's what they give you) 

30 days in the hole . . . 

(From their 1972 song, "30 Days in the Hole."  Steve Marriott, who wrote and sang the song, was born on this date in 1947.  He died in 1991.)

H. L. Mencken

The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle . . . .  If the right pressure could be applied to him, he would be cheerfully in favor of polygamy, astrology or cannibalism.

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The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it's good-bye to the Bill of Rights.

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A man may be a fool and not know it — but not if he is married.

(H. L. Mencken died on this date in 1956.)

William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold...

(From his poem, "The Second Coming," which was composed in 1919.  Click here to read the entire poem.  Yeats died on this date in 1939.)

Cracker

Blue, blue is the sun 

Brown, brown is the sky 

Green, green are your eyes 

A million miles, a million miles 

Hey, don't you wanna go down 

Like some disgraced cosmonaut 

A million miles below their feet 

A million miles, a million miles 

I'll be with you girl 

Like being low 

Hey, hey, hey, 

Like being stoned

(From their 1993 song, "Low.")

Daniel Woodrell

"You must've heard about what Dollys are, ain't you, mister? . . . Well, I'm a Dolly, bred 'n' buttered, and that's how I know Dad's dead."

(From his 2006 novel, Winter's Bone.  The 2010 movie of the same title was just nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.  It was shot in part in Douglas County, Missouri.  Ava, which is the county seat and only incorporated city in the Douglas County, was founded in 1871 and named by my great-great-great-grandfather, James Hailey.)

Dead Weather

I'm not the way that you found me
I'm neither here or there
One day I'm happy and healthy
Next day ain't doing so well

(From the 2010 release, "The Difference Between Us.")