Pity poor Hannah, who received a startling text message on her cellphone, sent from her father: "Your mom and I are going to divorce next month." After Hannah registered her alarm, her father quickly texted back: "I wrote 'Disney,' and this phone changed it. We are going to Disney." Welcome to the world [...]
I have tried to keep diaries before, but they didn’t work out because of the necessity to be honest. -- John Steinbeck Quote from article at: NYT 22Jan11: Tales of Lives Richly Lived, But True?
a provision in a commercial real estate loan agreement that holds individual developers personally liable for the loan if their borrower company should file for bankruptcy. The commercial real estate market is being hobbled by billions of dollars in distressed debt, and some experts are pointing to a provision in many loans — [...]
Shortly before the iPad tablet went on sale last year, Steven P. Jobs showed off Apple's latest creation to a small group of journalists. One asked what consumer and market research Apple had done to guide the development of the new product. “None,” Mr. Jobs replied. “It isn’t the consumers’ job to know what [...]
a keyboard error made by a securities trader who pushes the wrong key or keys when entering a trade. In a day short of major U.S. data, the bond market was jolted during the midmorning session as talk circulated in the market that an investor made a mistake—known as a "fat finger" error—on a [...]
The only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one. --Christopher Buckley Quoted in: NYT 16Jan11: "The Spirit Of the Mensch" (book review of "Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing")
“Three Seconds” [a Swedish crime novel], . . . is not the first book written by the odd-couple team of Anders Roslund (journalist) and Borge Hellstrom (ex-criminal). But “Three Seconds” [is their first] book that has been wishfully packaged to suggest that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” has a second cousin. . [...]
Q. Just to clarify, do you suffer from manic depression or bipolar disorder? FISHER They say bipolar now. It’s the same as manic depression. I think manic depression is more descriptive. Bipolar sounds like a gay bear. [Italics added.] See article at: NYT 05Dec10: "No Business Like Their Family Business" [featuring a joint [...]
a planet that is outside our solar system. In a long-awaited announcement, scientists operating NASA's Kepler planet-hunting satellite reported on Wednesday that they had identified 1,235 possible planets orbiting other stars, potentially tripling the number of known planets. Of the new candidates, 68 are one and a quarter times the size of [...]
[T]he essential difference between plagiarism and forgery [is] in the first, one passes off another's work as one's own; in the second, vice versa. --from obituary of Denis Dutton, founder of the website Arts & Letters Daily, summarizing one of his opinions. See obituary at: NYT 01Jan11: "Denis Dutton, Philosopher, Dies at 66"