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Make this a very merry Marxmas

luazinha — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:43:50 -0800

Help me find a brief quote by Karl Marx suitable for use on a holiday ornament! Extra points for being commodities-fetish related! Background: my husband and I have ambivalent feelings about the icky consumerism of Christmas. We jokingly decided one year that we should celebrate Marxmas instead -- particularly since Marx has such a striking resemblance to Santa Claus.

For the last two years, in lieu of Christmas ornaments, I have made Marxmas ornaments for my husband and a couple of friends. The first year this consisted of a picture of Marx glued to some construction paper and decorated with glitter.

The second year, I painted some cardboard ornaments, decoupaged on a picture of Marx and then added a quote to the back. That quote was "A commodity appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing. But its analysis brings out that it is a very strange thing, abounding in metaphysical subtleties and theological niceties." I love that, and it seemed to have a nice relevance to the Marxmas experience.

I'm getting ready for this year's Marxmas ornament crafting night, and have a great picture of Marx ready to go. But I'm having a tough time deciding on what quote to use. So I turn to the hivemind for help. What Marx quote should go on the Marxmas 2009 keepsake ornament?

It needs to be brief and preferably capitalism/commodities related. But I'm willing to go for something else if it's really good. I was thinking of using "Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks." But that just seems a little too real and bleak.

"Straitjackets help me think"?

suedehead — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 02:54:35 -0800

Is there a quote by an architect or designer about how the constraints make the project? I'm looking for a quote by an architect or designer about how the constraints are helpful, rather than harmful, to the creative process. I know it's a common thought, but I'm looking for an actual quote by an actual person. Thanks!

Quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

pamspanda — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:16:28 -0800

Maggie The Cat (on a Hot Tin Roof). . . . . . . . Does anyone remember the exact quote from Maggie(the cat) in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof when she looks out the window of the bedroom and says something regarding "the no-neck monsters" (her neices and nephews.) My memory is failing me (again!) I need the exact quote if possible - thanks!

In what cartoon does Foghorn Leghorn say, "Kids coming up nowadays don't even know how to tie down their pumpkins"?

Joe Beese — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 11:49:24 -0800

In what cartoon does Foghorn Leghorn say, "Kids coming up nowadays don't even know how to tie down their pumpkins"? I've seen it attributed to "Henhouse Henery" (1949) - but this appears to be incorrect.

The fear of not finding a quote...

frwagon — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:22:21 -0800

Trying to remember a specific quote about fear of success, and my google-fu is failing. The quote was longer than most quotes, and went something to the effect of "We are not afraid of failing, but we are afraid of succeeding and becoming everything we can be...." There were religious overtones to it, but I can't remember much more than that. Any ideas?

Searching the Internet for tranqulity info

Uppity Pigeon #2 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:16:58 -0800

QuoteThatI'mTooDumbToFindFilter: I remember reading some quote online about popularity being a watered down kind of respect, and respect just being a pale substitue for a quiet life well-lived. Something along those lines. I like that quote, but I cannot for the life of me find it. I was positive it was from Dinosaur Comics, but I searched the archives from top to bottom and couldn't find it. My memories said it was from some webcomic, but my memories say a lot of things. Does anyone recognize it?

Quotal Recall

She Kisses Wyverns — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:39:04 -0800

I'm trying to find out where this quote comes from "He was 4’ 9” and 3’ of that was drugs". Google results tend to and up going to stories about drug-taking sports players. It's stuck in my head, that almost-but-not-quite remembering feeling is driving me nuts!

It's a free concert from now on

nomisxid — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:40:59 -0800

Name that mid-90's techno/trance/ambient track I half remember-filter. Memory jogged by the U2 thread, I'm trying to remember a song.
The song prominently features a sample of the announcer at Woodstock saying, "It’s a free concert from now on. That doesn’t mean that anything goes. What that means is we're going to put the music up here for free".

Yugo Cabriolet

nomisxid — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:30:46 -0800

Name the 80s/90s skate movie that contains the line, Cabriolet is Yugoslavian for "fast car" There's a movie scene rolling around in my head, where a bunch of skate punks cut the roof off of their friend's Yugo, telling him he can now call it a Cabriolet, 'cause that's Yugoslavian for "fast car".

God's knocks?

Acacia — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:00:22 -0800

Help me find a quote I have forgotten. A while ago I read a quote that went something like- "If God were kind, he would have given a woman some hard knocks before she's thirty." Or some such. Does anyone know it, and who said it? Thanks!

Quoting Proust

1f2frfbf — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 07:37:03 -0800

Looking for a Marcel Proust quote in the original French. “Love is space and time directly perceptible to the heart” is what my copy of Auden's Book of Aphorisms says, but I want to know know what Proust originally wrote. Googling around I can find that it's from The Captive (La Prisonnière), and I can do a machine translation, but I'd rather know the original French.

This string theory - it vibrates?

tzikeh — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 10:19:35 -0800

Help me find this famous quote (paragraph) about string theory? I think it's Michio Kaku, but I could be misremembering. It's in an early chapter of a modern lay-person's book about theoretical physics (Possibly Kaku's Hyperspace, possibly Chaos by James Gleick) and the gist of the quote (paragraph) is that string theory is ridiculous, it makes no sense, and we can't prove it, but the only thing we know for certain about string theory is that it is absolutely true.

Man is a complicating creature, which only simplifies under duress.

degrees_of_freedom — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:28:17 -0800

Please help me identify the author and exact text of a quote. To paraphrase, "Man is a complicating creature, which only simplifies under duress." My google searches are dry... you're my only hope!

Gandhi quotation attribution help

goethean — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:32:20 -0800

Widely attributed, unreferenced Gandhi quotation: "I like your Christ..." Authentic? According to many many people and several bumper stickers, Gandhi said: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."

Having been burned before with a plausible but bogus Goethe quotation, I want to be sure that Gandhi said it before attributing it to him. Any idea how to go about verifying it? I already tried Google, Google Books, and Google Scholar.

"Half of X is pointless, we just don't know which half". Can you identify the quote?

handee — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 04:12:36 -0800

Can you help me find the origins of a poorly remembered quote? I think it's about research, and it goes something like this: "Half of X is pointless, but you can never know which half".

What is the source for this Maya Angelou quote?

Danila — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 09:05:28 -0800

What is the source for this Maya Angelou quote? "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."

Where did JC define "life itself?"

supramarginal — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:09:00 -0800

I love Julia Child's quote, "life itself is the proper binge." Where did it come from? I've often seen this quote attributed to Julia, but I can't find exactly where it came from. I've read "My Life in France," and didn't notice it in there, nor can I find any help from Googling. I wonder if it was in one of her letters, or perhaps from one of her TV shows? Merci!

He who is most silent plots revenge?

DolorousEdd — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:10:16 -0800

Who was quoted as saying something along the lines of "He who is most silent plots revenge?" I recall the quote from a British writer in an old English textbook. The author might not be British though, that's just what I remember it as. I'm sure my paraphrase of the quote is wrong but I'm certain that it has the correct meaning, if not specific words.

How can I come up with some creative phrases using the word "amped"?

niles — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:45:30 -0800

Can you help me find phrases that include the word "amp" or "amped"? I'm part of the planning team of a one night convention, and we want to call different parts of the event by different phrases. I've done this before with a theme of "Break", and used things like "Tax Break", "Summer Break", "Break a Leg", "Take a Break", and so on. This year the theme is "Amped", and I have nothing better than "Amp it up" (and of course, "These go to eleven.").

If anyone has suggestions of phrases/catch-phrases/quotes using amped/amp, I'd love to hear them. I'd also love to get ideas on how to further generate ideas...is there such thing as a phrase dictionary out there?

Thanks!

Reasonable Car Repair?

kanuck — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:48:43 -0800

What are reasonable expectations between car repair shops / mechanics and their customers? Specific scenario inside.. Having moved relatively recently, I'm in the process of finding a good car repair shop / mechanic. I've got an older car that needs some HVAC work, so I took it into a shop that an acquaintance recommended to me. They diagnosed it and gave me a quote: 3-4 hours labor, parts costs in the $500-1000 range (depending on whether I'd like everything under discussion replaced).

1) based on various internet parts sites, they have a 100% markup on the parts in question (I'm looking up OEM/OES parts from companies like Bosch and Bohr).
2) the shop claims that they can only get the parts from the manufacturer (which no doubt charges maximum prices).
3) they want me to pre-pay for the parts.

How reasonable is this?

I've put down a small deposit @ other shops in the past for major repairs.. but no more than a few hundred $.

I don't grudge the shop some markup on parts since they deal with the overhead of orders/returns, but charging 2x the internet retail cost?

Is it crazy to think that if I could find several reputable-looking sites that sold these parts (new, OEM brands) in about 5 minutes, that they should be able to source in a similar way?

Is it reasonable to say "I'll order the parts myself and you guys do the replacement"? Should I expect the labor charge to suddenly go up in that situation?

Since parts need to be ordered anyway, I will have to get the car back first. I expect to be charged labor for the diagnosis, is there any reason I should feel bad for taking it somewhere else to get the work done? Are these all red flags that I actually should just take the car somewhere else?

Where's this quote from?

The Toad — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:26:10 -0800

"The poet writes the history of his own body". Did Thoreau use this sentence, and if he did, where exactly? I couldn't find the precise source via Google. Lots of people use it, all of them attribute it to Thoreau, but nobody says where it's from.

The earliest reference I found was in "A study of poetry", by Bliss Perry, 1930, full text here. (Again, no precise source given.)

Can you help, Mefites? Any Thoreau experts around?

Poems and quotes about wildflowers

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:28:19 -0800

Unique and beautiful poems/quotes/lyrics regarding seeds and or wildflowers. I'm getting married shortly. For our wedding favors, we are giving out packets of local wildflower seeds to our guests. I am putting a label on the seeds, and I would like to maybe have a quote/sonnet/poem/or lyric on the label about wildflowers and seeds along with our names and the date of our marriage.

I've spent hours googling for quotes, but nothing I've found makes me really happy. I'm thinking the best quotes are out there in poetry books many mefites will have on their shelves.

We are atheists, enviromentalists, and left leaning politically. So no bible verses.

Thanks so much for the help!

Lines from Joyce's Ulysses?

malapropist — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:47:30 -0800

What are some juicy lines of dialogue from James Joyce's Ulysses? I want to greet my friend in a Ulyssean fashion for a Bloomsday celebration later. So I'm going down to a Bloomsday celebration tonight at Clancy's Pub in Long Beach, with a friend of mine who is crazy about Ulysses. This will be my second Bloomsday celebration that I"ll be aware of, and sadly I still have not read Joyce's epic. Considering the sheer length of the book, I figure there have to be dozens of really juicy one-liners delivered by the narrator, or even better, by characters, that I can memorize by the time my friend comes over, so I can surprise him with a quote in a rich Irish brogue. Lines displaying a rich dollop of Irish culture and language, as well as Joycean humor, perhaps?

Please, give me your best and favorite lines from James Joyce's Ulysses.

Where is this quotation from, and how am I misremembering it?

telegraph — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:38:19 -0800

What novel (possibly or probably by Haruki Murakami) contains a speech or inner monologue with the phrase "So maybe I'm not such a good person after all"? And what's the actual text of the quotation? I hate to use my weekly question on this, but now it's gnawing at me and my Google skills have fallen short. I'm thinking of either a speech or inner monologue type passage that includes the phrase "So maybe I'm not such a good person after all," (or a close analogue of that), along with a sort of explanation of how that person can be low and mean. I know there's a speech with similar content but different wording in South of the Border, West of the Sun.

My intuition was that it's in The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, but like I said, my searches so far have been fruitless. I've read a lot of Murakami so it could easily be from any of his other novels or short stories... or something entirely different, though hopefully not.

What's that Confucianism/Buddhism quote?

Anoxs — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:12:41 -0800

Trying to remember a quote relating to Confucianism and Buddhism and comparing them to different types of stores. I'm hazy on pretty much every detail. The quote might have also mentioned Taoism, but I'm not sure about that. I believe it was said by a scholar.