Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
![]() |
World Community Grid Forums
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
No member browsing this thread |
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 545
|
![]() |
Author |
|
cjslman
Master Cruncher Mexico Joined: Nov 23, 2004 Post Count: 2082 Status: Offline Project Badges: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Journalists, friends, armed forces specialists, and even their father laughed at Orville and Wilbur Wright's idea of an airplane. "What a silly and insane way to spend money. Leave flying to the birds," they jeered. "Sorry," the Wright brothers responded. "We have a dream, and we can make it happen." As a result, a place called Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, became the setting for the launching of their "ridiculous" idea.
---------------------------------------- |
||
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
In 1929, Hoover waited until he'd been in office forty days before calling in his secretary of war. Hoover asked the secretary, "Do you know of anything particular going on in your sphere about which I should be informed?"
"Not a thing in the world, Mr. President," the secretary answered. And that was the last time the president and his secretary of war had occasion to get together. |
||
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
"Don't introduce me to him," said Richard Lamb urgently when a friend offered to present a man whom Lamb had for a long time disliked by hearsay. "I want to go on hating him, and I can't do that to a man I know."
|
||
|
cjslman
Master Cruncher Mexico Joined: Nov 23, 2004 Post Count: 2082 Status: Offline Project Badges: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Someone once remarked upon the huge number of failures which Thomas Edison had racked up in his quest for a practical storage battery: fifty thousand failed experiments before finally achieving any results. "Results?" the inventor replied. "Why, I have gotten a lot of results. I know fifty thousand things that won't work!"
---------------------------------------- |
||
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
By a strange coincidence Jefferson and his old rival John Adams both died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence—July 4, 1826. On the evening of July 3, Jefferson was in bed, his life ebbing rapidly. "This is the Fourth?" he whispered to a young friend watching by his bedside. The man couldn't bring himself to say that it was not yet, so kept silent. Jefferson repeated the question, and this time the friend nodded. A look of deep satisfaction came over Jefferson's face, he sighed deeply, lay back, sank into a deep sleep, and died shortly after noon on the Fourth.
|
||
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Frederick the great arranged a tour of inspection of the prison in Berlin. The prisoners fell on their knees before him, all vigorously protesting their innocence. One man alone remained silent and aloof. Frederick called to him, "You there. Why are you here?"
"Armed robbery, Your Magesty." "And are you guilty?" "Yes, indeed, Your Majesty. I entirely deserve my punishment." Frederick summoned the warden. "Guard, release this guilty wretch at once. I will not have him kept in this prison where he will corrupt all the fine innocent people who occupy it." |
||
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Talleyrand once reprimanded a visitor for swallowing a glass of expensive brandy in a single gulp. "The first thing you should do," explained Talleyrand, "is take your glass in the palms of your hands and warm it. Then shake it gently, with a circular movement, so that the liquid's perfume is released. Then, raise the glass to the nose and breathe deeply." His visitor was fascinated. "And then, my lord?" he asked. "And then, sir," continued Talleyrand, "you replace the glass on the table and talk about it."
|
||
|
cjslman
Master Cruncher Mexico Joined: Nov 23, 2004 Post Count: 2082 Status: Offline Project Badges: ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
George Burns professed great admiration for bridge. "It is a game that separates the men from the boys," he once declared. "It also separates husbands and wives."
---------------------------------------- |
||
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Webster's father left him and his brother Ezekiel alone one day and gave them specific instructions as to the work they were to accomplish. On his return, he found the task still undone, and severely questioned his sons about their idleness. "What have you been doing, Ezekiel?" he asked.
"Nothing, sir." "Well, Daniel, what have you been doing?" "Helping Zeke, sir." |
||
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hemingway's son Patrick asked his father to edit a story he had written. Hemingway went through the manuscript carefully, then returned it to his son. "But, Papa," cried Patrick in dismay, "you've only changed one word."
"If it's the right word," said Hemingway, "that's a lot." |
||
|
|
![]() |