Quote Fest (CS)

The age of the soundbite can be pretty frustrating. People want their information in easily digestable chunks and these days it seems like the portion size of what's "easily digestable" gets smaller and smaller. People start to miss the tone of a speech, the context of a thought, or the entire point of a book, history, or philosophy. For example, my friend Jeff left me this quote by Jeremy Roenick while i was away at work:

I will say personally, to everybody who calls us spoiled, you guys are just jealous. We're trying to get this thing back on the ice and make it better for the fans. If you don't realize that, then don't come. We don't want you in the rink, we don't want you in the stadium, we don't want you to watch hockey.

First reaction is to call Roenick a jackass. Which he is.... but he was one long before this quote. I downloaded the press conference it was from and after watching Roenick speak, I realized that he was a lot more thoughtful over the hockey labor dispute than the quote gives him credit for. He fully admits that the players and owners were foolish, made mistakes, and certianly made the wrong choices. He also fully admitted that it's not the big name players that have anything to worry about AND that a deal must be worked out where the owners make good money or there will be no league. And he's not far from the truth that hockey players stand to get screwed at least in comparison to the players of any other major sport and their respective labor disputes. Anyway, MY point is that Roenick was much more eloquent and educated about the labor dispute than the soundbite gave him credit for and had i not watched the majority of the press conference to put that quote into context, i would have been none the wiser.
But let's face it, quotes are fun. Aphorisms are great, they were always my favorite part of Latin class. And i was always happy that the Washington Square News would supply a quote or two within its pages, particularly wise ones that pertained to any sort of modern issue at hand.
AM New York does the quote thing too, having about three "Quotes of the Day" as well as one or two extras showing up in bold face within the pages. Today's samples are fantastic:

"He's one of the worst dates I've ever had."
-- George Clooney re: Sam Rockwell

Ah Mr Clooney, So full of whit vhim and vigor and the oldest jokes in the book.


"I don't think I've ever missed a deadline; I think it would make me physically ill."
-- Roger Ebert

I gotta respect a man with conviction and committment and an understanding of hard work. All the same, if anyone can do the research and find a deadline that Ebert HAS missed, i also respect a man that can make movie critics physically ill (extra points if it's Harry Knowles).


"I marvel at Jessica Alba. How is that possible? That's God."
--- Michael Chiklis (aka, The Commish)

That's a pretty good one right there, and it seems like our soon to be Thing has a better idea of the glory of God than many of our Ten Commandment lovin' countrymen.

And that would very well be the quote of the day.... If not for this gem:

"Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years."
--- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld

Really, i would laugh if it weren't at the expense of such a rediculously fucked up situation. Talk about a scramble to save one's own ass. Not that it changes the fact that apparantly we've created a situation of violence that could go on for the next decade and a half. Mr Rumsfeld, expert on insurgencies, particularly their prolonged effect, did you not see this coming? Does it make you uncomfortable that things seem to be escalating again in Afghanistan, too? It should.