Dr. Samuel Johnson was one of the most quotable people in the history of the English language. Here are a few of his choice comments:

“Language is the dress of thought”
Johnson: Cowley (Lives of the Poets)

“Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”
from Boswell’s Life of Johnson

On second marriages: “The triumph of hope over experience.”
from Boswell’s Life of Johnson

“Exercise!! I never heard that he used any: he might, for aught I know, walk to the alehouse; but I believe he was always carried home again.”
Piozzi: Anecdotes

He was also reputed to be the ugliest man in London. G. K. Chesterton (another of the most quotable speakers in the history of the language) on being asked to portray Dr. Johnson in the Christmas panto noted that he didn’t know whether to be complimented or insulted.

Samuel Johnson was born at Litchfield, Staffordshire, England, on September 18, 1709.

So when an angel by divine command
With rising tempests shaks a guilty land,
Such as of late o’er pale Britannia past,

Calm and serene he drives the furious blast;
And, pleas’d th’ Almighty’s orders to perform,
Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.

The Campaign, Joseph Addison, 1705

Marcus Tacitus of Between Hope and Fear, a blogger whose work I’ve come to admire, has posted an engaging entry, The Delphi Age. In this post Marcus Tacitus compares three phenomena of our age: the blogosphere, Open Source software development (particularly the development of Linux), and al Qaeda.
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Carnival of the Recipes is being hosted this week by Prochein Amy. I’ve submitted the recipe I posted for “Blue Owl White Chili” since it was one of my earliest posts and deserves a larger viewership. It’s a good’n.

I keep thinking about the mis-match between the campaign Mr. Kerry is running and his strengths. I’m envisioning it like one of those quizzes where you match the candidate to the campaign slogan:

Dwight D. Eisenhower William Jefferson Clinton Richard M. Nixon Ronald W. Reagan Walter Mondale

“It’s the economy, stupid” “America Needs a Change” “I Like Ike” “Nixon’s the One” “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

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I’ve just noticed that Alice in Texas is posting again. Why don’t people tell me these things?

Did you ever notice that a character mentioned (but not appearing) in the movie Wife vs. Secretary is named “Harold P. Stone”? And that that’s a picture of Jean Harlow on Judge Harry Stone’s desk on the TV show Night Court?

Last night my wife, Tally, and I went to dinner at Phil & Lou’s. It was a special occasion: the Chenny Troupe’s 2nd Annual Take Your Dog to Dinner. The Chenny Troupe is a local therapy dog organization and this was a dinner and fund-raiser for the organization as well as a chance for people to have dinner in a nice place with their dogs and to socialize with other people who loved dogs, too. Here my wife and Tally are checking in and confirming our reservation.
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You probably didn’t know it but this is the birthday of Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt, Prussian traveler and naturalist. He was born September 14, 1769. The Humboldt Current is named for him. His magnum opus Kosmos was the first reasonably accurate encyclopedia of geology and natural history.

He apparently wasn’t much of a people person. His most famous saying is “I despise mankind in all its strata.” On the other hand he probably wasn’t alone.

There’s a joke that I like that goes like this. A pessimist says that the glass is half empty. An optimist says that the glass is half full. An engineer says that the glass is too big.

I’m not enough of an optimist to be a politician. I guess I’m just a “half empty” kind of guy. Politicians seem to me to be incurable optimists.

You have to be optimistic to believe that you can win whatever the odds. You have to be optimistic to believe that you and your ideas are better than the other guy and his ideas. And you’ve got to project this optimism to the voters. Haven’t the last five or so presidential elections been won by the most optimistic, upbeat candidate? Certainly Mr. Clinton was more optimistic and upbeat than either Bob Dole or George H. W. Bush. And who can forget “Morning in America”?
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