"A trend is a trend is a trend, but the question is will it bend? Will it alter its course, through some unforeseen force and come to a premature end?" Sir Alec Cairncross, former chief economic adviser to the British government, quoted in The Economist August 10, 1991

"Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining." Anne Lamott, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe and Mail September 6, 2002

In my latest piece for C2C Journal I take issue with Peter Stockland's blanket condemnation of marijuana in that publication.

"As long as people think you're dumber than you are, you'll make money." Marcellus Mature to his son Victor when the latter set off for Hollywood to become a movie star, arriving with 11 cents in his pocket (according to www.victormature.net/victormatureradio/aboutme.htm as of June 6 2013, which also credited Marcellus with saying "Life owes you nothing no more than a man deserves a woman merely because he happens to love her" so you get two for the price of one today)

"Was Kierkegaard right when he said that all despair about earthly things is actually – and without us necessarily being aware of this – despair about the Eternal?" Leszek Kolakowski in First Things June-July 2003

"A pessimist’s blood type is always b-negative." One of "Gilbert!’s Top Dozen Very Bad Puns" in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 5 #8 (July/August 2002)

"If you cannot mould yourself as you would wish, how can you expect other people to be entirely to your liking?" Thomas à Kempis, quoted as "Thought du jour" in Globe and Mail October 21, 2002