"Although it feels like a roller coaster now, life will calm down."
-- Fortune Cookie

"As far as I'm concerned, every New Yorker is born with the inalienable right to ride the D train, shout 'Hey, lady!' with indignation and grow up going regularly to the theater. After all, if a city is fortunate enough to house an entire theater district, shouldn't access to the stage life within it be what makes coming of age in New York different from any other American city?"

-- Wendy Wasserstein, 1950-2006

"I haven't seen it. I'd be glad to talk about ranching, but I haven't seen the movie. I've heard about it...I hope you go [laughter], you know [laughter], I hope you go back to the ranch and the farm, is what I was about to say. I haven't seen it".
-- President George W. Bush, when asked by a college student if he had seen the Brokeback Mountain motion picture.


(Image from Theocracy Watch)

"I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories and play our songs again
When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name
No one recognized me, I didn't look the same

But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself

People came from miles around, everyone was there
Yoko brought her walrus, there was magic in the air
An' over in the corner, much to my surprise
Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise

But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself
Lot-in-dah-dah-dah, lot-in-dah-dah-dah

Played them all the old songs, thought that's why they came
No one heard the music, we didn't look the same
I said hello to "Mary Lou", she belongs to me
When I sang a song about a honky-tonk, it was time to leave

But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself
Lot-dah-dah-dah (Lot-dah-dah-dah)
Lot-in-dah-dah-dah

Someone opened up a closet door and out stepped Johnny B. Goode
Playing guitar like a-ringin' a bell and lookin' like he should
If you gotta play at garden parties, I wish you a lotta luck
But if memories were all I sang, I'd rather drive a truck

But it's all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone
So ya got to please yourself
Lot-dah-dah-dah (Lot-dah-dah-dah)
Lot-in-dah-dah-dah

An' it's all right now, learned my lesson well
You see, ya can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself"

-- Rick Nelson, 1972


Image from Artist Direct.

"We worked up an act called 'The Nicholas Kids', and did it in the livingroom. Our father said: 'When you're dancing, don't look at your feet, look at the audience. You're not entertaining yourself, you're entertaining the audience."'
-- Fayard Nicholas, 1914-2006, of the Nicholas Brothers.


(Image from Wikipedia)

"America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week".
-- Evan Esar

"We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same".
-- Carlos Castaneda

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things".
-- Peter Drucker

"Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results."
-- Willie Nelson


Image from Texas Music Project.

"Slow and steady won't do much for your bet in the daily double, but it's the way to win the race of your life."

-- Joan Rivers


Image from VH1.

"Me? I need to keep the plug in the jug".

-- Robert Downey, Jr., in Wonder Boy by Logan Hill in New York Magazine.


Image from theincrowdvlog.com.

"The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity".
-- Helen Rowland

"Dreck is dreck and no amount of fancy polish is going to make it anything else."

-- Linda Ellerbee


Image from NPR.

"The greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.”
-- Salvador Dali

"Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young.
I just looked 'round and he's gone."

-- Richard Holler

Image from Art.com

"I had been strangled by Ronald Colman, drowned by Montgomery Clift, stabbed and drowned by Robert Mitchum, shot by Jack Palance and by Rod Steiger in two different films and, oh yes, overdosed with heroin by Ricardo Montalban."

-- Shelley Winters, 1920-2006



Image from The Washington Post.

"Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that's bad for you!"

-- Tommy Smothers

"Basic Training for Life:

1. If you open it, CLOSE IT.

2. If you turn it on, TURN IT OFF.

3. If you unlock it, LOCK IT.

4. If you break it, FIX IT.

5. If you can't fix it, CALL SOMEONE WHO CAN.

6. If you borrow it, RETURN IT.

7. If you use it, TAKE CARE OF IT

8. If you make a mess, CLEAN IT UP.

9. If you move it, PUT IT BACK.

10. If it belongs to someone else, GET PERMISSION TO USE IT.

12. If you don't know how to operate it, READ THE DIRECTIONS.

13. If it doesn't concern you, DON'T MESS WITH IT."

-- Anonymous

"We are just trying to give people a break."

-- Craig Newmark, of CraigsList, in New York Magazine, this week.

"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side."

-- James Baldwin

“Being an optimist after you’ve got everything you want, doesn’t count.”

-- Kin Hubbard

"Fear not death; for the sooner we die, the longer shall we be immortal."

-- Ben Franklin

"The only way to entertain some folks is to listen to them".

-- Kin Hubbard

"You'll never find another love like mine..."

-- Lou Rawls, 1933-2005


(Image from MusicandImages.com)

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

-- Krishnamurti

"If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going."

-- Professor Irwin Corey


Image from The Official Professor Irwin Corey Site

"What I would like to be is effective. I like to think of myself as someone who is compassionate, and responsive and effective."

-- Christine C. Quinn, Newly Elected Speaker of the New York City Council, and an out Lesbian.


(Image from The Villager).

"If you eat less, you live more."

-- David Wolf, Nature's First Law

"In the fertile soil of these first few days of 2006, I would like to support you in laying the internal foundation for a deeply satisfying and rewarding year ahead. As many wise sages have said, the greatest predictor of the future is the past. It is my belief that once we learn the lessons of the past - and are willing to really "get" those lessons - we don't have to repeat them. Our souls are always trying to get us to evolve. And just how do we evolve? Through learning the lessons of our past - recognizing them, owning them and incorporating what we know into our lives. So let's walk together through a simple exercise that will reap huge rewards for you in the months to come.

Look Through the Eyes of the Universe

Take a deep, centering breath, and say to the universe: "I know you have a very important lesson for me - my soul's lesson. There is something very important that you've been trying to teach me through the experiences, circumstances and people you've put in front of me. I acknowledge that this lesson is imperative for me to learn in order to have 2006 truly be a new new year and not a year of disappointing repetition. What is that one lesson?"

Your New Internal State

Imagine that your soul is hungry. It's starving for a state of being - an internal environment for you to live in each day. What are the feelings that you most desire to have in 2006? With a deep breath and big exhale, ask yourself: "What is the internal environment that I'm longing to live inside of?" Is it an environment of love, peace, quiet, safety, freedom, happiness, joy, aliveness? For example, one of my staff members saw that she wanted to live in an environment of inner peace, and in that space there would be a feeling of certainty for her. As you listen for answers, continue to ask your soul to reveal what it hungers for. And in the days and weeks ahead, it can be helpful to look inside several times a day and gently ask yourself: "Am I cultivating that feeling - that internal state?"

An Internal Shift

What two thoughts or beliefs would you have to let go of in order to create that environment? Could it be letting go of what other people think of you? Or the belief that you're not good enough, not worthy, not safe, or not loved?

An External Shift

What would have to shift in your external world to support that new internal environment? What two habits or behaviors would you have to let go of in order to create your desired internal environment? People-pleasing, pleasure-seeking, procrastination, disorganization, staying in an unhealthy relationship, overworking?

Integrity Anchors

What two action steps are you willing to take this week to create this internal environment? Choose two simple actions that will serve as anchors to your nourishing inner state. Perhaps it's creating a new morning ritual, taking a brisk daily walk, attending Weight Watchers, playing a special piece of music for yourself, ten minutes of nightly meditation, or scheduling the time to get radically organized so you can handle your busy life with ease.

Miraculous New Beginnings

What, you may ask, will be available to you by learning the lessons, letting go and leaving the past where it belongs? I believe that God is always inviting us to re-create our lives anew. By embracing the significant lessons of 2005, you're saying yes to miraculous new beginnings. So really use this time to clean up your past, embrace your dark and welcome your light. Our souls are always guiding us so that we can evolve to that next level of consciousness. It can be oddly reassuring to know that there are bumps in the road to every new level of consciousness. And there are always new insights to be discovered and new actions to be taken as we evolve our internal states. There's some work to do, but the payoffs will be profound. I look forward to hearing about your new beginnings as we travel into 2006 together."

-- Debbie Ford, in a public email, DebbieFord.com

"Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves".

-- Rudyard Kipling

"Mostly, I have learned to stay in the moment, which is a true gift, to relish, cherish and live each day as it comes in the best way that is possible, always being grateful for what one has. Doing good deeds for others helps one become humble, and the focus of self shifts to the that of helping another individual... It is without regret that I look back at 2005 and say goodbye, and let it go absolutely... May it be God's will that 2006 brings about union rather than division, good health for all, and peace here in America, across the globe, and in Israel... Thank you for your minds."

-- BarbarafromCalifornia,
Women on the Verge of Thinking
.