response 1 of 214:

Sep 24 09:43 UTC 1996

where is the quote? or should i wait till the pizza arrives?
i shall be waiting it expectanlly!

 =)

response 3 of 214:

Sep 24 18:44 UTC 1996

If it indeed _is_ Dave Lovelace's turn , Where _is_ he ?? 
(Or is the whole Quotation Thing taking a (Dave's) _turn_ for the
worse????!!!!)

response 5 of 214:

Sep 25 04:49 UTC 1996

"Don't panic" is from the Hitch-hiker's Guide to The Galaxy" by Douglas
Adams. 
Do I win?

response 7 of 214:

Sep 25 14:39 UTC 1996

While we're waiting, here's a "toss-up" question, as they used to say on
College Bowl: "Writing is easy. All you have to do is stare at a blank sheet
of paper until blood begins to form on your forehead." Who wrote that?

response 9 of 214:

Sep 25 15:43 UTC 1996

*That's* Dorothy Parker.  I think.

response 11 of 214:

Sep 25 20:16 UTC 1996

Would the "writing is easy..." have been Mark Twain?

response 13 of 214:

Sep 26 18:53 UTC 1996

Nice tries, one and all ... but the correct answer is (may I have the envelope
please?) Evelyn Waugh, 20th century British author. And here's one for fun:

In Memoriam Dorothy Parker

Minor surgery to truth's
All that's required in our youth;
A knowing glance in middle age
Can transform counterfeit to sage;

Painted grey and well-trimmed tire
Yield an object of desire,
And preferment may be yours
If your credit opens doors;

Yet though one is young or old,
Happiness rewards the bold.
This, the long and short of it:
Packaging's no match for wit.

response 15 of 214:

Sep 27 13:46 UTC 1996

#220 Dave Lovelace(davel) on Thu Sep 26 10:19:45 1996:
 OK, I'm going to do what Rane complains I'm *always* doing (generalizing from
 a single case, up to now).  Let's see who can get *this* one.  The author's
 style is extremely distinctive, so unfamiliarity with the particular work
 quoted should be no barrier:
 
          Extract from the Day Book:
          "Where," we asked the Information Factor at Camiroi City
      Terminal, "is the office of the local PTA?"
          "Isn't any," he said cheerfully.
          "You mean that in Camiroi City, the metropolis of the planet,
      there is no PTA?" our chairman Paul Piper asked with disbelief.
          "Isn't any office of it.  But you're poor strangers, so you
      deserve an answer even if you can't frame your questions properly.
      See that elderly man sitting on the bench and enjoying the sun?
      Go tell him you need a PTA.  He'll make you one."
          "Perhaps the initials convey a different meaning on Camiroi,"
      said Miss Munch, the first surrogate chairman.  "By them we mean--"
          "Parent Teachers Apparatus, of course.  Colloquial English
      is one of the six Earthian languages required here, you know.
      Don't be abashed.  He's a fine person, and he enjoys doing things
      for strangers.  He'll be glad to make you a PTA."
          We were nonplussed, but we walked over to the man indicated.
          "We are looking for the local PTA, sir," said Miss Smice, our
      second surrogate chairman.  "We were told that you might help us."
          "Oh, certainly," said the elderly Camiroi gentleman.  "One of
      you arrest that man walking there, and we'll get started with it."
          "Do what?" asked our Mr. Piper.
          "Arrest him.  I have noticed that your own words sometimes do
      not convey a meaning to you.  I often wonder how you do communicate
      among yourselves.  Arrest, take into custody, seize by any force
      physical or moral, and bring him here."
          "Yes, *sir*," cried Miss Hanks, our third surrogate chairman.
      She enjoyed things like this.  She arrested the walking Camiroi
      man with force partly physical and partly moral and brought him to
      the group.
          "It's a PTA they want, Meander," the elder Camiroi said to the
      one arrested.  "Grab three more, and we'll get started.  Let the
      lady help.  She's good at it."
          Our Miss Hanks and the Camiroi man named Meander arrested three
      other Camiroi men and brought them to the group.
          "Five.  It's enough," said the elderly Camiroi.  "We are hereby
      constituted a PTA and ordered into random action.  Now, how can we
      accommodate you, good Earth people?"
          "But are you legal?  Are you five persons competent to be a
      PTA?" demanded our Mr. Piper.
          "Any Camiroi citizen is competent to do any job on the planet
      of Camiroi," said one of the Camiroi men (we learned later that
      his name was Talarium), "otherwise Camiroi would be in a sad shape."
          "It may be," said our Miss Smice sourly.  "It all seems very
      informal.  What if one of you had to be World President?"
          "The odds are that it won't come to one man in ten," said the
      elderly Camiroi (his name was Philoxenus).  "I'm the only one of
      this group ever to serve as president of this Planet, and it was
      a pleasant week I spent in the Office.  Now to the point.  How can
      we accommodate you?"
          "We would like to see one of your schools in session," said our
      Mr. Piper.  "We would like to talk to the teachers and the students.
      We are here to compare the two systems of education."
          "There is no comparison," said old Philoxenus, "--meaning
      no offense.  Or no more than a little.  On Camiroi, we practice
      Education.  On Earth, they play a game, but they call it by the
      same name.  That makes the confusion.  Come.  We'll go to a school
      in session."
          "And to a public school," said Miss Smice suspiciously.
      "Do not fob off any fancy private school on us as typical."
          "That would be difficult," said Philoxenus.  "There is no
      public school in Camiroi City and only two remaining on the Planet.
      Only a small fraction of one percent of the students of Camiroi are
      in public schools.  We maintain that there is no more reason for
      the majority of children to be educated in a public school than to
      be raised in a public orphanage.  We realize, of course, that on
      Earth you have made a sacred buffalo of the public school."
          "Sacred cow," said our Mr. Piper.
          "Children and Earthlings should be corrected when they use
      words wrongly," said Philoxenus.  "How else will they learn the
      correct forms?  The animal held sacred in your own near Orient was
      of the species _bos_bubalus_ rather than _bos_bos_, a buffalo rather
      than a cow.  Shall we go to a school?"
          "If it cannot be a public school, at least let it be a typical
      school," said Miss Smice.
          "That again is impossible," said Philoxenus.  "Every school on
      Camiroi is in some respect atypical."
          We went to visit an atypical school.
#221 Rane Curl(rcurl) on Thu Sep 26 11:27:09 1996:
 I find this kind of pointless dialogue almost unreadable, but I did suffer
 through a lot of similar pointless dialogue in Heinlein, so I'll guess him.
#222 Matthew Stephen Rogers(raven) on Thu Sep 26 14:46:34 1996:
        Or maybe Philip K Dick...
#223 galactic librarian(adania) on Thu Sep 26 14:54:10 1996:
 IS there nore to that?  I am vclueless as to who it is...
#224 John H. Remmers(remmers) on Fri Sep 27 07:59:52 1996:
 No clue here either, but it's a cute passage.
#225 John H. Remmers(remmers) on Fri Sep 27 08:18:40 1996:
 (Um, I'm confused. This is the *summer* mysterious quote item.
 Shouldn't the new quotes be going the in the fall item (#6 in
 Agora)?)
#226 not currently reading Agora(davel) on Fri Sep 27 09:39:40 1996:
 I'm reading it in the books conference, where it's the most recent one.  I'll
 join agora temporarily & paste stuff in, but Rane needs to get on the ball
 & link it over here.
 
 Not Heinlein or Dick, BTW.


I'll enter some more when I have a chance.  I'd add that this is from a story
in a collection of the author's stories, & that I really like maybe 1/4 of
the stories (enough to keep the book for years), but can't stand most of the
rest.  The style is (as I said) pretty consistent, & should be enough to rule
out Heinlein & most everyone else.  (I can think of *one* other I might guess
if it were me, off hand.)

response 17 of 214:

Sep 27 17:16 UTC 1996

Fall 1996 agora 6 <--> books 56.

response 19 of 214:

Sep 27 20:53 UTC 1996

Not Bradbury.  Not Pratchett or Adams (guessed in the other item).  (Not *any*
Adams, even the somewhat more likely one who wasn't guessed.)

Ken, give me time to enter a couple more excerpts before you drop any hints
likely to give it away.  (You *could* always guess, you know.)

response 21 of 214:

Sep 27 21:33 UTC 1996

Wow.  That actually sounds interesting. :)  I have no idea who it is, tho.
(it is like Heinlein)

response 23 of 214:

Sep 28 01:10 UTC 1996

        Doris Lessing?