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Grex > Poetry3 > #245: The Spring Mysterious Quote item |  |
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scott
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The Spring Mysterious Quote item
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Mar 23 17:36 UTC 2001 |
Welcome to the Spring "Mysterious Quote" item. In this item, somebody
(usually whoever won the last one) enters a quote from a novel or other book.
Other people try to guess the author. That's about all the rules, I think.
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| 215 responses total. |
scott
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response 1 of 215:
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Mar 23 17:44 UTC 2001 |
Since remmers gave me the option to enter the next quote, and because I had
a neat quote standing by, here it is:
" The room contains a few dozen living human bodies, each one a big sack of
guts and fluids so highly compressed that it will squirt for a few yards when
pierced. Each one is built around an armature of 206 bones connected to each
other by notoriously fault-prone joints that are given to obnoxious creaking,
grinding, and popping noises when they are in other than pristine condition.
This structure is draped with throbbing steak, inflated with clenching air
sacks, and pierced by a Gordian sewer filled with burbling acid and compressed
gas and asquirt with vile enzymes and solvents produced by the many dark, gamy
nuggets of genetically programmed meat strung along its length. Slugs of
dissolving food are forced down this sloppy labyrinth by serialized
convulsions, decaying into gas, liquid, and solid matter which must all be
regularly vented to the outside world lest the owner go toxic and drop dead.
Spherical, gel-packed cameras swivel in mucus-greased ball joints. Infinite
phalanxes of cilia beat back invading particles, encapsulate them in goo for
later disposal. In each body a centrally located muscle flails away at an
eternal, circulating torrent of pressurized gravy. And yet, despite all of
this, not one of these bodies makes a single sound at any time during the
sultan's speech. It is a marvel that can only be explained by the power of
brain over body, and, in turn, by the power of cultural conditioning over
the brain."
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bhelliom
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response 2 of 215:
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Mar 23 18:16 UTC 2001 |
<blinks>
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other
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response 3 of 215:
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Mar 23 21:03 UTC 2001 |
Sounds like Douglas Adams' style.
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orinoco
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response 4 of 215:
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Mar 23 21:46 UTC 2001 |
That it does. Also a little like Tom Robbins, but I don't think it's him.
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tpryan
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response 5 of 215:
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Mar 23 22:06 UTC 2001 |
Interesting to read, since I am now listening to Mr. Methance.com
CD.
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mcnally
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response 6 of 215:
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Mar 23 23:09 UTC 2001 |
That's Neal Stephenson, from "Cryptonomicon".
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scott
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response 7 of 215:
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Mar 23 23:36 UTC 2001 |
That was quick. Yes, Stephenson, so mcnally is up next.
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mcnally
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response 8 of 215:
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Mar 24 00:47 UTC 2001 |
As it happens, I ran across a quote last night that I thought was
suitable, although I suspect the author may be quickly identified..
Anyway:
"When I was young, I went to the theater at the nearby shopping
center and watched a movie about a talking Volkswagen. I believe
the little car had a taste for mischief but I can't be certain,
as both the movie and the afternoon proved unremarkable and have
faded from my memory. <H> saw the same movie a few years after
it was released. His family had left the Congo by this time and
were living in Ethiopia. Like me, <H> saw the movie by himself
on a weekend afternoon. Unlike me, he left the theater two hours
later, to find a dead man hanging from a telephone pole at the far
end of the unpaved parking lt. None of the people who'd seen the
movie seemed to care about the dead man. They stared at him for a
moment or two and then headed home, saying they'd never seen anything
as crazy as that talking Volkswagen. His father was late picking
him up, so <H..> just stood there for an hour, watching the dead
man dangle and turn in the breeze. The death was not reported in
the newspaper, and when <H> related the story to his friends,
they said, "You saw the movie about the talking car?"
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goose
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response 9 of 215:
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Mar 25 01:18 UTC 2001 |
Beady?
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bdh3
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response 10 of 215:
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Mar 25 02:23 UTC 2001 |
What?
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mcnally
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response 11 of 215:
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Mar 25 03:57 UTC 2001 |
re #9: heh.. not unless the Chicago stuff is all a cover story..
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rcurl
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response 12 of 215:
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Mar 25 07:05 UTC 2001 |
Spring 2001 agora 17, The Spring Mysterious Quote item, has been linked
to books.
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carson
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response 13 of 215:
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Mar 25 07:10 UTC 2001 |
(and to the games conference, although I forget the item number.)
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arianna
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response 14 of 215:
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Mar 25 21:42 UTC 2001 |
agora 17 <--> poetry 245
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gelinas
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response 15 of 215:
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Mar 25 22:57 UTC 2001 |
{I need to forget this item in agora.}
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