1996 | Whoops & Squawks

"Men believe in the truth of all that is seen to be strongly believed. In all great deceivers, a remarkable process is as work to which they owe their power. In the very act of deception, with all its preparations--the dreadful voice, the expression, the gestures--they are overcome by their belief in themselves, and it is this belief which then speaks so persuasively, so miracle-like to the audience. Not only does he communicate that to the audience but the audience returns it to him and strengthens his belief."--Friedrich Nietzsche

"Ignorance leads men into a (political) party, and shame keeps them from getting out again."--Benjamin Franklin

Most of Us Guys Know That Feeling Department

"I looked over and I see this streaker. I see this, this. . .wobbling around. She smiled at me and I think she was wearing an apron. She lifted it up, and was still smiling. I got flustered, and three sets later I was gone."--Malivai Washington, professional tennis player, quoted in USA Today in a July story about how interest perked up in the Wimbledon tennis tournament in England perked up when a comely young woman wearing nothing but a smile and a skimpy white apron bolted from the sidelines and streaked across center court during a match between Washington and Richard Krajicek. (July 25, 1996)

Another Cosmic Question Department

"Some days I ask God," Bullock told me, his voice dropping to an impassioned whisper, "'If You were there, why didn't You stop it?'"--Allen Bullock, a Hitler biographer, quoted by writer Ron Rosenbaum in a May 1, 1995 New Yorker magazine article in which Bullock discussed the problem of understanding a God who allowed The Holocaust.

"All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it's up to us, as far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences."--Tarrou, one of the characters in The Plague, by Albert Camus. (Posted October 22, 1996)

"Guy Grand."--Dennis Hopper, actor, responding to a pop culture question from Vanity Fair magazine about who was his favorite hero from fiction. Grand is the main character in Terry Southern's cult classic, The Magic Christian. That makes at least two of us on this earth who rate Guy No. 1.

"Capitalism constantly aggravates moral decline by creating appetites and satisfying them at the expense of tradition and restraint."--Jacob Weisberg, writing in the October 21-28 issue of The New Yorker magazine in an article about the Irving Kristol family.

Al Gore, Straight-Faced

"The ethical standards established in this White House have been the highest in the history of the White House."--Al Gore, straight-faced, on "Meet The Press" Sunday, October 13, 1966.

Almost. . .But Not Quite. . .

"It is almost inconceivable that Republican leaders could have failed to recognize the fatal flaws. . .in presidential candidate Bob Dole."--Ken Tomlinson, columnist, writing in the Dec. 8 Washington Times, and predicting further Republican disasters unless control of the party nomination process can be wrested from the Washington insiders and power brokers who engineered the Dole candidacy.

I'll Second That, And It Still Is

"It was unimaginable that someone like me could ever have become president of the greatest country in human history."--Slick Willie, in his victory speech Nov. 5, 1996, in Little Rock.