The Quotable Stephen P Brown

Credit for this goes to Sue Young, although I've heard it before:

Better to be a "used-to-be" than a "never was".

A Teen Poem

I really like this. Sometimes teens have incredible insight that we don't give them credit for. Check out this poem by Anna Fishel of Mountain Lakes High School. It was published in the school's literary magazine 'Phoenix 2009'. I am particularly touched by the line 'Am I really to believe that there exist some six billion heres'? I have no idea what Anna's faith is based on but that's incredible, and for me gives strength to my own belief. Thank you, Anna, for bringing some light to our thoughts:


Here is where I am
Here is where my thoughts are.
Wherever I go, it follows
or perhaps wherever it goes, I follow.

I cannot be sure.

Here seems to be a bit too crowded
for there to be more than one.
Am I really to believe that there
Exist some six billion heres?

For that matter,
Does there exists a here at all?

Who ever said my thoughts had to be in my head?

What I call me
may very well dwell
in there

And the I,
the namer of things,
may or may not exist separately from the me.

It does not matter where I want to be
because I am here
and here I am.

Anna Fishel, Phoenix 2009

The Quotable Stephen P Brown

Melissa: "Did you hear they're coming out with a musical about the Addams Family?"
Stephen: "I'm still waiting for 'Tom & Jerry, the Musical'."

The Quotable Stephen P Brown

Whatever you think of Karl Marx, he was interesting:

“Sell a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man how to fish, you ruin a wonderful business opportunity.”

Happy Anniversary!

25 years ago I arrived in the USA for the first time. In fact, my parents and I moved here for a three year term (my sister stayed in the UK to finish her last year of High School). It took me another 15 years to return to the US, but I remember that first day we arrived extremely well - finishing school before the summer holidays, flying backwards on a Royal Air Force DC-10, the immense heat when we got off the plane, Washington DC Metro system (a far cry from the London underground!), a black cadillac limo, and soon after... yellow school buses, and MARCHING BANDS!

Friday the 13th was always a good day. My mother was born on Friday the 13th!

Still, I think today's anniversary is worth a Silver Jubilee celebration, right?!

The Quotable Stephen P Brown

Actually, this is the quotable Michael Miora of California. He recently said, and I fully concur and subscribe to this:

“The biggest cause of failure is human error – closely followed by human laziness… It’s usually not deliberate malice, but accidental.”

Perhaps I’d use the word “ignorance” rather than “accidental” – people are more often ignorant to the fact that they are lazy. At least, I'd like to think so.