Quotations Weblog

It has been five years since the September 11th attacks on American soil. So much has changed since then. When we were all hurt and suffering because of the loss of life, many of us collected quotations to ease our hearts’ grief. Here are a couple of those collections:

• 911: Quotes

• Anti-War Quotes

There are many compelling stories about 9/11, but this one really struck a chord for me. It is from a minister who lived in New York at the time of the attacks, but was moved to Michigan soon afterward:

• uuworld.org : american myths reconsidered

He ministered to the people who were there and the people who weren’t. Of the two, he believes that those of us who watched the tragedy from afar struggled more.

“On hearing that I was in New York City on 9/11, people in Grand Rapids almost to a person say, ‘That must have been so hard.’ What I hear is their own fear and that curious thing called survivor’s guilt. I often reply to their sympathy by saying, ‘It was hard, yes, but I think you had it far worse. Our loss was palpable. Yours was all subjective, the stuff of dreams. You saw the tapes play over and over but did not see the kids in the playgrounds the next day or that we went back to work the day after that. You heard the dire predictions and gloomy analyses, but did not see that life pressed on. The Pile, as the workers called it, was not the whole city.’”

“I saw the contrast between the sunny weather, singing birds, and playing children, and the smoking rubble. Which was the foreground and which the background? Is the world a perilous place occasionally redeemed by shafts of sunlight and hope? Or is it a noble and beautiful place sometimes bruised by the consequences of chance?”

I believe that deep down at its core, our existence is based on pure joy. It is the darkness that creeps in that clouds this joy. Don’t let the darkness cloud your inner core of happiness today or any day.

Ward Jenkins at The Ward-O-Matic writes regularly about art. He is an animation director at Primal Screen and he loves to collect graphic art from the late fifties and early sixties. He regularly submits artwork to Sugar Frosted Goodness and he writes profoundly.

If you’re feeling a little blue, head on over to The Ward-O-Matic and read what he has to say about the world, art and his children. You’ll end up feeling a little better and you just might find yourself looking for old books in the thrift stores.

I saw Elisa Camahort at SXSW. She moderated a panel about being transparent when writing a weblog: the risks and the benefits. She said a profound thing and I put her quotation into our collection.

And I misspelled her name…

Funny thing, she didn’t find her quote in our collection and call us out on it, she found it in one of the many collections that siphon our collection and repost it without checking the veracity or even crediting us. She wrote on one of those sites:

“If you think I’m famous and uttering famous quotes, why are you spelling my name ‘Alissa’?”

Umm… That would be me. Sorry about that. I have no idea how I made that mistake. I was going to blame the little sign in front of you on the panel table, but Betsy took a picture, and it’s obvious that I would have spelled your last name wrong if it hadn’t been for the sign. I just made a mistake.

Elisa is a co-founder of Blogher and keeps a personal weblog. You can read more from her here:

• Elisa Camahort’s Personal Weblog

• Elisa Camahort’s blog | BlogHer

• Worker Bees Blog

Her quotation has been corrected in our collection. That’s why we are the best place to go for quotations. We pony up when we make a mistake and we actually fix it.

The Quotations Page doesn’t really specialize in cliches because they tend to have been said so many times that finding the original author is difficult. If you’re looking for the right cliche, you will probably have better luck with Cliche Finder.

• Cliche Finder

I tested it with my favorite test word, “frog.” When I did, the following cliches came up:

fine as frog hair
you have to kiss a few frogs before you find a prince
got a frog in your throat?
a frog in one’s throat
battin’ your eyes like a toadfrog in a hailstorm
Finer than frogs hair
I’m fine as frog’s hair
finer than frogs hair, split three ways

Four of the cliches are actually the same cliche repeated. “Finer than frog’s hair” isn’t a cliche I’ve ever heard of. I found the cliche that I was looking for, “a frog in your throat,” but it also brought up the frog/prince cliche that I had forgotten about.

I also looked for the cliche, “is that a rabbit in your pocket or are you just happy to see me,” but nothing came up. I tried just searching the word rabbit and just searching pocket (and various other pieces of clothing), but nothing came up. I don’t know if that cliche has been deemed inappropriate or if they are just incomplete. You’d think if they have obscure cliches like “older than my grandma’s underpants” they would have the rabbit and pocket cliche.

Although it’s not perfect, its better than you’ll find on The Quotations Page because we just don’t deal in cliches. If you are at a loss for words and just know there is some cliche but can’t remember the exact wording, Cliche Finder might help you out.

Via: Boing Boing: Web Zen: writing zen

I read several webcomics, but there isn’t one out there like Diesel Sweeties. It’s an original. When I first started reading it, I was fascinated by the pixelated artwork, but now, I just see each character. They aren’t pixelated anymore, they just are.

I don’t just get entertainment from Diesel Sweeties, I get great quotes from them as well:

• Diesel Sweeties Quotes – The Quotations Page

You can read Diesel Sweeties for yourself here:

• diesel sweeties: pixelated robot romance web comic & t-shirt party

Every time I get angry I think of the red robot. I don’t want to be that guy, so it helps me be a little calmer. No matter who you are, there is someone in Diesel Sweeties that you can love or relate to. Give it a try and enjoy!