The Lexicographer's Rules

;The heavy-footed arrogance that humans are often accused of in dealing with the natural world doesn’t work. You are just a guy with a ridiculously fake thing at the end of a string, trying a trick. You have surrendered most of the advantages of big-brained opposable-thumbed bipedalism. (Source Link)

;Architects hate art. If you let them loose near a museum or gallery, you have to watch their every move, because they will do their best to leave their own galumphing paw prints all over the place, and in the process stamp on the works of art. (Source Link)

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WISCONSIN HYPERPHRASE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
and HYPERPHRASE INC., Plaintiffs, v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Defendant. ORDER 02-C-647-C Pursuant to the modified scheduling order, the parties in this case had until June 25, 2003 to file summary judgment motions. Any electronic document may be e-filed until midnight on the due date. In a scandalous affront to this court’s deadlines, Microsoft did not file its summary judgment motions until 12:04:27 a.m. on June 26, 2003, with some supporting documents trickling in as late as 1:11:15 a.m. I don’t know this personally because I was home sleeping but that’s what the court’s computer docketing program says, so I’ll accept it as true. Microsoft’s insouciance so flustered Hyperphrase that nine of its attorneys [...] promptly filed a motion to strike the summary judgment motion as untimely. Counsel used bolded italics to make their point, a clear sign of grievous iniquity by one’s foe. True, this court did not enter an order on June 20, 2003 ordering the parties not to flyspeck each other, but how could such an order apply to a motion filed almost five minutes late? Microsoft’s temerity was nothing short of a frontal assault on the precept of punctuality so cherished by and vital to this court. Wounded though this court may be by Microsoft’s four minute and twenty-seven second dereliction of duty, it will transcend the affront and forgive the tardiness. Indeed, to demonstrate the even-handedness of its magnanimity, the court will allow Hyperphrase on some future occasion in this case to e-file a motion four minutes and thirty seconds late, with supporting documents to follow up to seventy-two minutes later. Having spent more than that amount of time on Hyperphrase’s motion, it is now time to move on to other Gordian problems confronting this court. Plaintiff’s motion to strike is denied. Entered this 1st day of July, 2003. BY THE COURT:
[Signed]
STEPHEN L. CROCKER
Magistrate Judge

(Source Link)

;Adopt an opponent. I love heated and strident political arguments, but I am abandoning that in favor of gentle and relentless suasion. I have a half dozen potential “recruits” among family and friends that I am trying to tip. I am sending them articles and trying to leave them lots of room to save face. They united behind their president and now feel betrayed, but view the peace and/or anti-Bush crowd with all the negatives that the media and the administration have been heaping on them. Bush persuaded them with daily on-point sound bites and relentless brainwashing. I am trying to reverse that process with the most likely candidates I know, recognizing that this might need to be done in increments. I have found that sending British news stories is effective—they see Brits as allies, they like Tony Blair, and are surprised and unnerved when faced with the British media and public reaction to all of this. (Source Link)

;Piety is nine-tenths silence and one-tenth fleeing from people. (Source Link)