The Lexicographer's Rules

"We have three lawyers and one computer. Apparently that's a standoff."

—Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. US District Judge John C. Coughenour, presiding over the trial of accused bomber Ahmed Ressam, comments on a courtroom situation in which lawyers fret with a malfunctioning computer.'

"It's very rare to get a student to challenge anything or to take a position that's counter to what the professor says. They are disconcertingly comfortable with authority. That's the most common complaint the faculty has of Princeton students. They're eager to please, eager to jump through whatever hoops the faculty puts in front of them, eager to conform."

—The Atlantic. High-achieving students at schools like Princeton are so busy they have to schedule appoints to chat with friends, have little time for romantic relationships, don't keep up with current events and participate very little in activism or political issues. "The new elite does not protest. Young achievers vaguely know that they are supposed to feel guilty about not marching in the street for some cause. But they don't seem to feel guilty."'

"The party is over, as done as a fallen soufflŽ. Scores of companies have shut down, restaurants and bars that felt like New Year's Eve every night of the week have quieted down, and For Rent signs dot the once dot-com-saturated neighborhood of South of Market, or SoMa. In the last three months, commercial vacancy rates there have more than doubled, to 18 percent, while the vacancy rate for office space throughout the city has soared to 8 percent from 2 percent last year. Defeated entrepreneurs have gone packing. And the city has five times the available apartments that it did last year."

—New York Times. Evelyn Nieves skims the high points of the the collapse of the San Franciscio Tech Rush.

"One of the things that is readily apparent about Romanian social and political life is the degree to which Romanians see their history and their destiny as largely the result of powerful and not always apparent external forces that sweep over them. There also is a tendency to particularize this, so that they perceive individual situations in much the same way."

—Central European Review. Journalist Timothy Kenny believes that acquiescence to fate is the prime limiting factor in Romanian social and political progress. "Here's how a Romanian friend of mine put it recently: 'If something goes well, a Romanian will say: 'Of course, I knew it. I made this happen.' If something goes wrong, the same Romanian will look at the sky and say, 'Who could have known? It is fate!'"'

"Che was wearing green fatigues, and his usual overgrown and scraggly beard. Behind the beard his features are quite soft, almost feminine, and his manner is intense. He has a good sense of humor, and there was considerable joking back and forth during the meeting. He seemed very ill at east when we began to talk, but soon became relaxed and spoke freely. Although he left no doubt of his personal and intense devotion to communism, his conversation was free of propaganda and bombast. He spoke calmly, in a straightforward manner, and with the appearance of detachement and objectivity. He left no doubt, at any time, that he felt completley free to speak for his government and rarely distinguished between his personal observations and the official position of the Cuban government. I had the definite impression that he had thought out his remarks very carefullyÑthey were extremely well organized."

—NSA Archives. An excerpt from a memo by Kennedy aide Richard Goodwin recounting his August 22, 1961, conversation with Ernesto "Che" Guevara in Montevideo.'