The Lexicographer's Rules

"I grew up in Miami, and I used to go to South Beach every weekend. It's a stylish, upscale, unique collection of personalities. Sure there was drugs and partying, but in a classy way. If you can put those two wordsÑdrugs and classÑtogether."

—Miami New Times. Amy Gerstenfeld's wedding, costly enough to pay for a house, was interrupted by police with pepper spray, over-reacting to the unrelated presence of Black Panthers. Miami Beach is undergoing an identity crisis, its old rich and famous conflicting with the arrivistas. "You take a slum, throw in some fashion people, some gay peopleÑand ten years later you have a Gap and Banana Republic. Why do you think Madonna sold her [Miami] house?"'

"I didn't want to leave Naples. The hot weather and the bugs did not interfere with my life. They enhanced it. I used to love to see those cockroaches run."

—San Diego Union-Tribune. Louie Bettencourt, who at 83 says he's "full of the devil," has advanced heart disease, spreading prostate cancer and diabetes. He is part of a hospice program that allies dying patients with volunteers who become an emotional resource. Dorothy Shea, a volunteer: "A lot of doctors seem to be reluctant to admit they're losing a patient, and they wait so long before they refer families to hospice. They wait until the eve of the death. It's so sad. There's so much I feel I could do for these patients: give them massages, help them freshen up, help them eat."'

"I've never dealt with more abrasive individuals in my entire life than in the film business, and I mean that from the business side. They are some of the nastiest, cold-hearted, dead shark-eyed people you will ever meet in your life."

—Miami New Times. B-movie actor Bruce Campbell has starred in all three Evil Dead films.

"In the Czech Republic, we have high consumer tax on tobacco products. So by buying cigarettes, I am basically increasing state revenues. It is also known that heavy smokers die younger, and then it is not necessary to pay them pensions."

—Prague Post. Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman jokes about the state benefits of smoking. A report commissioned by Philip Morris found that the Czech government saved 1.19 billion Czech koruny (about 29 million US dollars) in 1999 on housing for the elderly, pension and social expenses, and health-care costs due to smoking-induced deaths. The report also estimates that the lives of the 30 percent of Czech citizens who smoke are reduced by 4.3 years, but a conflicting estimate put it at 10 years.'

"The families sitting in the dim room add up to maybe 60 people altogether. That is a lot of people among whom to spread only a little bit of luck. Each year the bilingual school admits 100 children to its primary classes. Fifty places go mainly to Americans, with a small proportion of them allocated through an 'international list' to children who speak English as their mother tongue. This list also has a sister, a waiting list. But it is the other 50 places that are hotly contested. They are so coveted that only a raffle can ensure a modicum of fairness."

—Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Seats for students in bilingual American-German schools are highly prized, but only a few get in. At the John F. Kennedy School, 207 students are vying for five available places, while thousands are turned away at bilingual schools across Germany.'