The Lexicographer's Rules

"'Japan does not have military powers, unlike the U.S. or Australia... In order to get appreciation of Japan's position, of course, it is natural we must resort to those two major tools. I think there is nothing wrong,' Komatsu said, adding that the minke whale, the species most commonly killed by Japanese whalers, was 'a cockroach in the oceans. There are too many."

—Nando Times. Six Caribbean countries were bribed by Japan to vote on its side before the International Whaling Commission. There are about 880,000 minke whales in the world.'

"You eat a lot of humble pie. You can't be funny and you can't act. You just get lost, I suppose. That's when LA becomes a prison. The reason why you go there and the reason why you stay are all muddled. It's a place where everybody comes to find gold. Some of us come up with the gold; most of us don't."

—Sydney Morning Herald. Steve Kearney told people at home in Australia he was going to go to Los Angeles and be a big star, but it didn't work out that way. He didn't count on the falseness, the business, the tricks, the success-breeds-success perspective. He "once took a script to a Hollywood producer about a character struggling with a mental condition. 'We were driving around in his Porsche and meeting the head of New Line. It was all 'big' and 'huge'. Then he disappeared.' When the producer re-emerged, it was with a film about a character struggling with a mental condition. The story was almost identical. So was the title. The film went on to be be a box-office hit."'

"Schools used to think education was getting kids to memorize lots of facts. Now there's more emphasis on teaching people how to find the information. And that's part of what carrying a palmtop does for you: It lets you find all the information you need, quickly and accurately. In our society, what counts is did we get it right and did we get it fastÑnot the reason it came out that way."

—Los Angeles Times. Blame for failing memories is placed at the keyboards of electronic organizers, personal digital assistants and mobile phones, as they make it unecessary to remember long strings of numbers, but only to find them. Or is it that there are just more numbers to remember?'

"A lot of dot-com people can do coat check or can be our wait staff."

—Newsday. Bartending schools throughout Long Island have seen a huge jump in enrollement, while bars and clubs are deluged with applicants for the few open spots.'

"Arab politicians are accustomed to having their views reported in their own country by a servile press, regardless of whether they have anything new and interesting to say. They don't have to try hard to get their message into print. There are no sound bitesÑjust megabytes of verbiage. Whether anyone reads or remembers it is not the point; the press has done its duty in reporting it."

—Guardian. The Arab world is adopting an Israeli strategy of using public relations methods to make their messages more comprehensible, palatable and apparently more reasonable. "Many Arabs maintain that their negative image is part of a vast Zionist conspiracy. This conveniently excuses them from any blame and allows them to grumble endlessly without doing anything to change perceptions. The reality, on the whole, is much less sinister."'