Quotations Weblog

This week, Unshelved recommends Tomorrow #1: When The War Began by John Marsden:

• Unshelved - Tomorrow #1: When The War Began

Here is a review of the book from Amazon.com:

When Ellie and her friends go camping, they have no idea they’re leaving their old lives behind forever. Despite a less-than-tragic food shortage and a secret crush or two, everything goes as planned. But a week later, they return home to find their houses empty and their pets starving. Something has gone wrong–horribly wrong. Before long, they realize the country has been invaded, and the entire town has been captured–including their families and all their friends. Ellie and the other survivors face an impossible decision: They can flee for the mountains or surrender. Or they can fight.

This is the first book of a series, so if you enjoy it, there are several others to keep you entertained.

Unshelved has recommended Magic Pickle and the Planet of the Grapes by Scott Morse.

• Unshelved - Magic Pickle and the Planet of the Grapes by Scott Morse

The Magic Pickle secretly fights crime from his HQ under Jo Jo’s bed (her house is built on top of the lab that created him). He uses his crime computer and super powers to fight the wicked fruits and veggies of The Brotherhood of Evil Produce. He’s detected some sinister citrus at the Farmer’s Market. One of Jo Jo’s classmates, has brought a strange machine to school, along with a wagonload of fruit (she was soured by the free lemonade). It’s the start of The Raizin’s plan to create a planet of grapes!

Here is Amazon’s review of the book:

Scott Morse introduces one of the most hilarious superheroes ever: a flying, green Magic Pickle!

Magic Pickle is a secret weapon developed in a secret military lab—under little JoJo Wigwam’s bedroom floor. The fearless dill superhero meets his match in this feisty eight-year-old. Together they go after Ray Sin, a renegade raisin from the Brotherhood of Evil Produce. Ray Sin has a dastardly plan: to turn every human being on the planet into big, juicy, mindless grapes, so he can rule the world!

Ray Sin has tricked the new kid in town into becoming his hapless helper and is using the class science fair as his cover. He’s got everybody in the school—kids, the principal, even the janitor—eating big gobs of grapes . . . and turning into roly-poly purple fruits!

Magic Pickle and JoJo act fast: with the skillful use of a juicemaker, they save the day and capture Ray Sin, whose criminal career is now all dried up.

I have to admit that the idea of sentient fruits and vegetables is hard for me to swallow. I can believe in self-aware PLANTS, mind you, but fruits and vegetables have been removed from the plant (or fallen off if left alone), so they seem like amputated limbs more than characters on their own.

The California Raisins, however, they were TOTALLY believable.

Here is Diane Sawyer’s interview with Rosie O’Donnell.

Diane mentioned that Rosie O’Donnell had been in the business for thirty years now and she wanted to know what Rosie would say to that girl from thirty years ago. She said:

I’m always so grateful when stars are willing to be honest about their experiences with fame. Thanks, Rosie!

Via: Diane Sawyer’s Interview with Rosie O’Donnell on Good Morning America, April 8 (Video) | TV Crunch

The following quotation is often attributed to Frank Outlaw:

I’ve also seen it attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, but I cannot find the quote in Bartletts or any other of my quotation books under either name. It was discussed on WikiAnswers here:

• WikiAnswers - Who is frank outlaw

This quote is widely attributed to “Frank Outlaw” on the Web, but no actual other corroborating confirmation actually confirms that this is the correct source.

Popular quotation books - including Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (17th ed., 2002), Roget’s International Thesaurus of Quotations (1970) and The Harper Book of Quotations (3rd ed., 1993) - DO NOT include this quote or any reference to Frank Outlaw.

In July 2003, a woman named “Elizabeth C.,” claimed to have written it in 1998 and sending to members of an e-mail group of people living with lupus.

According to legend, her words were: “these few lines have since taken on a life of their own via the Internet. I was honored when someone asked if they could post it on their work bulletin board. From there it ended up as a desktop theme. It has traveled everywhere.”

Matt Mullenweg, of WordPress fame, talked about this quote and one of his readers commented:

• Ralph Waldo Emerson « Matt on Not-WordPress

Dawn // February 1, 2007 at 4:15 am

And yet sadly no one has attributed this to its true origin…

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings…

As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.

• From the Dhammapada
  Sayings of the Buddha

I have added the Budda quote, but until I’m able to find the other in print somewhere, it will continue to be attributed to Unknown. Who is Frank Outlaw? As far as I can tell, he is an imagined author of a quote that may or may not be his.

Here are a few thoughts to keep your mind about this:

And here is one that really IS from Emerson:

Here is an interesting story from Associated Press conjecturing about Martin Luther King Jr. and what he would say today if he had lived.

• What if the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had lived? - CNN.com

Although it’s interesting to think about what our world would be like if Martin Luther King Jr. hadn’t died on that April morning, we are only left with what he said before he died:

More about Martin Luther King Jr.:

• Quotations Weblog » Archive » Quotes of the Week: Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

• Quotations Weblog » Archive » Martin Luther King Jr. Day

• Martin Luther King, Jr. - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• A moment frozen in time: Witnesses recall King’s death - CNN.com