[quote author="davidould"]BLACKADDER???!!!!!
what channel? What time?

Tapes, I’m afraid.  The news of a replay of Blackadder would travel far and wide - and quickly - among certain circles. 

We’re in the stickiest situation since sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun.

Though it’s one of those you had to be there moments, the funniest thing I ever heard was when a teenage boy turned to his mother and said,

“Your a girl”

And I heard someone else ask re a wood buring fire,

“How do I keep it going?”

The reply was -

“Put wood on it”

craig

This thread is soooooooooo enjoyable I keep coming back to read more and to contribute more.

Two of my favourite personal testimonies in the bible are

Job 19:25-27 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes --I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

and

Luke 2:28-32 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:  “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

I have two

So light the fire within me,
and let me fan the flame,
and fill me with the Spirit,
that I may bear your Name;
In season and in hardship,
to run my given race
O keep me ever-burning
until I see your face.
I vow to you, my Saviour,
that where your feet have trod,
I’ll serve and always follow
my Master and my God!

(I Vow to You by Sir Cecil Spring-Rice)

and

It is a simple task to make things complex,
it is a complex task to make things simple.

(Tom DeMarco 1989)

While riding on a train goin’ west,
I fell asleep for to take my rest.
I dreamed a dream that made me sad,
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had.

With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon,
Where we together weathered many a storm,
Laughin’ and singin’ till the early hours of the morn.

(...)

With haunted hearts through the heat and cold,
We never thought we could ever get old.
We thought we could sit forever in fun
But our chances really was a million to one.

(...)

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
That we could sit simply in that room again.
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat,
I’d give it all gladly if our lives could be like that.

(The Bob-meister!)

(Bob Dylan)

The Bellman himself they all praised to the skies--
Such a carriage, such ease, and such grace!
Such solemnity, too!  One could see he was wise,
The moment one looked in his face!

He had bought a large map representing the sea,
Without the least vestige of land:
And the crew were much pleased when they found it to be
A map they could all understand.

“What’s the good of Mercator’s North Poles and Equators,
Tropics, Zones, and Meridian Lines?”
So the Bellman would cry: and the crew would reply,
“They are merely conventional signs!

“Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!
But we’ve got our brave Captain to thank”
(So the crew would protest) “that he’s bought us the best--
A perfect and absolute blank!”

-- from Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark

The last two verses of Horatio Spatford’s “When Peace like a river”.  Get me every time.  (This might be the modernised version)

My sin - O the bliss of this glorious thought -
My sin, not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when our faith shall be sight,
The skies be rolled back as a scroll,
The trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend -
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Why did you go to the police first?

Marlon Brando, The Godfather

My favourite quote from the Godfather:

Tom Hagen: 

I have a special practice. I handle one client

Larry Wall, creator of Perl in his 2003 ‘State of the Onion’ speech :

Okay, if you happen to be a Christian of the trinitarian persuasion like me, then you believe that God is a structured object that is simultaneously singular and plural depending on how you look at it. Of course, nobody ever fights about that sort of thing, right?

Or his answer to the question ’ Please tell us how in the world a scientific or at least technical mind can believe in God ‘

When you say “how in the world”, I take it to mean that you find it more or less inconceivable that someone with a scientific mind (or at least technical mind, hah!) could chooose to believe in God. I’d like to at least get you to the point where you find it conceivable. I expect a good deal of the problem is that you are busy disbelieving a different God than the one I am busy believing in. In theological discussions more than any other kind, it’s easy to talk at right angles and never even realize it.

So let me try to clarify what I mean, and reduce it to as few information bits as possible. A lot of people have a vested interest in making this a lot tougher to swallow than it needs to be, but it’s supposed to be simple enough that a child can understand it. It doesn’t take great energetic gobs of faith on your part--after all, Jesus said you only have to have faith the size of a mustard seed. So just how big is that, in information theory terms? I think it’s just two bits big. Please allow me to qoute a couple “bits” from Hebrews, slightly paraphrased:

You can’t please God the way Enoch did without some faith, because those who come to God must (minimally) believe that:
A) God exists, and
B) God is good to people who really look for him.

That’s it. The “good news” is so simple that a child can understand it, and so deep that a philosopher can’t.

Now, it appears that you’re willing to admit the possibility of bit A being a 1, so you’re almost halfway there. Or maybe you’re a quarter way there on average, if it’s a qubit that’s still flopping around like Shoedinger’s Cat. You’re the observer there, not me--unless of course you’re dead. :-)

A lot of folks get hung up at point B for various reasons, some logical and some moral, but mostly because of Shroedinger again. People are almost afraid to observe the B qubit because they don’t want the wave function to collapse either to a 0 or a 1, since both choices are deemed unpalatable. A lot of people who claim to be agnostics don’t take the position so much because they don’t know, but because they don’t want to know, sometimes desperately so.

Here’s a favourite of my husband’s which, if you didn’t see it in print, you wouldn’t believe it was ever published:

Lastly, although this does not concern actual firearms, one must never forget that wild birds are, for the most part, preserved and may not be shot. You cannot go out and pot at every sparrow and blacbird you see, although many people do. Just because a bird is a trusting enough to stop still near you and long enough for you to shoot it, it does not mean that you have the right to do so. The bird in question may even be someone’s pet. In any case, if you don’t know whether the bird should be shot or not, it means, probably, that you are on the land without the owner’s permission.

It would be a good world to live in if everyone did what they were supposed to do and no one can be perfect but, if you know what is right and wrong, as you should do after reading this, then you should be able to steer clear of trouble and enjoy shooting without the necessity of causing unnecessary suffering to birds and beasts, which are only trying to make a living.

If you are in any doubt as to what you are allowed to do and what you may not do regarding firearms, the best thing is to see the police and ask them. They will be only to too pleased to tell you everything you want to know. The police are there to protect the public and if you help them, they will help you.

Sounds like a armchair chat given by a concerned British uncle to his 13 year old nephew after the boy has unwrapped his birthday present, an air rifle.

[quote author="Glenn Slaven"]Larry Wall, creator of Perl

Larry is just great. I once went all the way to the US to hear an Onion speach. It was wonderful!

Rodos

Amgela said,

Sounds like a armchair chat given by a concerned British uncle to his 13 year old nephew after the boy has unwrapped his birthday present, an air rifle

Ahhhhhh bringing back memories.

craig

[quote author="Rod Haywood"]Larry is just great.

Here is another quote from Larry

Now let me take off that anthropological hat and put on a couple of others, so we can see an example of how this context thing works. Suppose I put on my theological hat, or more specifically, my evangelical Christian hat. I can tell you that I believe in God. I believe mankind is morally bankrupt, and I believe that God sent his one and only Son to earth so that we would not have to continue living in moral bankruptcy. I believe that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ define the center of history. I believe that God created the universe, and that God will choose when and how the universe will end. A little less cosmically, I believe in helping people, and I believe in supporting my local church. I believe that God can certainly do miracles if he jolly well pleases, and that one of the things he jolly well pleases is that somehow or other I will live forever.

This is from his keynote address at the Perl conference in 1997. What you have to realise is that this guy is highly reguarded in geek culture and this is in his keynote speach at a geek conference which probably over a million people read. A great testimony to us all and our proclimation of our faith.

Rodos