Overheard

"Stories, like plants, die if they are not tended. So do the reputations of newspapers."

"In a sense, I'm like a Charles Dickens hero. All Dickens heroes are complete nonentities who know 217 wacky people. I'm the guy who knows all the wacky people and the creative people. I just stand in the center and explain it to others."

"If I had dozens of bureaus around the world, I wouldn't be airing Michael Jackson's court proceedings."

"Frustrated by the usual game of Monopoly? Try Yuppie Monopoly, where the one who goes the furthest into debt wins!"

"Trust God, but tie up your camel."

"At no period in its history has the Oxford English Dictionary been profitable commercially for Oxford University Press."

"BUZZWORD OF THE DAY -- SAILBOAT FUEL: Reference used by truckers, pilots, etc., to describe an empty trailer or plane. "He's hauling sailboat fuel." Also can refer to someone's intelligence. "He's got sailboat fuel for brains."

"What has man believed about the soul since the beginning of time? In all of the literature across multiple cultures, there are common beliefs about the soul. What are those believes? First, that it exists. That it comes here from someplace else. That it comes here for a reason and with a purpose. Initiation is a misnomer. It's really remembering. The soul comes here to make the world a better place. And that means changing things."

"Thu Mar 4th. Screenwriter Wanted (Los Angeles). I am looking for someone to write a low budget horror/comedy. Compensation: $100"

"If you have sensitive teeth, one thing that sounds good but is a very bad idea, is a frozen Toblerone chocolate bar."

"Newspapers have a Book section, but not a Phone section. Which way will the Web be covered?"

"We step into the future with less connection to ancestral guidance than any human generation before us. Although we have invented amazing technologies for saving data, we are at risk of forgetting our personal, family and cultural stories. We broadcast our voices over vast distances, but talk less to our neighbours. Haunting these changes are the spectres of continuing violence, planetary degradation and, above all, the danger that we'll come to believe the implacable message of the powerful: that resistance is futile. The old stories teach us that resistance is never futile."

" 'Sea of Silence,' Drama; A girl living on a pig farm in Holland converses with God."