quote/unquote: Sir Charles Barkely, soccer, Mort Sahl, Orwell, Clint Murchison, etc.

(Another in a continuing series, as compiled by Wilson in St. Louis, an alleged "dying city" that once hosted the World's Fair.)

"If Chuck couldn't rebound, he would be that funny guy with all the opinions driving a forklift."
------- commentator "Ratatat" on Boston Herald website after Charles Barkley was released from a Phoenix jail after serving 36 hours on a DUI charge

"The British are islanders who conquered and colonized throughout their history. After the Roman Empire, Italians have always been invaded and dominated, so we had to learn how to defend ourselves. We developed a very shrewd mind set where I defend myself but in the meantime I quietly move my pawns underground."
-- Gianluca Vialli, former Juventus striker and Chelsea coach, on the stylistic differences between English and Italian soccer, on the new Wall Street Journal sports page, March 11, '09

"Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen."
--- Mort Sahl

"I could see Numero 57 lying crumbled up on his side, his face sticking out over the side of the bed, and toward me. He had died some time during the night, nobody knew when. . . . . . There you are, then, I thought, that's what is waiting for you 20, 30, 40 years hence: that is how the lucky ones die, the one who lives to be old. One wants to live, of course, indeed one only stays alive by virtue of the fear of death, but I think now, as I thought then, that it's better to die violently and not too old. People talk about the horrors of war but what weapon has man invented that even approaches in cruelty some of the common diseases? "Natural" death, almost by definition, means something slow, smelly, and painful."
--- "How the Poor Die" essay by George Orwell, circa 1934


"If you are gonna owe money, owe more than you can pay, then the people can't afford to foreclose." --- Clint Murchison, Texas oil baron, in the book "The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes." by Bryan Burrough

"I've tried Spanish male, Spanish female, Asian female and Southern. I"ve even tried my own voice, and it didn't work very well."
--- Victor Patenaude, a specialist in debt collection, commenting that the best response he gets from the debt collection calls his company makes is when they use a British female voice. (Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, March 3rd).


“In the beginning, we didn’t want our daughter to play. We were worried that it would affect her posture, her character, even her sexual orientation. We put her in volleyball, in track, but nothing could stop her. Now her father is a fanatic fan.”--Selmin Odabas, mother of Selin Odabas, a player in Turkey's women's pro soccer league (NY Times)


“Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.” -- George Orwell