Not Quite By Chance

Nothing happens quite by chance.  It's a question of accretion of information and experience.

-- Jonas Salk (1914 - 1995), medical researcher and author, inventor of the Salk vaccine against Polio, and founder of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, as quoted in Breakthrough : The Saga of Jonas Salk (1966) by Richard Carter

RIP Sam Neill

If I've made a film that turns out to be good, that's a good result.  If I've made a film that's good and made a couple of friends, that's a great result.  If I've made a film that's no good, but I made a friend, that's still another great result.

It’s at a time like now that the importance of other people is thrown into even sharper relief.  You realise who your friends are.  You know where the love is.

-- Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill, KNZM, OBE (14 September 1947 - 13 July 2026), Northern Irish-born New Zealand actor, Did I Ever Tell You This?: A Memoir (2022)

Our Misfortunes

Even our misfortunes are a part of our belongings.

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944), French writer, poet, and aviator, Vol de Nuit (1931) (translated into English as Night Flight)

The Moment

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944), French writer, poet, and aviator, Pilote de Guerre (1942) (translated into English as Flight to Arras)

Tiresome

Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.

-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900 - 1944), French writer, poet and aviator, The Little Prince (1943)

Surrounded

We've been looking for the enemy for some time now.  We've finally found him.  We're surrounded.  That simplifies things.

-- Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller (1898 - 1971), US Marine officer.  He is the most decorated United States Marine, and one of two US servicemen to be awarded five Navy Crosses and one Army Distinguished Service Cross, message sent during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir (December 1950), as quoted in Breakout: The Chosin Reservoir Campaign Korea, 1950 (1999) by Martin Russ

Knee High By The 4th Of July

When I was a kid I remember hearing the phrase, "Knee high by the Fourth of July".  The idea was that your corn crop was doing pretty well if it was as tall as your knees at that point in the growing season.  In my experience, the corn is quite a bit taller than that these days.  This year I managed to get a picture on Saturday July 4th to illustrate the point.

Brought to you by the miracles of modern agriculture.