quote [ Karl Patterson Schmidt was an eminent American herpetologist?one who studies amphibians and reptiles. He worked for the American Museum of Natural History in New York and then for the Field Museum in Chicago, during which he made several expedition to Central and South America to collect specimens for the museum. He was also the president of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. During his long scientific career, Schmidt handled countless deadly snakes. But in 1957, he made the fatal mistake of underestimating the toxicity of a juvenile boomslang snake, sent to him by the director of the Lincoln Park Zoo for identification. ]

quote [ David Ostrom, 40, of Paola, Kansas, said in a Jan. 3 court filing that his former wife, Bridgette Ostrom, 38, of Harlan, Iowa, and her attorney, Matthew Hudson, had ?destroyed (him) legally.? The Ostroms have been embroiled in disputes over custody and visitation issues and property tax payments.
The judge had the power to let the parties ?resolve our disputes on the field of battle, legally," David Ostrom said, adding in his filing that trial by combat "has never been explicitly banned or restricted as a right in these United States." ]

quote [ Asimov?s biographer Michael White quotes ?a friend?s wife? who was pinched at a party: ?God, Asimov, why do you always do that? It is extremely painful and besides, don?t you realize, it?s very degrading.? ]

quote [ ?There were days that got below zero??when wearing pants would have been nice??but it wasn?t even really a choice at that point? ]

quote [ They were accorded some but not all of the joint tax and financial privileges of their married counterparts. However, if things didn?t work out, breaking off the relationship was made much simpler than the usually arduous divorce process that would face a classically married couple. ]

quote [ The mob saw an opportunity. Local 338 had other ideas. ]

quote [ It?s the best Agatha Christie novel that never was: the story of the disappearance of Manhattan perfume heiress, Dorothy Arnold. She was a woman about town and the belle of too many Uptown balls to count, but to this day, no one could ever figure out whether Dorothy was murdered, kidnapped, or stepped through some kind of inter-dimensional portal. ]

quote [ Daniel Kaye, also known as Spdrman, found regular jobs tough but corporate espionage easy. He?s about to get out of prison. ]

quote [ Research has shown that the internet functions as a sort of externalized memory. ?When people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself,? as one study puts it. ]