We have a Winner

We have a winner in the Name That Quote contest. What, did you think I was pulling your leg when I said there would be a great prize for the first one to guess the originator of the "nattering nabobs of negativism" quote? Not here, baby. My word is true.

Paul Jerome, Auditing Manager at Quality Carriers in Tampa, FL correctly guessed that Spiro Agnew was the one to utter those words in public. A little unknown factoid is that the phrase was written for Agnew by the great wordsmith William Safire. It must have been for an alliteration contest. The entire rant was:

"In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H Club -- the "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history."

Paul wins a hardcover copy of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. The emphasis is on the jokes, not the philosophy. But if you're caught reading it in public, you can claim it's existential reading. Of course, the giggling and guffawing might be hard to explain.

A Buddhist walks up to a hot-dog stand and says, "Make me one with everything". He then pays the vendor and asks for change. The vendor says, "Change comes from within".

Well, I thought it was funny.