How to say you’re broke

How many words does it take to say “We’re broke”? For the president of Borders Group bookstore Mike Edwards, the answer is 67!

“It has become increasingly clear that in light of the environment of curtailed customer spending, our ongoing discussions with publishers and other vendor related parties, and the company’s lack of liquidity, Borders Group does not have the capital resources it needs to be a viable competitor and which are essential for it to move forward with its business strategy to reposition itself successfully for the long-term”

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #118]

Auto-antonym of the day

An auto-antonym is a word, phrase or sentence that has two possible meanings where each is the opposite (or antonym) of the other. e.g. ‘cleave’ can mean ‘join together’ or ‘split apart’. My auto-antonym for today is

“No coffee is better than instant coffee.”

(If I’m offered the choice between ‘no coffee’ or ‘instant coffee’, I’ll choose ‘no coffee’ every time.)

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #116]

Climate change

Lionel Windsor has a great article on the Christian’s response to climate change. For the climate change skeptic he suggests:

Killing greed and practising patience will have good effects on our world, regardless of whether humans are causing climate change.

For the climate change believer he suggests:

Don’t allow your carbon-reduction ‘good deeds’ to be sullied with smug pride, self-righteous announcements, or condemnation of others.

Lots of other good stuff there. Thanks Sam H for alerting me to this.

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #114]

Bad aspect

I’ve just been away for 4 nights with work, staying in a hotel. Why is it that the fancier the hotel, and the more expensive the flat-screen TV they have in the room, the more likely it is that the aspect ratio is set incorrectly so that everyone looks short and squat?

[This content was originally posted to Google Buzz, #112]