Watching a Great Courses series on Ancient Egypt. There is a theory that the first great period, the Old Kingdom, collapsed because Pharoah Pepi II lived to be 96 and it isn't good for a country to be ruled by an aging decrepit leader. Thank Osiris that never happens any more.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "(Librarians have) got their radical factions, like the Ruby Ridge or Waco types." -Judith Platt, spokesperson for the Association of American Publishers, 2001

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "I had to cut 65,000 words before I could start editing." - Robin Yocum

"'Theme' is what the critics use to describe what you did." - Eileen Gunn

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "I do not need wireless access to Wikipedia. I would prefer to stir-fry my own small intestines than to have continual access to a site where the entry for Klingon is longer than the entry for Latin." - Tara Brabazon

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "There is a very fine line between freedom of speech and censorship." -Anne Steele, FBI spokesperson, May 2001

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "So many people know the answers before they know the questions." -Judge Thomas Burke, "the man who built Seattle."

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "As a woman, I was better suited to a career in something more traditionally feminine, like becoming a prostitute or dying in childbirth." - Allie Rubin

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "I thought I had all the answers. It's a good thing I was writing in pencil." -Geof Morgan

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Don't say you're against false equivalencies if you eat bananas." - Eric Lyden

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "Panelists, do you have any questions for the audience?" - Kevin B. Smith

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "I couldn't feel so I learned to touch." - Leonard Cohen .

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "The fact that monkeys have hands should give us pause." -R.D. Malloy

Best short mystery I read this week.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "The worst situations in the world always start with the words, 'trust me.'" -Kristine Kathryn Rusch