Rick Bayan
Math anxiety: an intense lifelong fear of two trains approaching each other at speeds of 60 and 80 MPH.Collection: Math
POWER: The ability to make our fellow humans squirm, sweat and stammer on command. Often regarded as an aphrodisiac; actually a potent laxative that, whenever ingested by people in high places, causes everyone below to run for cover.Collection: Running
Corporation: a miniature totalitarian state governed by a hierarchy of unelected officials who take a dim view of individualism, free speech, equality and eggheads. The backbone of all Western democracies.Collection: Views
True individualists are always at odds with the universe. Set adrift by their peculiar tastes and interests, they spend their lives searching for kindred spirits and a compatible mate. They are hopelessly out of step with the business world and its trivial urgencies. Their priorities are not the priorities of their neighbors. They are unique; therefore they are alone.Collection: Unique
Golf is the art of driving hard, avoiding the rough, surmounting traps and hazards, aiming straight, and arriving on the green at last, only to end up in a hole in the ground before your companions. The favored pastime of businessmen and their cronies, probably without a full appreciation of its metaphorical implications.Collection: Appreciation
But God has the most fun with artists and writers: he inflames them with the desire to rival his own creations, then douses their overheated ambitions with a cold spray from the garden hose of reality. If they persist, he slams them to the ground and tweaks them on the proboscis for good measure. A fortunate few break free and prosper; the others lament the day they didn't become bank clerks.Collection: Fun
REVOLUTIONARY: An oppressed person waiting for the opportunity to become an oppressor.Collection: Opportunity
Cynic: an idealist whose rose-colored glasses have been removed, snapped in two and stomped into the ground, immediately improving his visionCollection: Glasses
CHILDHOOD: The rapidly shrinking interval between infancy and first arrest on a drug or weapons charge.Collection: Childhood
We're still just the world's premium brand of ape.Collection: World
Communism: Liberation of the people from the burdens of libertyCollection: People
The world belongs to people with IQs of 120. Anything much greater or less amounts to a liability.Collection: People
Most people perceive moderates as timid, middle-of-the-roaders, who can't take a stand.Collection: People