I think the Edison/Tesla war was well before the horrible execution of the elephant.
I should have written Einstein. Sorry
Fixed
Ron is correct, it was Edison. I was initially correct.
The danger of relying on memory.
I think you were right the first time.
To my recollection, there is no law of the Universe that says great men cannot do stupid things 
Not offering excuses, just saying …
“The universal aptitude for ineptitude makes any human accomplishment an incredible miracle.” - Colonel John Paul Stapp
More on the Colonel: The Rocket Sled Trials of Colonel John Stapp - YouTube
“Manhattan cabs are born old”
Jean Sheperd
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“Ow.”
- The Beef, after hurting himself.
Perhaps not a quote for All Time, but rather a quote for any old Day. Universal in a sense.
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again??? Dragged under the Soobuhroo again?
It was a Ford Escape. Oh, the ignominy! I keep eyeing that left front tire. I just know it has it in for me.
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Every time I try to say “ignominy”, it sounds like I’m saying hominuh, hominuh, hominuh…
So - no, I was just speaking more generally about the “thousand slings and arrows” that life lobs at us on a daily basis, particularly in our dotage. Nothing dramatic.
See how I worked a Quote of the Day from Willie the Shake in there?
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Charles Laquidera (sp.) from WBCN in Boston!
Dang! That brings back memories.
That sho does, thanks for bringing back to my memories of Charles Laquidara. I always tuned into his shows. He replaced Peter Wolf when he left to front J Geils Band. He added to making me a better person (I almost got there with his help 
).
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”
Lord Kelvin, British mathematician, physicist, and president of the British Royal Society,
c. 1895
“With over fifty foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely
to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market for itself.”
Business Week, 2 August 1968
“A severe depression like that of 1920-1921 is outside the range of probability.”
The Harvard Economic Society, 16 November 1929
“I think there is a world market for about five computers.”
Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.”
Ken Olson, president, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
“We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on the way out.”
Decca Recording Co. executive, turning down the Beatles in 1962
“The phonograph . . . is not of any commercial value.”
Thomas Alva Edison, inventor of the phonograph, c. 1880
“No matter what happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping.”
Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, 4 December 1941, just before the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor
“They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist . . .”
General John B. Sedgwick, last words, Battle of Spotsylvania, 1864
Source: C. Cerf and V. Navasky, The Experts Speak (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984) published in an article by Paul J. H. Schoemaker, MIT SMR, Winter 1995.
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I just watched a program on snipers that mentioned this event.
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Awesome list! I notice that in many cases, if they had only said, “…at this time”, they might not have seemed so dumb in retrospect. I’m sure lots of people agreed with them…at the time.
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Hi @badbeef
The original article discusses scenarios as a strategy. I used bold font for the ones I wanted to draw attention to. Comfort zone, complacency and fear of risk worked against many people as much as overconfidence did.
Beef you are so right. I would note how any and all very recent statements, since the 1960s (otherwise in my time), are heavy laden with hedging statements, leaving the pronouncements sounding like BS.
Problem today is that lies are hedged to appeal to the “believers and Kool-Aid sippers” What can I do about it? My stupid answer is to ask for a whiskey side when served Kool-Aid. I want to go out happy, urp!
The loudest boos come from the cheapest seats
-Babe Ruth
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