What difference does the sequence of information make? Depends on who you ask -- John Cage or Noam Chomsky. In this Challenge we asked readers to press their "shuffle play" buttons and rearrange familiar quotations to produce new meanings. The pudding in the proof is!
THE WINNER
You want what you can't always get.
(You can't always get what you want.)
-- Greg Wehmeyer
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Vidi, vici, veni --
I saw, I conquered, I came.
(Veni, vidi, vici.)
-- Arjen Kamphuis
Deep beauty is only skin.
(Beauty is only skin deep.)
-- Doug Gordon
"Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness."
("Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do it, that's trustworthiness." -- George W. Bush, CNN online chat, Aug. 30, 2000)
-- Dave Romm
Something that he disagreed with ate him.
(He ate something that disagreed with him.)
-- David Bedno
And give a fish a man for to teach, and fish eats -- eats a man a day for a lifetime! He-he!
(Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.)
-- Keith Ammann
"For the American people, I need to have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. To lie back and go to work. A single time -- not! I never told anybody these allegations are false, never! I did not!"
("I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time -- never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people." -- President Clinton, Jan. 26, 1998)
-- Mark F. Schwartz
Seldom free or thoughtful, thought is free.
(Free thought is seldom free, or thoughtful.)
-- D. Dwayne Edwards
Is truth something, a feeling that nothing is true?
(Truth is nothing but a feeling that something is true.)
-- Amy Scheck
Crying milk spilled over no use.
(No use crying over spilled milk.)
-- Judy Richardson
Never having to say "love" means you're sorry.
(Love means never having to say you're sorry.)
-- Randall Braaksma
I sees 'em as I calls 'em.
(I calls 'em as I sees 'em.)
-- Stuart Thiel
To the good men, "Come now!" For their aid is to party all of the time.
(Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.)
-- Christopher J. Lackner
To mind a terrible thing is a waste.
(A mind is a terrible thing to waste.)
-- Maureen Cozine
Thanks for taking our challenge. Look for another one in the new year!
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