Today's First Wise Thought From a Famous Person is:
(Number 1 out of 368)

“Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.”
—Sam Rayburn (1882-1961, American Politician)

Today's Second Wise Thought From a Famous Person is:
(Number 1 out of 536)

“Bull markets are born on pessimism, they grow on skepticism, they mature on optimism, and they die on euphoria.”
—Sir John Templeton (1912-2008, British investor and philanthropist)

Today's Made-Up Wise Thought is:
(Number 1 out of 331)

“A situation that is abnormally good or abnormally bad doesn’t last forever; that’s what makes it abnormal.”
— Anonymous Maxim-Maker

Today's Quotation Without Comment (Rarely Wise) is:
(Number 1 out of 577)

“Football is the ballet of the masses”
—Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-0975, Soviet composer)

Today's First Provocative International Factoid is:
(Number 1 out of 373)

The replacement of plastic bags by reusable cloth ones may or may not be good for the environment. In Denmark, the Ministry of Environment and Food released a study in summer of 2018 noting that an organic cotton tote needs to be used 20,000 times to offset its environmental impact of its production. No known tote is able to sustain that much use.

Today's Second Provocative International Factoid is:
(Number 1 out of 628)

“Al Shabab” is Arabic for “the Youth” and the name was adapted in about 2000 or 2001 for a Somali terrorist group. Estimated to have between seven and twelve thousand members, the group has the problem that its leaders don’t count as “youth” any more.

Today's First Provocative U.S. Factoid is:
(Number 1 out of 419)

About 45% of the annual ticket income of the New York City Ballet comes from its Christmas production of “The Nutcracker.”

Today's Second Provocative U.S. Factoid is:
(Number 1 out of 704)

The U.S. federal budget is greater than the total economy of ANY other country except China.

Today's Pretentiously Literate Foreign-Language Quote (Usually in Latin) is:
(Number 1 out of 264)

“Un político pobre es un pobre político.”
[A politician who stays poor is a poor politician.]
—Carlos Hank González (1927-2 1, famously corrupt governor of the state of Mexico)

Today's Folksy But Profound Chinese Proverb is:
(Number 1 out of 156)

狡兔已尽，良犬就烹。
(Jiǎo tù yǐ jìn, liáng quǎn jiù pēng.)
“When the crafty rabbits have disappeared, even the best hunting dogs are eaten.” (I.e., don’t expect appreciation when you stop being useful.)

Today's First Factoid or Quote From or About Donald Trump is:
(Number 1 out of 366)

The US Border Patrol in April 2017 had about 1,800 open positions, but President Trump ordered an increase of another 5,000. Unable to keep up with the need for rapid hiring, it discontinued use of polygraph (lie-detector) tests because about 60% of applicants have historically failed them, usually by trying to conceal a history drug use.

Today's Second Factoid or Quote From or About Donald Trump is:
(Number 1 out of 368)

“Violent insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our federal agents and trying to stop our deportation operations”
—DJT

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CGI Script Modified: 2026-09-08