* (From "Consider the Germans," an article by Thomas Geoghegan, in the March issue of Harper's) "Come on: Is the West really in such decline? Yes, we can sit here on our island continent and gloom about the rise of China, as our elite now like to do. Or we can go out into the world and start competing like Europeans. For here's a strange fact: since 2003, it's not China but Germany, that colossus of European socialism, that has either led the world in export sales or at least been tied for first. ... Sure, China just pulled slightly ahead of Germany, but that's mostly because the euro has soared, making German goods even more expensive. ... And even as the Germans outsell the United States, they still manage to take six weeks of vacation every year. They're beating us with one hand tied behind their back."
* Some scholars believe that the term "marrano" ("secret Jew"), which describes people who have been forced to adopt Christianity but still observe Judaism secretly, comes from the Spanish word for "pigs," a reference to the Jewish prohibition against eating pork. Others believe that the term comes from the Hebrew word for "bitter."
* (From a letter to Harper's, written by "Gary Indiana" of New York City, comparing two separate articles about Susan Sontag and Ayn Rand, respectively) "Politically polar opposites, both Sontag and Rand were personalities who used their intellectual gifts as defense mechanisms, vectors of imperiousness, and aggression against perceived enemies, and who used their condescending charm as a way of winning allies in their individual wars against the realities of adult life. They were both brave, both immensely persuasive to hordes of acolytes, and both incredibly deluded. Sontag believed herself Lady Bountiful; she was, in fact, vindictive, mean-spirited, and...incapable of picking up a dinner check. Rand thought she was the free-market Jeanne d'Arc, and had the temperament of Hitler. Of the two, Sontag had at least some noble ideals; Rand's were squalid."
* (From "Findings," Harper's) "The fertility of large female fruit flies, who are able to produce the most eggs, is severely diminished as a result of their extreme attractiveness, which causes males to harass them to the point of starvation and to overload them with toxic semen."
* The Asia Pacific Network of Sex Workers released a statement in October in response to controversy that ensued when France's Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand wrote in his 2005 book, "The Bad Life," that he had had sex with young male prostitutes in Thailand. From the statement: "The money we send home to the rural areas of Thailand is far more than that provided by any international development program and supports far more people. Tourism is our country's second biggest industry, and people have sex on holidays. Are they meant to be celibate? ... Until the left and right agree to substantially increase development aid to redistribute the wealth that France and other former colonial countries stole from the developing world, we would appreciate it if you keep sending us your tourists so that we can show them a good time and get some of your hard-won cash."