Best...

[Gee3666]

This is a thread to list the best of anything you have to offer.

[Gee3666]

THE BEST BREAK-UP LETTER EVER!

A Marine stationed in Afghanistan recently received a "Dear John"
Letter from his girlfriend back home. It read as follows:

Dear Ricky,

I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance between us is
just too great. I must admit that I have cheated on you twice since
you've been gone, and it's not fair to either of us. I'm sorry. Please
return the picture of me that I sent to you.

Love,
Rene

The Marine, with hurt feelings, asked his fellow Marines for any
snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, sisters,
ex-girlfriends, aunts, cousins, etc. In addition to the picture of
Rene, Ricky included all the other pictures of the pretty gals he had
collected from his buddies. There were 57 photos in that envelope along
with this note:

Dear Rene,
I'm so sorry, but I can't quite remember who the f--- you are.
Please take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.

Take Care,
Ricky

[DR]

That one is a stinger all right. 

Here is my best of koans:

"What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

[Runner]

Best hair band of the 80's and early 90's:

Def Leopard   

[Givens]

Here's my contribution:

Best Spielberg movie -- Empire of the Sun

[Firefly]

most beautiful building  

this one might stir up some controversy.  i hope it does. 

my vote...

the sydney opera house

[Gee3666]

I agree that it is a splendid example of free-form achitecture.  However, there is a commercial, I believe it's for Lipitor, where in one shot there is a building behing the doctor that's talking.  This structure has a striking resemblance to a sailing ship and I found it completely enthralling.  Has anyone else seen or noticed it?

[Gee3666]

Best book opening chapter ever:

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfasionable end of the western spiral of the galaxy lies a small, unreguarded yellow sun. Orbitting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignifigant little blue-green planet whose ape-desended life-forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

This planet has- or rather had- a problem, which was this: Most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time.

Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper. Which was odd, because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

And so the problem remained. Lots of people were mean, and most of these were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.

Then one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place.

Unfortunately, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, the earth was demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass, and the idea was lost, seemingly forever.

[Givens]

That is a pretty wacky book opening, but I like it. 

My vote for most beautiful building:  the U.S. Capitol.

[Josh]

I second the best book opening chapter. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is just pure genius. Douglas Adams is up there as far as best authors go. My vote for the most beautiful building though...the Taj Mahal.

[DanM]

Taj Mahal definitely has my vote for most beautiful building as well, although the Sydney Opera House certainly isn't too shabby.  Also, I wouldn't discount some of the great cathedrals of Europe...  Chartres is a favorite of mine.

[udo]

Don't forget the medieval castles in Europe.

Or the lovely architecture of .. is it the Kremlin or the Basilica in Moscow?

Arabic spires always catch my eye.

[Gee3666]

I agree that it is a splendid example of free-form achitecture.  However, there is a commercial, I believe it's for Lipitor, where in one shot there is a building behing the doctor that's talking.  This structure has a striking resemblance to a sailing ship and I found it completely enthralling.  Has anyone else seen or noticed it?

By the way, I found out what building it is.  It's the Milwaukee Art Museum.

[Maximus]

A beautiful building indeed.  Good choice! 

I'm very fond of the Transamerica building.  I know it's a bit simple, but that's what I love about it. 

[MotherEarth]

First line of a novel:

Once upon a time there were four little rabbits, and their names were
Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter.

Beatrix Potter