Where do fonts come from?

Simon Garfield writes (WSJ 3 Sep 11) that Steve Jobs introduced fonts to the contemporary world:

"Shortly after he dropped out of college, Mr. Jobs found that he had the freedom to attend classes on subjects that pleased him rather than bored him. At one of thse he discovered the joys of calligraphy and typefaces. He found the experience 'beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture,' he said.

"And so when the Mac was born a decade later, Mr. Jobs gave its users something novel, a choice of fonts -- everything from Times New Roman to the original Chicago and Venice -- a revolutionary act that loosened our dependence on the professional designer. (Whether your nice new printer could cope with them was another matter.)"

Good at everything that doesn't count?

Gibbon writes (Chap X) "It is difficult to paint the light, the various, the inconstant character of Gallienus, which he displayed without constraint as soon as he became sole possessor of the empire. In every art that he attempted his lively genius enabled him to succeed; and, as his genius was destitute of judgement, he attempted every art, except the important ones of war and government."

Does your mother love you?

Unloved Girl in Spokane WA writes (Dear Abby 28 July 2011)

"Dust and clothing have started to build up in my bedroom. I have told my mom, and she doesn't do anything about it, and I'm tired of telling her! The mess makes it hard live in.

"I think she does not love me since she will not do anything about the mess. What should I do?"

When is obstinacy your best bet?

Torquato Tasso writes (Jerusalem Freed V.3) "so fickle and changing is this world, we find that to be constant we must change our mind."

Are you as catty as an ancient historian?

>
> Polybius writes (XII 15) "Agathocles in his early youth was a common prostitute, one willing to associate with the most licentious characters, a jackdaw, a buzzard, a man who would face in any direction on request. Besides all this, Timaeus says that when Agathocles died, his wife, as she was lamenting him, cried out: 'Ah, what have I not done to you! What have you not done to me!'. . . . And yet Timaeus' description of Agathocles makes it clear that the man must have possessed some remarkable natural advantages."

When does a fire burn down?

How do you make money here?

Candace has taken me to a casino -- my first time ever. Buffets, blinking lights, chips, craps, slots, tiles, Niagara Falls.