Todd Borg > Quotes

“I’d learned long ago that patience was often rewarded. Certainly, impatience rarely was.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Chase

“Those of us who have so-called normal lives without undue stress and fear and worry and pain rarely know how fortunate we are. Then we see a man like Adam who’s famous even if unemployed and who lives at his sister’s house and struggles to manage, and we’re tempted to think he should snap out of it. He’s obviously intelligent, and he has no apparent disabilities. So we think, you’re smart, go out and get a job, and make yourself a normal life. Then we learn that the man has Traumatic Brain Injury and medical issues that can rip normalcy in two, and we realize that one of the main problems is in ourselves for failing to consider that not all other people have our good fortune of functioning bodies and brains, with emotional and psychological landscapes that are level and fertile and stable and predictable.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Blue Fire

“This country has decided that kids are not the critical trustees of the future but merely an inconvenience to be parked in front of the TV, or a video game, or Facebook, and fed fast food.” Stein gestured toward a group of kids on Virginia Street who seemed unlikely candidates for high school graduation, much less a university education. The boys wore their jeans falling off their butts, cuffs dragging in the dirt. The girls wore skin-tight, low-cut tops that showed lots of cleavage and belly rolls, and low-cut pants that revealed their thongs. Stein huffed. “Now we’re enjoying the benefits of an entire generation whose idea of nutrition is high-fructose corn syrup, whose idea of education is survival reality shows, whose idea of entertainment is gross-out YouTube videos that show people in eating and farting and vomiting contests.” Stein knocked his elbow onto my arm just in case I wasn’t paying attention. “What happened to eating your vegetables and reading books?” he said. He was speeding up, his energy output in direct relationship to his emotional temperature. “What happened to ambition and yearning and intelligent pursuits?” he said. “For thousands of years, people have tried to create an intelligent society, to make us a better species. We celebrated a liberal arts education and studied the classics in literature and art and music and philosophy. Now it’s only taken twenty or thirty years to devolve into a society of militant ignorance. I’ve got kids in my class who can’t write a single literate sentence. They use this new texting language where letters and numerals substitute for entire words. Either they never use capital letters or they only use capital letters. Used to be, Freshman English was just a bit remedial. Now, Freshman English is fourth grade stuff. I had a kid turn in an essay the other day. Every line was like a list. All nouns. I told the kid that a complete sentence had to have a verb in it. He said, ‘What’s a verb?’” Stein was now at a near-trot, his breathing a series of short pants. He turned up some stairs and went into another building. I held the door for him. “These kids in that last class of mine… Will any of them ever go to a library? An art museum? The symphony orchestra? If I mention Archimedes or Pythagoras or Newton or Shakespeare or Mozart or Michelangelo, they have no idea who I’m talking about. Same for Roosevelt and Churchill and Stalin. I should be glad they know that Lincoln was a president. But they don’t know what he did or when he did it. They can’t tell me the three branches of our government. They don’t know why any of our past wars were fought. They can’t find Germany or Japan or Korea or Vietnam or Iraq on a map.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Hijack

“It’s romantic. You’ll think I’m nuts for saying it, but sailing is like using a candle compared to using an electric light. It still gets the job done but has much more warmth”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Ghost Boat

“The Gar Wood was a 1947 Ensign, its lines designed for cutting small chop at high speed, not for coping with deep-water swell. The boat teetered at the crest of the wave then tipped down the other side, nearly swamping.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Ghost Boat

“padump”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Ghost Boat

“We find for a moment, here and there, those amazing times where the companionship of another resists the aloneness. It can be as simple as the grace note of a stranger holding the door for you. Or it can be as deep and complex as the bond of a soul mate who understands every nuance of your struggle with the world and gives you complete love of mind and body. Yet, in the end we're still alone.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Killshot

“All people under severe stress find a giant friendly dog to be a comfort.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Blue Fire

“shouted. In”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Killshot

“gas. I could look it up and get back to you, if you like.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Killshot

“I always thought Stanford was a good guy, starting the university and such. Instead, you’re saying he was stealing from the government.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Jade

“pushing in from the edges. My heart raced. A high-pitched ring pulsed in my ears. Searing pain infused my nose and head as if my sinuses had been”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Ghost Boat

“it’s tempting to start universities and build hospitals when you want to put a little gloss on your life as one of the greatest thieves in American history.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Jade

“out all other thoughts. My vision narrowed, darkness pushing in from the edges. My heart raced. A high-pitched ring pulsed in my ears. Searing pain infused my nose”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Ghost Boat

“It is at times like these that I have a powerful perceptual shift about luck and fate and the chaotic randomness of life. Those of us who have so-called normal lives without undue stress and fear and worry and pain rarely know how fortunate we are. Then we see a man like Adam who’s famous even if unemployed and who lives at his sister’s house and struggles to manage, and we’re tempted to think he should snap out of it. He’s obviously intelligent, and he has no apparent disabilities. So we think, you’re smart, go out and get a job, and make yourself a normal life. Then we learn that the man has Traumatic Brain Injury and medical issues that can rip normalcy in two, and we realize that one of the main problems is in ourselves for failing to consider that not all other people have our good fortune of functioning bodies and brains, with emotional and psychological landscapes that are level and fertile and stable and predictable.”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Blue Fire

“The less the killer cares about consequences to himself, the”
― Todd Borg, Tahoe Killshot