Electric Chair Quotes (2 quotes)
I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison.
Movie, The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938). In Larry Langman and Paul Gold, Comedy Quotes from the Movies (2001), 248. Note that this is a variation of a similar joke published nearly two decades earlier. For example, ‘My father occupied the chair of applied physics at Cambridge.’ ‘Dat’s nuttin’; mine occupied the seat of applied electricity at Sing Sing. —Voo Doo.” included in University of Virginia, Virginia Reel (May 1920), Vol. 1, 68.
They could have done it better with an axe.
(1890) On the first use of the electric chair—the horrendously botched execution of William Kemmler, condemned murderer. As quoted in 'Warden Durston's Record: The Man Who Botched the Kemmler Execution', New York Times (18 Aug 1890), 5.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
