I used to work in a fire hydrant factory. You couldn't park anywhere near the place.

If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union.

Before you start some work always ask yourself three questions - Why am I doing it What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions go ahead.

But when I was a teenager the idea of spending the rest of my life in a factory was real depressing. So the idea that I could become a musician opened up some possibilities I didn't see otherwise.

For the blue-collar worker the driving force behind change was factory automation using programmable machine tools. For the office worker it's office automation using computer technology: enterprise-resource-planning systems groupware intranets extranets expert systems the Web and e-commerce.

In the industrial revolution Britain led the world in advances that enabled mass production: trade exchanges transportation factory technology and new skills needed for the new industrialised world.

It was difficult being a teacher and out of the closet in the '50s. By the time I retired the English department was proud of having a gay poet of a certain minor fame. It was a very satisfactory change!

I had found English audiences highly satisfactory. They are the best listeners in the world. Perhaps the music-lovers of some of our larger cities equal the English but I do not believe they can be surpassed in that respect.

Among those who are satisfactory in this respect it is desirable to have represented as great a diversity of intellectual tradition social milieu and personal character as possible.

There is a glaring reason that the necessary total ban on nontherapeutic use of antibiotics hasn't happened: The factory farm industry allied with the pharmaceutical industry has more power than public-health professionals.