Fun_People Archive
15 Jan
QOTD -- bizarre

Date: Sun, 15 Jan 95 19:11:53 PST
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: QOTD -- bizarre

[Here's a quote that mentions bizarre flaming, viruses, and mosaic, but with no
reference to netnews or the World Wide Web.  Refreshing.  -psl]

Forwarded-by: bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Bostic)
Forwarded-by: qotd-request@ensu.ucalgary.ca (Quote of the day)

Over the next decade or so the tulip became a popular but expensive item
in Dutch gardens.  Many of these flowers succumbed to a nonfatal virus
known as mosaic.  It was this mosaic that helped to trigger the wild
speculation in tulip bulbs.  The virus caused the tulip petals to develop
contrasting colored stripes or "flames."  The Dutch valued highly these
infected bulbs, called "bizarres."  In a short time, popular taste
dictated that the more bizzare a bulb, the greater the cost of owning it.

		-- A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton G. Malkiel

© 1995 Peter Langston