One hundred and two years ago today the British passenger liner, the TITANIC, sank tragically losing 1,490 lives.  In 1912, the largest ship in the world, Titanic, was supposedly unsinkable.

Over the century, the sinking of the Titanic has crept into everyday dialogue.  British Conservative politician, William Hague said, expressing his opposition to joining the single currency, "It was inevitable the Titanic was going to set sail, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea to be on it."

Roger Morton, on losing five of the last six primaries as President Ford's campaign manager, said, "I'm not going to rearrange the furniture on the deck of the Titanic."

And Bob Dylan sings:
"Praise be to Nero's Neptune
The Titanic sails at dawn
And every body's shouting
'Which side are you on?'
And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot
Fighting in the captain's tower
While calypso singers laugh at them
And fishermen hold flowers."

        'Desolation Row'  1965, Bob Dylan, (b. 1941)
        American singer and songwriter, www.bobdylan.com

The Oxford Dictionary of QUOTATIONS, Oxford University Press, 2001.