"Ideally, you want to look the person who is growing the food in the eye, and then you really know where the food came from and how did the chicken that laid the eggs live, But not everybody wants to meet the chickens. So we need some surrogates to meet the chickens for us, particularly in parts of the country where you might live far away from farmland. We're inventing different possibilities for that, and the Internet is one of them."

--Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan, quoted in a NYTimes story by Michelle Slatella on buying local, organic produce online for home delivery.

"The Tech Industry is what happens when really smart people get paid to have so much fun that they lose touch with reality."

-- Sarah Dopp, blogger, tweeting away.

"I can't think of a company that I am more impressed with than Google, but they are coming to grips with the fact that "startup energy" can't be faked. There's nothing quite like going from five people to fifty or a hundred."

_VC Fred Wilson, issuing an open recruitment call to Google employees who want "something more entreprenurial."

Susan sez: I like this because a) it's probably a true observation, b) it is so amusing to see someone use the start-up story on their blog as a way to woo staffers away (who want to go, natch), c) I feel a small bubble of jealousy for the now well-fund companies Fred is doing this for--we're way more early stage and I don't have substantial real money yet to woo away Googlers, so I am both admiring and a little envious.

(And having said that, if you are kick ass FE and want to work with a very cool start up this summer, I am the woman to contact..we are early stage enough you can have a BIG impact.)

"I can't think of a company that I am more impressed with than Google, but they are coming to grips with the fact that "startup energy" can't be faked. There's nothing quite like going from five people to fifty or a hundred."

--VC Fred Wilson, issuing an open recruitment call to Google employees who want "something more entreprenurial."

Susan sez: I like this because a) it's probably a true observation, b) it is so amusing to see someone use the start-up story on their blog as a way to woo staffers away (who want to go, natch), c) I feel a small bubble of jealousy for the now well-fund companies Fred is doing this for--we're way more early stage and I don't have substantial real money yet to woo away Googlers, so I am both admiring and a little envious.

(And having said that, if you are kick ass FE and want to work with a very cool start up this summer, I am the woman to contact..we are early stage enough you can have a BIG impact.)

"How do you know if you're in over your head in a healthy way as compared to an unhealthy one?  One entrepreneur gave me a good rule of thumb for this just yesterday.  He suggested that entrepreneurs follow an 80/20 rule - they should always feel in command of 80% of the business, but feel way over their head 20% of the time.  It's that 20% stretch that makes it fun and challenging. "

--Boston VC Jeff Bussgang, writing at Seeing Both Sides, about the stretch running a company can create--he's got some good coping suggestions as well.

"The excellent thing, and good news, for publishers is that there is life after print -- in fact, a better life after print."

-- Pat McGovern, founder and chairman of IDG, a large trade publisher that's moving print magazines online, and now has 52 percent of its revenue is from online ads, 48 percent still from (higher margin) print side, in one of those semi-breathless NYT stories.

"Technology publishing just happens to be at the point of this whole transformation of media. What's happening at I.D.G. is a fairly accurate map for every other publishing organization. Get over it, it's going to happen."

--Stewart Alsop, VC, writer, former InfoWorld lead

Susan sez: I believe that most of the dynamic online media will be--add is being--created new, not out of formerly known as print products--but this is  still a great shut up, get on with it, and get over bitching quote for Monday am.

"I know you don't believe me, just like you don't believe Mom when she tells you that you are beautiful. But I'll say it anyway: One day you will lead a very fancy life. Yes! A girl like you whose parents work multiple jobs and barely make ends meet can grow up to live in a beautiful corner apartment in Manhattan overlooking the water, have weekend houses in the Hamptons and Miami, attend fashion shows in Europe and be photographed for magazines."

--Former Seventeen Magazine editor Atoosa Rubenstein, writing in a new book of letters from women to their younger selves, but demonstrating a degree of non-relevancy to most women I know--of all ages--that just seems amazingly clueless.  I mean, come on. At least aspire to fame on YouTube or something.

"Two months ago, I was doing what I had to do. Now I'm doing what I want to do. And looking back, it was a change I'd always wanted to make, but as long as I was drawing a steady paycheck, I didn't see it as a change that I could afford to make-for me or for my family. Looking long term, I'm not sure it was a decision I could afford not to make. Getting laid off forced me to make the change that I'd always wanted to make anyways. And it may work out or it may not. But the point is that I've made that change now. I'm doing what I'm passionate about."

--Fellow ex-Yahoo! Ryan Kuder, who's started blogging, started a company and is seeing the brave new world, post Yahoo!.

Susan sez: It's hard to let go of complacency and choose risk, but well-thought out risk is one of the biggest adrenalin highs, and a place where both opportunity and productivity can flourish.

"In fact, if I were Microsoft, I'd be using a good part of that $40-odd billion to hire a SWAT team to help Windows Vista. I'm not talking about hiring more developers; I'm talking about finding folks who could creatively find a way to market downgrades to XP as a selling point. Microsoft should be far more worried about its Vista image problem than about outsmarting Yahoo, at this point."
--Mary Joe Foley, Microsoft Watch, writing about MSofties resistence to the proposed Yahoo-Microsoft merger

Susan sez: Nice to hear about it from the Seattle side; viewpoints at Y! seem so mixed, with lots of fear among staff about all the options (and  their sense Y! is getting itself together in terms of project focus, regardless)

" I think anyone currently developing sites using XHTML-MP markup, no Javascript, geared towards cellular connections and two inch screens are simply wasting their time, and I'm tired of wasting my time."

--Russell Beattie, announcing the end of his start-up, Mowser, and his general disgust with where mobile's gone--or not gone--in the US.

Susan sez: This is depressing, but it's true..mobile development is leaping past what is happening in the US with our standard formats.However, when Russell says "Users recognize this, and have made it very clear they won't be using the "Mobile Web" as a substitute for better browsers, rather they'll just stay away completely," I completely disagree--use cases and platforms are two different things and the phone is an established--if new--delivery system for web based data.