“Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too.”

The Movie: Caddyshack, 1980 (Brian Doyle-Murray, Harold Ramis, and Douglas Kenney, screenwriters; Harold Ramis, dir.)
Who says it: Ted Knight as Judge Elihu Smails, head of the golf club's scholarship committee
The context: Danny Noonan (Michael O’Keefe) has just told Judge Smails that he’d like to go to college.
How to use it: To disparage someone else’s dreams.

My brother James, a shipbuilder, sent me this one -- he says, "When I am given a menial, repetitive, or all around miserable task at work, I find comfort in this line."

It's been raining here for the past couple of days, so we actually might need some ditch-diggers. We're on flood watch until this afternoon. Gardiner's supermarket, a big shiny Hannaford, sits on a low piece of land right at the junction of the Kennebec River and the Cobbosseecontee Stream. Anna tells me that the parking lot floods regularly, and a row of sawhorses is currently set up in front of the store to provide framing for sandbags, should they be necessary.

Today I'm catching up with work I've neglected for the past few days, so I'm just as glad the weather's crummy. Tomorrow it will be sunny, and I'll have to spend some time outside, watching the grass come back to life.