y'all feel free to start a thread of your own commonplace books if yez like - I'd love to see what other people hoard in the way of words! Here's more from page four - I realise some of them (the one I saw on a blackboard, for example) have other sources but this is where I got 'em from:

From Print Three – Examples of Marbles Metaphor (eg "He's lost his marbles"):
– A few sandwiches short of a picnic.
– A telephone exchange with not enough subscribers.
– Not playing with a full deck.
– His porch light is out.
– When you knock, there's no one home.
– A few bricks short of a load.
– His staircase doesn't climb to the attic.
– Her lift doesn't go to the top floor.
– Golf bag doesn't have a full set of irons.
– Two slices of bread short of a grilled cheese sandwich.
– A couple of coupons short of a pop–up toaster.
– Didn't have all the dots on his dice.
– Antenna didn't pull in all the channels.
And finally, courtesy of Bull (from "Night Court") – Few fries short of a Happy Meal.

From the song "Rich Girl", by Hall and Oates:
"It's so easy to hurt others/When you can't feel pain .... "

Seen on the blackboard in the theatre at St Lawrence College, fall term 1992:
The beatings will continue until higher morale is achieved.

Thought du jour in the Globe & Mail's Social Studies Section:
"I learned three important things in college – to use a library, to memorize quickly and visually, to drop asleep at any time given a horizontal surface and 15 minutes. What I could not learn was to think creatively on schedule." – U.S. dancer and choreographer Agnes de Mille (1908–1993).

Seen on some buttons for sale in The Book Tree in Peterborough:
– I want to be Barbie. The bitch has everything.
– What part of NO! didn't you understand?
– I see you're in touch with your inner monkey.
– You've obviously mistaken me for my evil twin, Skippy.
– Welcome to the Twilight Zone. I'm your usher.
– I'm having a no–life crisis.
– 30 minutes of begging does not constitute foreplay.
– Out of my mind! – Back in five minutes. [– Godot!]
– I dress this way to bother you.
– "Not a morning person" doesn't even begin to cover it.
– The ozone layer or cheese in a spray can? Don't make me choose!

From Primo Levi's essay "The Force of Amber", in his collection Other People's Trades:
To give a name to a thing is as gratifying as giving a name to an island, but it is also dangerous: the danger consists in one's becoming convinced that all is taken care of and that once named, the phenomenon has also been explained.