Lately, some amusing quotes have been appearing at the bottom of e-mails sent out from the Vancouver Police Department’s public affairs office.

On March 4: “There are no dull subjects--there are only dull writers.” H.L. Hencken

On March 5: “Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space.” Rebecca West

On March 6: Newspaper editors are men who separate the wheat from the chaff, and then print the chaff.” Adlai Stevenson

And finally, on March 12, a subject line which read, “NO DEPS TODAY,” and the body: “… and no cute quotes either.”

And that’s where the well seems to have dried up.

Too bad, they missed our favourite:

“If you don't want to work, become a reporter. That awful power, the public opinion of the nation, was created by a horde of self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditch digging and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.” –Mark Twain.