Force apt-get to ignore dependencies?

[Benjamin Scott]

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 9:50 AM, Jon 'maddog' Hall <maddog at li.org> wrote:
>> after a unfortunate accident involving a package manager, a liquid
>> lunch, and a pair of rubber bands
>
> I would love to hear more about this at the upcoming ManchLUG meeting.
> I knew there was a reason for avoiding rubber bands.

  For those who don't get it, that was a reference to The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams (RIP).  Specifically, the
origin story of Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged, who "had his
immortality inadvertently thrust upon him by an unfortunate accident
with an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch, and a pair of
rubber bands".

  My own need to reinstall was caused by my accidentally installing
part of squeeze into my lenny-based install, after misunderstanding
the semantics of APT's "RootDir" directive.  The resulting craziness
minded me of HHGTTG.  What really happened is available in the
archives:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.linux.gnhlug/20691

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.linux.gnhlug/20708

-- Ben