Over the years, I have developed a visceral reaction to families and victims expressing surprise at tragedy. Why are we surprised? Why do we forget we are mortal? Bad, bad things happen everywhere, every day. Humans, for better or worse, harbor this ...
Gingerbread I knew I had to get out of there before the icing cracked and they discovered that I'm burnt around the edges, doughy in the center, that what they thought was sugar is salt. If I was a good girl, if I could satisfy their cravings, if eve...
Every time he studied this instrument, with its slender, gleaming steel rod that tapered down to such needle-like sharpness, he wondered why it was necessary to have things like this in the world. If it were truly only for chopping ice, you'd think a...
I put a saddle on my salad, and I rode my horseradish to Rhode Island, where I was just in time to be late. I think I left my time zone change in my Arizona iced tea, so all I have to offer you to drink is water that’s been redirected from the Colo...
What Do the Trees Know? What do the trees know? To bend when all the wild winds blow. Roots are deep and time is slow. All we grasp we must let go. What do the trees know? Buds can weather ice and snow. Dark gives way to sunlight's glow. Strength and...
Here’s something I bet you don’t know: every time someone writes a story about a dragon a real dragon dies. Something about seeing and being seen something about mirrors that old tune about how a photograph can take your whole soul. At the end of...
I'm only leaving you for a handful of days, but it feels as though I'll be gone forever—- the way the door closes behind me with such solidity, the way my suitcase carries everything I'd need for an eternity of traveling light. I've left my hotel n...
The inkstand is full of ink, and the paper lies white and unspotted, in the round of light thrown by a candle. Puffs of darkness sweep into the corners, and keep rolling through the room behind his chair. The air is silver and pearl, for the night is...
Have you ever Heard of her? She’s so pretty I swear Like ice Melt on fire My heart In love tonight ……………. I can’t stop Thinking of her She’s the hottest girl I swear I’m feeling like hunted In the middle of nowhere …………… W...
Christmas ribbons decked every crystal ball knocker on every sparkling door as far as the eye could see. Through the snowy streets of the Veiled Village, Echoes and Sounds rushed to and fro, their shimmering clothes looking like pouring rain or ice o...
[after Vinny shoots a policewoman] Louie: Jesus, Vinny. You just iced a woman, you know that? Vinny: You know what you are, Louie? You're a fuckin' male chauvinist pig. Louie: What do you mean, I'm a male chauvinist pig? You just shot a broad. Vinny:...
Sid: So she picks this hair off my shoulder, and says, "If you're gonna have a second mating dance, at least pick a sloth with the same color pelt." And I'm thinkin', "Whoa! She's gonna go praying-mantis on me." Know what I'm saying? Manny: Hey, if y...
Sid: Hey, what's your problem? Manny: *You* are my problem. Sid: Well, I think you're stressed, and that's why you eat so much. I mean, it's hard to get fat on a vegan diet. Manny: I'm not fat. It's all this fur. It makes me look... poofy. Sid: Fine....
Zeke: Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo. I can't wait to get my paws on that mammoth. Soto: Nobody touches the mammoth until I get the baby. Zeke: ...First I'm gonna slice its hindquarters in sections. I'll put the white meat in one pile, and the dark meat in another....
[George has discovered his brother Harry's tombstone] Clarence: [explaining] Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine. George Bailey: That's a lie! Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal o...
Tony Stark: Attitude control is a little sluggish above 15,000 meters, I'm guessing icing is the probable cause. Jarvis: A very astute observation, sir. Perhaps, if you intend to visit other planets, we should improve the exosystems. Tony Stark: Conn...
Sharon Marsh: Well good morning, Stan. Stan Marsh: Hi mom, can I have eight dollars to see a movie? Sharon Marsh: A movie? But I thought you were going ice-skating. Stan Marsh: But this is gonna be the best movie ever! It's a foreign film from Canada...
Riff: Now I know Tony like I know me and I guarentee you can count him in Action: In, out, let's get crackin' Gee-tar: Where you gonna find Bernardo? Riff: He'll be at the dance tonight at the gym A-Rab: But the gym's neutral territory Riff: A-rab, I...
Emma Frost: If that telepath gets into your head, he won't be as much fun as I am. Sebastian Shaw: Already taken care of. The Russians made this. [reveals a helmet, and puts it on] Sebastian Shaw: What am I thinking? Emma Frost: I don't know. Sebasti...
What was desire anyway, when examined in the clear light of day? Was it the way a woman searched for her clothes in the morning, or the manner in which a man might watch her sit before the mirror and comb her hair? Was it a pale November dawn, when i...
Some say it's wrong to profit from the misfortune of others. I ask my students whether they'd support a law against doing so. But I caution them with some examples. An orthopedist profits from your misfortune of having broken your leg skiing. When th...
