as discussed in stanley elkin

emilygould: I served this kale and chicken ragout over whole wheat spaghetti. “We have to stop buying whole wheat spaghetti.” “Yeah?” “Yeah. I’d rather die a little bit sooner than live a long life full of whole wheat spaghetti.”

emilygould:

I served this kale and chicken ragout over whole wheat spaghetti.

“We have to stop buying whole wheat spaghetti.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I’d rather die a little bit sooner than live a long life full of whole wheat spaghetti.”

‘Well, think of a half-life as nature’s egg-timer,’ Blair said, standing in the aisle of the bus with a mic. ‘After the buzzer goes off, the half-life is over, and all of the radioactive elements are safe.’

—About a Mountain by John D’Agata

The man bobbed toylike in front of him, meanwhile digging into his pocket as if scratching at a familiar microorganism that possessed parasitic proclivities that had survived the test of time. However, what he produced at last was a business card.

—The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch  by Philip K. Dick

longreads: Lightning Rods is about a salesman named Joe who fails to sell a single Encyclopedia Britannica and sells exactly one Electrolux vacuum cleaner. He realizes the problem isn’t with him. The problem is with other people. He needs to sell “something people knew they needed anyway.” He sets up a business of contracted female administrative assistants—nicknamed Lightning Rods—that have anonymous sex with the male employees in an office through a glory hole in the bathroom. He says he can convince people that this is a substitute for ordinary sex, and a way of guarding against workplace sexual harassment. The idea sweeps the nation and changes everything. Ms. DeWitt gives the last word of her novel to George Washington: “In America anything is possible.” “Novels From the Edge: For Helen DeWitt, the Publishing World Is a High-Stakes Game.” — Michael H. Miller, The New York Observer See more #longreads about publishing

longreads:

Lightning Rods is about a salesman named Joe who fails to sell a single Encyclopedia Britannica and sells exactly one Electrolux vacuum cleaner. He realizes the problem isn’t with him. The problem is with other people. He needs to sell “something people knew they needed anyway.” He sets up a business of contracted female administrative assistants—nicknamed Lightning Rods—that have anonymous sex with the male employees in an office through a glory hole in the bathroom. He says he can convince people that this is a substitute for ordinary sex, and a way of guarding against workplace sexual harassment. The idea sweeps the nation and changes everything. Ms. DeWitt gives the last word of her novel to George Washington: “In America anything is possible.”

“Novels From the Edge: For Helen DeWitt, the Publishing World Is a High-Stakes Game.” — Michael H. Miller, The New York Observer

See more #longreads about publishing

We are dregs and scum, sir: the dregs very filthy, the scum very superior.

—Man and Superman by George Bernard Shaw

I allow, indeed, that the Empire of Germany raises her revenue and her troops by quotas and contingents; but the revenue of the Empire and the army of the Empire is the worst revenue and the worst army in the world.

—Burke, Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies (1775)

WOW

If a child was deemed viral, he was salted. This by the Jews, I read. What kind of Jews, it was not clear. Circa sometime that was not mentioned. Salted in the deepest sense. A cake of it rubbed over the limbs, salt poured down their mouths, into their cavities.

—The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus

… increased insensible losses …

—Illustrated Textbook of Paediatrics by Tom Lissauer and Graham Clayden

The deeper truth is that there is nothing to explain.

—Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman