I like to think that I get better and better as a writer, but it seems pretty easy to me to slip on disguises of various people.

Well-read people are less likely to be evil.

You may want to keep a commonplace book which is a notebook where you can copy parts of books you think are in code, or take notes on a series of events you may have observed that are suspicious, unfortunate, or very dull. Keep your commonplace book in a safe place, such as underneath your bed, or at a nearby dairy.

And a refrigerator may hold a basket of strawberries, which would be important if a maniac said to you, "If you don't give me a basket of strawberries right now, I'm going to poke you with this large stick." But when the two elder Baudelaires and Quigley Quagmire opened the refrigerator, they found nothing that would help someone who was wounded, dying of thirst, or being threatened by a strawberry-crazed, stick-carrying maniac.

There are times to stay put, and what you want will come to you, and there are times to go out into the world and find such a thing for yourself.

'Help me,' Allison says, but she is soft-spoken, and everyone she loves is so far away.

This toast feels raw. Is it safe to eat raw toast?