Time affords us the ability to blame past errors on others while whole heartedly pronouncing our futures successes.

If you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else.

The kakapo is a bird out of time. If you look one in its large, round, greeny-brown face, it has a look of serenely innocent incomprehension that makes you want to hug it and tell it that everything will be all right, thought you know that it probably will not be.

Gordon Way's astonishment at being suddenly shot dead was nothing compared to his astonishment at what happened next.

Time is the worst place, so to speak, to get lost in, as Arthur Dent could testify, having been lost in both time and space a good deal. At least being lost in space kept you busy.

And as he drove on, the rainclouds dragged down the sky after him, for, though he did not know it, Rob McKenna was a Rain God. All he knew was that his working days were miserable and he had a succession of lousy holidays. All the clouds knew was that they loved him and wanted to be near him, to cherish him, and to water him.

The single raindrop never feels responsible for the flood.