He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time.

Anybody who thinks that 'it doesn't matter who's President' has never been Drafted and sent off to fight and die in a vicious, stupid war on the other side of the world-or been beaten and gassed by Police for trespassing on public property-or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons-or locked up in the Cook County Jail with a broken nose and no phone access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower. That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted.

It was a maddening image and the only way to whip it was to hang on until dusk and banish the ghosts with rum.

The only thing wrong with the NBA - or any other professional sport, for that matter - is a wild epidemic of Dumbness and overweening Greed. There is no Mystery about it, and no need to change any rules.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Like most of the others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser.

Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.