Sometimes, a word succeeds beyond the wildest dreams of its creators, like a virus sent into the world to infect common speech.

[from the television show,"Evade the Question Time"]At the end of the first round, I will award three points to Mr. Kaine for an excellent nonspecific condemnation, plus one bonus point for blaming the previous government and another for successfully mutating the question to promote the party line. Mr. van de Poste gets a point for a firm rebuttal, but only two points for his condemnation, as he tried to inject an impartial and intelligent observation.

Without a yardstick sometimes the high points can be taken for granted.

Have you ever wondered how nostalgia isn"t what it used to be?

True and baseless evil is as rare as the purest good - and we all know how rare that is.

I still feel threatened by academics, but my books have a lot of academic in-jokes and everybody assumes I went to university and studied English.

You many have noticed I have a temper ... but when I calmed down, I realized that this world, blighted and imperfect as it is, would be better with you in it.