It was dramatic to watch my grandmother decapitate a turkey with an ax the day before Thanksgiving. Nowadays the expense of hiring grandmothers for the ax work would probably qualify all turkeys so honored with gourmet status.

Skins tanned to the consistency of well-traveled alligator suitcases.

A railroad station? That was sort of a primitive airport, only you didn't have to take a cab 20 miles out of town to reach it.

Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down.

The charm of television entertainment is its ability to bridge the chasm between dinner and bedtime without mental distraction.

The American press has the blues. Too many authorities have assured it that its days are numbered, too many good newspapers are in ruins.

I worry about people who get born nowadays, because they get born into such tiny families--sometimes into no family at all. When you're the only pea in the pod, your parents are likely to get you confused with the Hope Diamond. And that encourages you to talk too much.