Rumor and gossip, like sound itself, appear to travel by wave-effect, sheer preposterosity being no barrier.

Natural villains are hard to come by, what with all the shrinks and social-scientist types threatening to understand everybody into the ground.

When two people marry they become in the eyes of the law one person, and that one person is the husband.

Good drama should sandpaper the mind.

The Federal Building's large Ceremonial Courtroom, reserved for show trials, is veneered in executive teak. Bench, counsel tables, jury boxes, entrances, and exits -- all are as formally arranged as an Elizabethan stage. Only the drama is shapeless, at least to those of us who have never seen a trial before. We see only random movements, sequences, comings and goings, no form or agenda apparent. To us the action is less like watching a play than watching an aquarium.

trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.

The notion that the great artist requires a great patron has been around since the Pharaohs. That the born patron also needs an artist to patronize is a less-studied phenomenon.