A handwritten, personal letter has become a genuine modern-day luxury, like a child's pony ride.

As a general rule, fans and idols should always be kept at arm's length, the length of the arm to be proportionate to the degree of sheer idolatry involved. Don't take a Beatle to lunch. Don't wait up to see if the Easter Bunny is real. Just enjoy the egg hunt.

Tourists moved over the piazza like drugged insects on a painted plate.

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

At Gatling-gun tempo word-perfect the first time out. the journalistic equivalent of a high-wire front somersault without a net.

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.

the metabolism of a consumer society requires it continually to eat and excrete, every day throwing itself away in plastic bags.