As large as worlds. As old as Time. As patient as a brick.

Mind you, the Elizabethans had so many words for the female genitals that it is quite hard to speak a sentence of modern English without inadvertently mentioning at least three of them.

Never cross a woman with a star on a stick, young lady. They've got a mean streak.

The baby boomers are getting older, and will stay older for longer. And they will run right into the dementia firing range. How will a society cope? Especially a society that can't so readily rely on those stable family relationships that traditionally provided the backbone of care?

Vimes stalked gloomily through the crowded streets, feeling like the only pickled onion in a fruit salad.

It cannot be said often enough that science fiction as a genre is incredibly educational - and I'm speaking the written science fiction, not 'Star Trek.' Science fiction writers tend to fill their books if they're clever with little bits of interesting stuff and real stuff.

That's one form of magic, of course." "What, just knowing things?" "Knowing things that other people don't know.