Libraries for me have always had a cathedral-like ambiance, a hushed sanctuary where learning is revered, where we the people elevate books and education to the level of the religious.
When I got home, I poured myself one last quick drink. I took a deep sip and let the warm liquor travel to destinations well known. Yes, I drink. But I’m not a drunk. That’s not denial. I know I flirt with being an alcoholic. I also know that flirting with alcoholism is about as safe as flirting with a mobster’s underage daughter. But so far, the flirting hasn’t led to coupling. I’m smart enough to know that might not last. Chloe.
When I looked into her eyes, I could see forever.
The hunchback sees the hump of others – never his own.
He sounded genuine, but Myron knew that meant nothing. People were amazing liars.
Myron likes to say that even the ugliest truth is better than the prettiest of lies.
He traveled back again, to when she was that adorable teenager dominating center court, and his favorite Yiddish expression came back to him in a rush: Man plans, God laughs. This was not a kind laugh. “Kitty?
They say you never know how someone will react when the grenade is thrown.
Fat Gandhi was resplendent in what looked to be a yellow zoot suit. “The cash is in that bag?” “It isn’t in my underwear,” Myron said.
Jared was her son and the “co-general manager” of the Yankees – co meaning shares the title with someone who knows what he’s doing because he got the job through nepotism.
Most religious people don’t believe the dogma, Ash. We take from it what we want, we discard what we don’t. We form whatever narrative we like – kind God, vengeful God, active God, laid-back God, whatever. We just make sure we get something out of it. Maybe we get life everlasting while people we resent burn for eternity. Maybe we get something more concrete – money, a job, friends. You just change the narrative.
Do you believe in love at first sight? Neither do I. I do, however, believe in major, more-than-just-physical attraction at first sight. I believe that every once in a while – once, maybe twice in a lifetime – you are drawn to someone so deeply, so primordially, so immediately – a stronger-than-magnetic pull. That was how it was with Natalie. Sometimes that is all there is. Sometimes it grows and gathers heat and turns into a glorious inferno that you know is real and meant to last forever. And.
The eyebrows were his most prominent feature – unusually thick and angry and constantly undulating.
Nick at Nite, the cultural equivalent of aerosol cheese.
You’re not a hypocrite. You aim toward lofty heights. The fact that your arrow cannot always reach them does not make you a hypocrite.
I blinked and the images were gone. But I remembered how the laugh and the howl and the splash would ripple and echo in the stillness of our lake, and I wondered if ripples and echoes like those ever fully die away, if somewhere in the woods my father’s joyful yelps still bounced quietly off the trees. Silly thought, but there you go.
I shall drink no wine before its time. Okay, it’s time.
Death sucks. Death sucks, mostly because it forces those who stay behind to survive. Death isn’t merciful enough to take you too. Instead, death constantly jams down your throat the awful lesson that life does indeed go on, no matter what.
Some people claim that money is the root of all evil. Could be. Others say that money can’t buy you happiness. That may be true. But if you handle it right, money buys you freedom and time, and those are a lot more tangible than happiness.
I want to say something comforting, but I know that this is one of the moments when words would be like an appendix – superfluous or harmful.