Category: Engaging the Culture

“That had been given to them by an overworked staffer at the DNC who had needed to get a few things off his desk. I use the phrase his desk advisedly because this staffer, now going by Heather, was already transitioning, with fake breasts and everything, and to apply the old pronoun might entail legal difficulties for, as the Victorians would have put it, the present writer. But the legal team for the Satiric Writers Guild is a crackerjack team in every respect, and so I have made the decision to simply proceed. Let it stand. Stet. Whatever the editors may say about it, stet. Where was I?”

Ecochondriacs, p. 132

“He sat down at his desk. It, like the rest of the office, was in tatters. If decorators had terms for this kind of thing, they would probably narrow it down to a choice between High Disheveled and Early Hand Grenade”

Ecochondriacs, p. 128

“Many ordinary folks have noticed that the onset of panic has the unfortunate effect of scattering their wits. Hugh, whose wits were usually scattered already, discovered much to his great surprise that his panic was out there gathering up all his wits, and helping them all to walk in a straight line”

Ecochondriacs, p. 127

“‘There is a section in my chapter ten where I, um, critique a paper you submitted to The Journal of Climate Change.’ This was a polite way of putting it. Larry had actually gone through her paper with a weed whacker, the kind with metal blades”

Ecochondriacs, p. 118