“Professors like to talk about themselves, and so the key was to ask them to talk about themselves”
Ecochondriacs, p. 71
The Space That Beans Take Up
“When they had moved from Choctaw Valley, Trevor had settled into his studies easily, and found that full-time load, given his energy levels, was really only about half time, and because his was a personality that was full of beans, with scarcely room left for one more bean, he saw right away that he would have to find some edifying way to fill up the remainder of his time”
Ecochondriacs, p. 69
A Respectable Outlet
“Jill was an avid baseball fan, and was there at the stadium using up her season tickets as often as her schedule permitted. ‘It gives me an opportunity to yell at people without incurring any societal disapproval,’ she said. ‘That’s an argument,’ Larry said”
Ecochondriacs, p. 62
Which Is the Usual Tell
“Larry jumped to his feet to follow her, and Eve noticed how quick and cat-like he was. Big cat. But when he disappeared from her line of sight, she cocked an ear for a moment. There was no indication, faint or loud, of anything like fee fi fo fum”
Ecochondriacs, pp. 59-60
When a Fat Face is Called For
“‘Oh, deadly serious. No God, above us, only sky. It seems that boinking nubile young dopes would be just the ticket. If morality is just a social construct, one has to admire that kind of clear-headed behavior. And in a Christian school, too.’ Marcie just stared. Jill looked back at her with her very best fat face. And, as fat faces go, it was a pretty good one”
Ecochondriacs, p. 59
Missed Opportunity
“Of the three women, the one who was out in front and apparently the spokesman for them all could have been attractive if she had wanted to be, or she used to be attractive, or something of that nature. The other two were in a different category entirely. They looked like nothing on earth”
Ecochondriacs, p. 57
That Sort of Pother
“And at just that moment, there was a clatter and a rustle and pother of self-importance at the door of the office, and three women, of the protesting variety, came in.”
Ecochondriacs, p. 57
Warts and All
“That left him with nothing but guilt, and the unpleasant sensation of being the moral equivalent of a three-inch green tree frog”
Ecochondriacs, p. 48
Spiritual Salmon
“One time they had given him a little monologue, which he had delivered straight to camera, which argued that if you divided the name Adam into two words, a dam, you could see how easy it was for our humanity to become a blockage to the divine energy. If you wanted the energy to flow, you really needed to blow up that dam. It had occurred to Montenegro while he was delivering this particular message that this also had the added blessing of freeing up all the spiritual salmon, but he didn’t say anything about that”
Ecochondriacs, pp. 44-45
No Right to Amazement
“‘Divorce?’ He had no right to be amazed at the prospect of divorce appearing suddenly like this, but it is often the case that delusional people experience feelings that they have no right to experience”
Ecochondriacs, p. 42