Ms. Smartarse > Recent Status Updates

possible vs practical:

"It is theoretically possible for me to visit each world of the Galaxy and greet each person on each world. However, it would take far longer to do this than I have years to live and even if I was immortal, the rate at which new human beings are born is greater than the rate at which I could interview the old and, old human beings would die in great numbers before I could ever get to them."

"Why are you telling me this?" he said, his voice flat and low.
"I don't know," she said, swallowing uncomfortably. But she did know. She wanted him to grieve as she grieved. She wanted him to hurt in every way she hurt. It wasn't fair, and it wasn't nice, but she couldn't help it, and she didn't feel like apologizing for it, either.

"How," Anthony demanded, "did a puddle form in the midst of the driest spring of my recollection?"
Kate shot him another one of her annoying grins. "I spilled my tea."
"An entire puddle's worth?"
She shrugged. "I was cold."

Kate had fought her demons and she had won.
And Anthony was so damned jealous.

"You must meet my brother."
"The viscount?" [Kate] asked with disbelief.
"Well, you might enjoy Gregory's company as well," [Colin] allowed, "but as I said, he is only thirteen and likely to put a frog on your chair."
"And the viscount?"
"Is not likely to put a frog on your chair," he said with an utterly straight face.

Because of the invariable growth of the counteracting force known as Regionalism, or Nationalism, the Spiritual Power cannot prevail.

Hardin, as he sat at the foot of the table, speculated idly as to just what it was that made physical scientists such poor administrators. It might be merely that they were too used to inflexible fact and far too unused to pliable people.

Is the narrator consistently losing his spot on the page? Because this is the 5th time that he's rereading the same sentence twice in in a row.

"[Bela] Karolyi has described the [story of Nadia Comāneci's discovery] so many times in various interviews, his autobiography, various other books, even in the script of the movie Nadia (1984), that he probably ended up convincing himself that this was how things actually happened."

Woman in love:"I got kind of a rude awakening last week when I discovered that the man I had my eye on actually has his eye on you."

Same woman 10 seconds later:"You know, I'm standing here looking at you and my goodness, you're even prettier than [man she had my eye on]"



... 99.99% of character development in this series.

"It's a good story."
"I know - it's totally a Lifetime original movie."
I smiled at him. He was funny too. "How does it end?"
"They moved back to their hometown to open a solar paneling company."

Turing's second encounter sounds silly in comparison, but it was important to Turing and is usually emphasised by his biographers. It was with Walt Disney's great breakthrough in cartoon cinematography, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

"That lady should learn [to book ahead] because we don't live in communist times anymore. In those days it was different - you could just walk in off the street. We'd have a line of clients sitting waiting. We'd fix them up, put them under the dryer, and let them gossip for an hour."

Rāzvan's response is less easy to fathom, because he has acquired that ubiquitous, strangulated, mid-Atlantic speech pattern, wherein every utterance ends in a chilled-out, rock-star gasp. It sounds not so much American, as Americroak, presumably because life is one long drag, sometimes on a joint, perhaps.

We'll Meet In Our Dreams - ****

The Age of Neverending Love - ****

Electromagnetic Waves and Flowers - *****

The Dangers of a Contactless Romance - **

Can you find redemption in the bunker? - **** 1/2

Six times have I grieved for you - **** 1/2

She sticks the sharpened pencil behind her ear and dials in to the Internet: a process that takes ages each time, as the connection is established and the subsequent data transfer takes place.

"Will [the package] reach you ok? Won't there be problems at the Post Office in Romania?"
"No," I reply, "now that we're in the EU, all EU mail is delivered to our doors. Or so I've heard."



Yeah.... no! This book was first published in 2012, and I've yet to see the postman/woman deliver any packages.

"I could get hit by a taxi tomorrow, fall through a set of broken cellar doors--"
"Baby, please stop. My heart can't take this."
"--contract some unidentified microbe from a bad roast beef sandwich that proceeds to eat my intestines and my death is written into medical textbooks for future med students to study."
"You had me until the flesh-eating bacteria."

"Ben Dover." Neil looked at me. "What does that name mean to you?".
"That he should've gone by Benjamin."

"Keep him on the straight and narrow," he said while pointing at me. "Or I'm arresting you too."
"Straight isn't going to happen. But I'll call if he runs off with only his magnifying glass and delusions of being the World's Greatest Detective."

No one wants a dead exotic dancer to outshine the newest dinosaur exhibit.
Bad for donations, I imagine.

Poor Don. Did he think we were all going to buy a book and sit down for tea and cakes after a murder had taken place? That's the eternal optimism of a bookseller for you.

Clark phoned to apologize for Fleur giving Andy's cell-phone number to "the press", and to assure Andy they were one hundred percent behind him.
WAY behind him, Andy thought sardonically.

To Andy's surprise, Quinn reached across the table and covered his hand with his own. "I'm not a psycho, Andy. I'm, well, let's say I'm a retired... problem solver."
"Not reassuring."

ce m-au învāțat la litere
este sā vorbesc frumos
și convingātor despre un ambalaj de la mega
image pe care nu-l plātesc