Anybody Who Notices Unpleasant Facts In The

Understanding The Past Requires Pretending That You Don't Know The Present. It Requires Feeling Its Own Pressure On Your Pulses Without Any Ex Post Facto Illumination.

Chickenshit Refers To Behavior That Makes Military Life Worse Than It Need Be: Petty Harassment Of The Weak By The Strong; Open Scrimmage For Power And Authority And Prestige; Sadism Thinly Disguised As Necessary Discipline; A Constant 'paying Off Of Old Scores'; And Insistence On The Letter Rather Than The Spirit Of Ordinances.

Anybody Who Notices Unpleasant Facts In The Have-a-nice-day World We Live In Is Going To Be Designated A Curmudgeon.

Today The Somme Is A Peaceful But Sullen Place, Unforgetting And Unforgiving. ... To Wander Now Over The Fields Destined To Extrude Their Rusty Metal Fragments For Centuries Is To Appreciate In The Most Intimate Way The Permanent Reverberations Of July, 1916. When The Air Is Damp You Can Smell Rusted Iron Everywhere, Even Though You See Only Wheat And Barley.

Most People Who Seek Attention And Regard By Announcing That They're Writing A Novel Are Actually So Devoid Of Narrative Talent That They Can't Hold The Attention Of A Dinner Table For Thirty Seconds, Even With A Dirty Joke.