If You Cannot Stand A Spoon Upright

This Church Was Open And Seemingly Unattended, And It Was A Throwback In Another Way As Well. The Candles In The Little Side Altars Were Real Ones, Actual Wax Candles That Burned With An Open Flame. Lots Of Churches Have Switched Over To Electrified Altars. You Drop Your Quarter In The Slot And A Flame-shaped Bulb Goes On And Stays On For Your Quarter's Worth Of Time. It's Like A Parking Meter, And If You Stay Too Long They Tow Away Your Soul.

New York Is An Ugly City, A Dirty City... But There Is One Thing About It. Once You Have Lived In New York And It Has Become Your Home, No Place Else Is Good Enough.

I Wanted A Drink. There Were A Hundred Reasons Why A Man Will Want A Drink, But I Wanted One Now For The Most Elementary Reason Of All. I Didn't Want To Feel What I Was Feeling, And A Voice Within Was Telling Me That I Needed A Drink, That I Couldn't Bear It Without It. But That Voice Is A Liar. You Can Always Bear The Pain. It'll Hurt, It'll Burn Like Acid In An Open Wound, But You Can Stand It. And, As Long As You Can Make Yourself Go On Choosing The Pain Over The Relief, You Can Keep Going.

Donald Westlake's Parker Novels Are Among The Small Number Of Books I Read Over And Over. Forget All That Crap You've Been Telling Yourself About War And Peace And Proust-these Are The Books You'll Want On That Desert Island.

I Don't Know About The Rest Of The Country But In New York More People Have Learned Anonymity From Rent Control Than Ever Discovered It In A Twelve-step Program.