Picking Other People's Brains Is An Art

Funeralese Has Had Its Ups And Downs. The Word 'morticians,' First Used In Embalmers Monthly For February, 1895, Was Barred By The Chicago Tribune In 1932, 'not For Lack Of Sympathy With The Ambition Of Undertakers To Be Well Regarded, But Because Of It. If They Haven't The Sense To Save Themselves From Their Own Lexicographers, We Shall Not Be Guilty Of Abetting Them In Their Folly.

One Is Only Really Inwardly Comfortable, So To Speak, After One's Life Has Assumed Some Sort Of Shape. Not Just A Routine, Like Studying Or A Job Or Being A Housewife, But Something More Complete Than All Those, Which Would Include Goals Set By Oneself And A Circle Of Life-time Type Friends. I Think This Is One Of The Hardest Things To Achieve, In Fact Often Just Trying Doesn't Achieve It But Rather It Seems To Develop Almost By Accident.

Growing Up In The English Countryside Seemed An Interminable Process. Freezing Winter Gave Way To Frosty Spring, Which In Turn Merged Into Chilly Summer-but Nothing Ever, Ever Happened.

I Discovered That Human Nature Was Not, As I Had Always Supposed, A Fixed And Unalterable Entity, That Wars Are Not Caused By A Natural Urge In Men To Fight, That Ownership Of Land And Factories Is Not Necessarily The Natural Reward Of Greater Wisdom And Energy.

The Prison System, Inherently Unjust And Inhumane, Is The Ultimate Expression Of Injustice And Inhumanity In The Society At Large.