Smile, it makes people nervous.

‘We mustn’t touch anything till the police come.’
‘Oh no,’ agreed Gaskin. ‘We mustn’t touch anything.’
Cyril too was very emphatic that we mustn’t touch anything. We had evidently been reading the same detective stories.
So we sat there, staring about us, not touching anything. It got on my nerves.
‘We can’t sit here like dummies, not touching things,’ I said. ‘It’s so negative.’
‘I could touch a drink,’ suggested Cyril.
‘You can’t,’ retorted Gaskin. ‘They’ve taken the whole lot.’
‘Oh Lord!’ snorted Cyril. ’That’s the worst news yet.’

Beverley Nichols, “Laughter on the Stairs”

Great article which finally allowed me to put a name to the chronically late people in my life. And no, they are not insane.

Quote:
... The issue is that there are two kinds of lateness:
1) Okay lateness. This is when the late person being late does not negatively impact anyone else—like being late to a group hangout or a party. Things can start on time and proceed as normal with or without the late person being there yet.
2) Not okay lateness. This is when the late person being late does negatively impact others—like being late to a two-person dinner or meeting or anything else that simply can’t start until the late party arrives.
...
When it comes to people who are chronically not okay late, I think there are two subgroups:
Group 1) Those who don’t feel bad or wrong about it. These people are assholes.
Group 2) Those who feel terrible and self-loathing about it. These people have problems.

It's been a while since I've used this tag for its intended purpose, but I doubt too many people would have appreciated me quoting OpenStack manuals.

You really have to hand it to God, you know, he has terrific staying-power. Jehovah against Mohammed, Brahma against Allah, Catholic against Protestant: religion really keeps the fun going, doesn't it. If God didn't exist the professional soldiers would have to invent him, wouldn't they?

Something Nasty in the Woodshed, Kyril Bonfiglioli

When women are depressed, they eat or go shopping. Men invade another country. It's a whole different way of thinking. (c)Elayne Boosler

... he was preparing in the chivalry of his heart to forgive her and had bent to ask her pardon for the violence of his language, when she cut the matter short, as he stooped his proud head, by dropping a small toad between his skin and his shirt.
In justice to her, it must be said that she would infinitely have preferred a rapier. Toads are clammy things to conceal about one's person a whole morning. But if rapiers are forbidden; one must have recourse to toads.

Orlando: A Biography, Virginia Woolf

Reading "Infinite Jest" today came across a mention of S. Johnson, name of Avril Incandenza's tragically late dog. Naturally didn't know who S. Johnson might have been named after, and everything is significant in Wallace's book, so had to look it up: Samuel Johnson, often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer (according to Wiki).

Since I can only manage about 50 pages of "Infinite Jest" before my brain starts bubbling out of my ears, I've been simultaneously reading other less intense stuff and just started Bruce Alexander's "Blind Justice". Quote page 3: I was born in the year 1755 in the town of Lichfield, also the birthplace of the great lexicographer Samuel Johnson.

Well, now I know.

Interest in other people came naturally enough; but it came the long way around, with so many bends, hurdles, doubts, and deferrals that halfway toward a friendship, discouragement and disappointment would invariably settle in, and something in me would simply give up.

Ibid.

"Never get high before an important meeting, Tre," advised Benny. "Being high makes the meeting seem to take too long and makes it seem too important..."

Freeware, Rudy Rucker

There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business as usual." But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

People move because of the wear and tear of anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others.Because of the impression that the future is blocked up,that they might do alright but not their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhere else.

Yann Martel, Life of Pi

Went to an Asian Buffet for lunch with some co-workers and received a fantastic fortune cookie as a compensation for terrible food. It said:

Impatience may be appropriate at this time.