This is a better article than the one that references it, David Brooks’ “Most E-Mailed” by NYTimes readers.
One of the great things about The Writers’ Almanac are quotes like this: ” The human race has not devised any way of dissolving barriers, getting to know the other chap fast, breaking the ice, that is one-tenth as handy and efficient as letting you and the other chap, or chaps, cease to be totally sober at about the same rate in agreeable surroundings.
“
| — | from Kingsley Amis, whose birthday’s today. |
