From Mindspillage

Sentences I like, encountered in everyday reading. Maybe literature, but probably especially things that are not literature. I want to keep this simple and share things I liked, so I'm not going to explain the context; if you're curious, read the source material. You may not enjoy them without context. (Of course, you may not even enjoy them with context. Alas!) Times given are time of posting, not publication date.

Taken Out of Context

• "Sometimes I pull up my archived copy of my site, circa 1997 or so, and shake my head at how bad it was. Tiled black "wrinkled satin" background image, with lime green text? Really? Damn. It's like seeing that picture of yourself from 7th grade, all awkward and dressed funny, with your hair all screwy, thinking at the time how cool you looked and how proud you were of wearing that specific shirt on picture day. Then years later you realize you looked like a moron, and now you can't get your parents to burn the evidence." 02:40, 28 October 2009 (UTC)

• "There is a magazine called Pork. Its website includes sections labeled Swine Practitioner and Pork Exec. This is what happens in the curly part of the Long Tail[..."] 21:32, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

• "Apparently, evil spirits are color blind and spatially challenged, but are not incapable of distinguishing men and women." 18:14, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

• "Griffin is being held in lieu of $250,000 bond. The cat was released on its own recognizance." 15:41, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

• When I was six, another kid kicked a soccer ball right into my nose during a game, and I cried all the way home. It would, however, be a logical fallacy for me to conclude from this that soccer is a terrible game which no one should play. 00:09, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

• "Some especially conservative parents are indignant because sexual adventuring is too visible, while some especially radical adventurers are indignant because they are not allowed to copulate in front of City Hall. Everyone else wishes the conservatives and the radicals would stop pushing the envelope before the bargain collapses altogether, leaving nothing but cops and politicians and lawyers to tell us how to behave." 06:06, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

• "They claim to be Honduran as well as Salvadorean and Mexican. Maybe, but you would have to read Leibniz on the identity of indiscernibles to prove the point." 13:25, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

• "Most economists, as I’m sure you know, reply to such queries in verse, and Will is no exception." 18:51, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

• "I actually tried "Iexico-temporal backdrop" in one of the middle drafts, which I think you'll agree is not preferable." 03:14, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

• "We specialize in server processes, not process servers." 03:14, 2 June 2009 (UTC)