Sheer invective

“Very good,” I said coldly. “In that case, tinkerty tonk.”

And I meant it to sting.

P.G. Wodehouse
Right Ho, Jeeves

Lines I like

The air’s as still as the throttle on a funeral train

John Prine, Mexican Home

Spring

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.… Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows

Spring

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.… Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

Kenneth Grahame
The Wind in the Willows

Lines I like

“What ho!” I said.

What ho!” said Motty.

“What ho! What ho!”

“What ho! What ho! What ho!”

After that it seemed rather difficult to go on with the conversation.

P.G. Wodehouse
Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest

Lines I like

Last summer I swam in a public place and a reservoir to boot
At the latter I was informal, at the former I wore my suit
I wore my swimming suit

Loudon Wainwright III
The Swimming Song

Lines I like

He resembled a minor prophet who has been hit behind the ear with a stuffed eel-skin.

 

P.G. Wodehouse
Ukridge’s Dog College

Lines I like

He was trapped in a haircut he no longer believed in.

 

Billy Bragg
King James Version

Lines I like

To sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock,
In a pestilential prison, with a life-long lock,
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock,
From a cheap and chippy chopper on a big black block!

 

W.S. Gilbert

 

Ko-Ko, Pooh-Bah, and Pish-Tush contemplate losing their heads.

From The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan.

 

The oxygen of democracy

People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news.

 

A.J. Liebling
The New Yorker, April 7, 1956