When it comes to naming things, vanity and flattery are dull motivations best suited for deciding on a child’s middle name. Much more interesting are the descriptive names that suggest a story or happening of interest.
Quotes from J. Maarten Troost
Like many air travelers, I am aware that airplanes fly aided by capricious fairies and invisible strings.
the thunder and bombast of what passes for news programming today–Motto: All terror, all the time
…remembering that human beings cannot produce 20,000 unique sounds, even if you were to include belching and hawking great globs of phlegm (which I think counts in Chinese), the linguistic powers that be–whoever they are–threw in tones, possibly to ensure that no foreigner over the ages of thirty would have any chance whatsoever of understanding that Chinese language.
Fortunately, due to a terrible misunderstanding, I soon found myself working as a consultant to the World Bank. I am not exactly sure what it was that led the World Bank to believe I had any expertise in infrastructure finance. I had never even balanced a checkbook. I hadn’t even tried. There is not much reason to balance a checkbook when your checking account rarely tops the three-figure mark. And so, to the Third World countries who had the misfortune of working with me on their infrastructure projects, I wish to apologize.
i’m off to an island nation where formal wear consists of a leaf tired around a penis.
I made arrangements with Bitaki, a teammate on the soccer team I played with, to go fishing with his brothers, who typically worked the waters off Maiana, the nearest island south of Tarawa. When I mentioned to Sylvia that I was going, she said: “No, you’re not.
if you’re looking to see what the government of Kiribati finally decides to do, when do they wave the flag and say the last good-bye, I’m afraid I can’t help you. But look around, follow the news, Google it, bear witness. The very least we could do for the canary is acknowledge its demise.
It was, to reiterate, to stress, to accentuate the point, to leave no doubt, hot.