His cell phone rang, one of those extremely annoying songs that cell phone owners are so in love with because for some reason they can't tolerate a plain old-fashioned ring.

Since my phone ain't ringin' I assume it still ain't you.

I could not but wonder at the queen's unprecedented civility, until I realized with a flush of shame that it was my own improved behavior that motivated hers. So it is that we in life determine our own treatment.

When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

It kind of struck me how great it would be to go out with a guy that size. And if you, you know, got tired of dating him, you could always use him as a house or something.

And have your mother put my head on a stake? Do you have any notion what that would do to my handsome good looks?