The belief in magic in many respects is a pernicious thing. Because of it you've got countless multitudes thinking that aliens abduct people, that Elvis is alive, that you can earn big money stuffing envelopes in your home, and that the TV preacher can cure you if you send him 50 bucks.

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I treasure questions like yours, Dyer, because of the insight they give me into the human mind. Ninety-nine out of a hundred people, on hearing about some birdbrain who sets himself on fire to combat snakebite, think: what an amusing anecdote. Then there’s you, solemnly wondering: is this something I should try?

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let me clarify: when they tell you in med school that something is an urban legend, the takeaway is supposed to be DON'T DO IT, SCHMUCK.

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We need to clear up a couple levels of confusion here. First, the New York Times didn’t say the average American uses more energy than a blue whale. The paper quoted someone as saying this. The Times doesn’t have a policy of only quoting people who say true things. If it did, all coverage of politics would come to a screeching halt.

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(ahh, joprojām lasu)
Don’t worry, though. Californians, and Americans generally, won’t make the same mistake twice. Not because we’ve learned anything, but because then we had money, and now we don’t.

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