“H.G. Wells’ description of the town of Bromstead – ‘a dull, useless boiling up of human activities, an immense clustering of futilities.’”
William H. Whyte The Organization Man
“The only shadow he cast was by artificial light, and he looked it.”
Mike Hammer’s internal monologue in Mickey Spillane My Gun is Quick [regarding the pimp Cobbie Bennett]
“as LBJ’s Liz Carpenter was fond of citing, ‘Resume Speed, Tx.’”
William Safire Before the Fall [on the subject of small towns].
“Carlotta was the kind of town where they spelled trouble t-r-u-b-i-l and if you tried to correct them they killed you.”
Rigby Reardon [played by Steve Martin] in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
“John Diefenbaker once compared the Trudeau government to a cemetery run by its occupants.”
John Ivison in National Post October 28, 2003 [obviously the reference is to Pierre Trudeau]
“’Earl looks like he’s deep in thought. Is that right? Are you deep in thought, dear?’ ‘Huh? Oh, I was just thinking about those little red things in fruitcakes and wondering what the heck they’re made of.’ ‘No, apparently he’s shallow in thought, as usual.’”
Opal (mostly to a friend) and Earl in “Pickles” cartoon in Ottawa Citizen December 18, 2004
“If you were any more shallow you’d bulge.”
One of mine from November 2004 – and at one point I used it about Justin Trudeau in a column.
“There’s no need to repeat yourself. I ignored you just fine the first time. Why mess with perfection?”
Encountered randomly on August 20, 2023 on one of those online collections of graduation quotations [at https://www.heraldweekly.com/hilarious-senior-yearbook-quotes-that-cannot-be-unseen/23?xcmg=1].