He could always remember the horses’ names, but never the names of his kids; it was also said that George could tell the quality of a horse just by feeling its muscle tone.

Dr. Theroux has informed me, however, that the article is misleading and inaccurate in several instances; for example, he does not own ‘an assortment of esoteric sex books’ as reported on p. 62: in fact, this is a collection of books on eunuchry – in Latin, no less – that Theroux used in working up Dr. Crucifer’s background for Darconville’s Cat.

“He had a pie chart of the 971 questions we’d sent him,” Mr. Wright said, recalling the meeting during a recent interview at the Random House offices. “The pie chart showed that 59 percent of them were false.” He let that sink in. “They’re questions! How do they fall into the true-false category? It was bizarre to me.”

I read the miserable story of the play in which she was the one true loving soul. It obviously described the spread of an epidemic brain fever which, like typhoid, was perhaps caused by seepings from the palace graveyard into the Elsinore water supply. From an inconspicuous start among sentries on the battlements the infection spread through prince, king, prime minister and courtiers causing hallucinations, logomania and paranoia resulting in insane suspicions and murderous impulses. I imagined myself entering the palace quite early in the drama with all the executive powers of an efficient public health officer. The main carriers of the disease (Claudius, Polonius and the obviously incurable Hamlet) would be quarantined in separate wards. A fresh water supply and efficient modern plumbing would soon set the Danish state right and Ophelia, seeing this gruff Scottish doctor pointing her people toward a clean and healthy future, would be powerless to withhold her love.

Furthermore, the “star of Samarkand – a fabulous emerald” was stolen by Zelda the Great, an escape artist, on a Batman television program. Emeralds (including this one?) are important in Ada.

(from Nabokov’s Garden, in an endnote about a reference to Samarkand)

It is precisely this sort of reasoning that converts computational methods from ugly ducklings to fully fledged swans.

People who ingest massive amount of coins will have elevated zinc levels, leading to zinc toxicity induced copper deficiency and thus displaying neurological symptoms.

Things are, however, different near hydrothermal vents!

The modified nine-point formula is not as well known as it ought to be, and part of the blame lies perhaps in the original name, Mehrstellenverfahren.

FRIEND: Where and when were you born?

EMMET: (with a smile) I came from a place that existed before there were gods, prophets, and all the religions. I would give you a time, but math hasn’t figured that out yet.

(I may be a horrible person for saying this but this self-published book is hilarious)