Some Shabbat reading

I (re)read a bunch of books today, including The Mouse That Roared. It struck me how incredibly topical it is, despite all the dated Cold War stuff in it. The world is still worried about weapons of mass destruction (somehow it was strange seeing that phrase in the novel; perhaps in my head it was a more recent construction), and the big countries arent' going to stop making them any time soon. Perhaps we do need the Tiny Twenty to come in and make the world a better place...

QOTD, from O. Henry, as cited in Morley's The Haunted Bookshop:
"He was outwardly decent and managed to preserve his aquarium, but inside he was impromptu and full of unexpectedness."

I'd forgotten just how lovely Last Days of Summer is; it makes me laugh aloud (and that despite there being all sorts of baseball in it, which is generally not my cup of tea).