“
When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
There was nothing between the ranch and the nearest town except a windy, two-lane mountain road edged with pine trees, meadows, cliffs and boulders. No Dairy Queen, no Circle K, nothing.
”
”
Cricket Rohman (Colorado Takedown (The McAllister Brothers, #1))
“
She says you're not truly human until you've had your heart broken and you've broken someone's heart.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
My mind then wandered. I thought of this: I thought of how every day each of us experiences a few little moments that have just a bit more resonance than other moments—we hear a word that sticks in our mind—or maybe we have a small experience that pulls us out of ourselves, if only briefly—we share a hotel elevator with a bride in her veils, say, or a stranger gives us a piece of bread to feed to the mallard ducks in the lagoon; a small child starts a conversation with us in a Dairy Queen—or we have an episode like the one I had with the M&M cars back at the Husky station.
And if we were to collect these small moments in a notebook and save them over a period of months we would see certain trends emerge from our collection—certain voices would emerge that have been trying to speak through us. We would realize that we have been having another life altogether; one we didn’t even know was going on inside us. And maybe this other life is more important than the one we think of as being real—this clunky day-to-day world of furniture and noise and metal. So just maybe it is these small silent moments which are the true story-making events of our lives.
”
”
Douglas Coupland (Life After God)
“
It's a funny thing, how much time we spend planning our lives. We so convince ourselves of what we want to do, that sometimes we don't see what we're meant to do.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
How could I pretend to be someone else when I was already failing at being the person I already was?
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
It was like he was in a contest to see who could do the least work, only he was the only contestant.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
But it turns out that even if I don’t talk a lot, when it’s something that matters I still have a lot to say.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
Everyone I looked at, their whole lives, did exactly what they were supposed to do
without even questioning it, without even wondering if they could
do something different.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
I hate it when people make fun of me and it turns out they're right.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
Sometimes,well,all the time,I can't think of what to say because I'm so dumb and stuff,and then maybe I think of it like five days later.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
And if I didn’t, I’d spend the rest of my life wondering who I could have turned into if only I’d had the guts to try.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
He had never seen a gunshot wound. He kept asking what it felt like? dull or sharp? an ache or burn? My head was spinning and naturally I could give him no kind of coherent answer but I remember thinking dimly that it was sort of like the first time I got drunk, or slept with a girl; not quite what one expected, really, but once it happened one realized it couldn't be any other way. Neon lights: Motel 6, Dairy Queen. Colors so bright, they nearly broke my heart.
”
”
Donna Tartt
“
Dying has a funny way of making you see people, the living and the dead, a little differently. Maybe that's just part of the grieving, or maybe the dead stand there and open our eyes a bit wider.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
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.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
So what if Brian made me feel like fireworks were going off inside me. He could also make me feel like a big fat clod of heartsick dirt. It was like he could take any emotion I had and make it ten times stronger. Which is great when it's happiness but pretty darn awful if it's anything sad.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
Everyone's scared. So scared they can't sleep sometimes. Or eat. Or keep their weight on."
"Then why bother playing?" I asked. It was a whisper, this question.
"Because. You love the game. You love the people you play with. You love winning, maybe. You love that one moment when you get it right . . . I dunno. Why do you play?"
"Because," I whispered, "it's who I am."
Sounds like a good reason to me.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
Great readers (are) those who know early that there is never going to be time to read all there is to read, but do their darnedest anyway.
”
”
Larry McMurtry (Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond)
“
...early medieval Ireland sounds like a somewhat crazed Wisconsin, in which every dairy farm is an armed camp at perpetual war with its neighbors, and every farmer claims he is a king.
”
”
David Willis McCullough (Wars of the Irish Kings: A Thousand Years of Struggle, from the Age of Myth through the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I)
“
I’d promised myself that I’d really work on talking more, talking about uncomfortable things, because I could see from Brian how well things could work out if you did.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (The Off Season (Dairy Queen, #2))
“
I milked, of course, and did some work around the barn, and tried not to think about Brian, which was like trying not to breathe.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
I realized he had my car keys.“Hey, where did you get those?”“We found your purse at the Dairy Queen.”“How did you know it was there?”“The GPS.” He smirked, seeming more like the Jared I knew.“You have a GPS tracker on my car?
”
”
Alyssa Rose Ivy (Flight (The Crescent Chronicles, #1))
“
I swear, every person I know gets far more satisfaction from doing good deeds than receiving them. Maybe that’s the whole point in the end, all of us putting up with good deeds, tolerating them as best we can, counting the minutes until we have the opportunity to reciprocate.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
You can’t think about how much you have left to do because that’s just one thought, one sad thought, that’ll make you bummed out all day long. Instead you’ve got to think about how much you’ve already done.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
And it occurred to me that the reason she makes it work, probably, is because she's so comfortable with herself. And you know, that's not such a bad notion, in the whole life-lesson business. Being comfortable with yourself. Because if you're not okay with who you are, why should anyone else be?
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
I didn't really think Jesus cared what I wore to Cedar Grove Baptist Church, or to see the governor for that matter, considering the fact that in every picture I ever saw of the King of Kings, He was wearing sandals and bundled up in nothing more than a big, baggy robe.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
How quickly we grow accustomed to wonders. I am reminded of the Isaac Asimov story "Nightfall," about the planet where the stars were visible only once in a thousand years. So awesome was the sight that it drove people mad. We who can see the stars every night glance up casually at the cosmos and then quickly down again, searching for a Dairy Queen.
”
”
Roger Ebert
“
Mama reminds me of a Dilly Bar from the Dairy Queen, like there's only a thin shell covering what's melting inside." - thought by Grace when her mother suffers from the "baby blues
”
”
Eldonna Edwards (This I Know)
“
And that's where our conversation went from there, than God, both of us laughing our butts off at the thought of a hoops game between two teams on intravenous fluids. Which makes absolutely no sense at all; I know that. But that's why it cheered me up, because it was so absolutely stupid. It cheered me up more than I'd ever thought I'd be cheered up again.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
The weather,I finally thought.The weather was always a good topic of conversation. "That was some blizzard we had last week,wasn't it?" I asked, since he'd been at Cynthia's instead of with us.We could talk about the blackouts,the shrieking winds-
He perked up, looked around. "There's a Dairy Queen in town?I didn't know that.Where is it?"
I heard Allie snicker.
Sam took up for his friend. "It's an understandable mistake.
”
”
Rachel Hawthorne (Love on the Lifts)
“
Now I know my father was a certified man of God, but at a fairly young age, I decided that when it came to my destiny, he did not know what he was talking about.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
Talk Back? That's really what it's called? You're supposed to walk into some church basement and say, 'I'm here to learn how to Talk Back'?
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
All I'm saying is that you can run away from a town or a house, but I'm not so sure you can run away from your home.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
I saw something I wanted to do and I decided to do it. The feeling of freedom it gave me- I can't even describe it. It was my decision. I chose it.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
He closed his eyes and saw her again. A stack of freckled heart shapes, a perfectly made Dairy Queen ice cream cone. Like Betty Boop drawn with a heavy hand.
”
”
Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park)
“
When we were little, people said we looked just like twins for no better reason than we might have been wearing the same color shirt. You had to wonder if they were truly looking at us.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
In Washington, D. C., there was Loudermilk's, in Philadelphia Leary's, in Seattle Shorey's, in Portland Powell's, in Boston Goodspeed's Milk Street, In Cleveland Kay's, in Cincinnati and Long Beach Old Mr. Smith's two acres of books, and so on. In that time many large book barns in New England were stuffed with books. All the citites around the Great Lakes had large bookshops. Some of these old behmoths contained a million books or more.
”
”
Larry McMurtry (Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond)
“
On traditional economic theory:
We do not play chess as if we were a grandmaster, invest as if we were Warren Buffett, or cook like an Iron Chef. It is more likely we cook like Warren Buffett, who loves to eat at Dairy Queen.
”
”
Richard H. Thaler
“
Still, I couldn't get over Dad calling those farmers. People might think helping is hard, but really that's the easy part; just look how good it makes people feel. Look how happy all those Red Bend ladies were about chipping in. It's the asking that's so painful. It takes real courage, real strength, to say you're not strong enough to do it alone. Mom must really be hurting for Dad to be so brave.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
I wonder if any of these boys ever sit in a room for boys' talk night and discuss how to treat women. Who teaches them how to call out to a girl when she's walking by, minding her own business? Who teaches them that girls are parts—butts, breasts, legs—not whole beings?
I was going to eat at Dairy Queen, but I don't want to sit through the discussion of if I'm a five or not. I eat a few fries before I walk out.
'Hey, hold up. My boy wants to talk to you,' Green Hat says. He follows me, yelling into the dark night.
I keep walking. Don't look back.
'Aw, so it's like that? Forget you then. Don't nobody want your fat ass anyway. Don't know why you up in a Dairy Queen. Needs to be on a diet.' He calls me every derogatory name a girl could ever be called.
I keep walking. Don't look back.
”
”
Renée Watson (Piecing Me Together)
“
But you know, even worrying about haircuts couldn't depress me. Because every time I started sinking low, I'd just remember about football. All this time I'd thought I wanted to be a trainer, when it turned out I wanted to be a player instead. I saw something I wanted to do and I decided to do it. The feeling of freedom this gave me—I can't even describe it. It was my decision. I chose it. I am not a cow.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
So break up with him.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
With my new habit of carrying binoculars everywhere, I feel imbued with a readiness to see, an attitude that my life itself is a kind of field trip. The urban naturalist has the terrific luxury of stepping out her door and into "the field," without long rides or carpools, or putting money in for gas and Dairy Queen. When does the field trip being? Whenever we start paying attention.
”
”
Lyanda Lynn Haupt (Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness)
“
Daddy said you can see the devil in people's eyes, but maybe the devil is nothing more than the sadness they carry around inside of them, bottled up so tight that it comes out as pure ugliness.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
Listen to Your Lover (Or Babe, Sweetie Cakes, Hot Rod, Honey, Dancing Queen, Dairy Queen, etc.)
If she tells you she likes it when you bite her neck—do it! It doesn’t matter where she learned that she likes it or why she does, just be thankful you got the tip. Girls don’t always express what they want, so when she does say it, you really want to make sure you are paying attention. Also, learn her language (unless it is Mandarin, because that shit is impossible). If you start pulling her hair and she starts moaning, that’s her way of saying, “Ohmygod, please do this more, and by more I mean all the time.” And the more you please her, the more she’ll want to do it with you. It’s a win-win!
”
”
Olivia Munn (Suck It, Wonder Woman!: The Misadventures of a Hollywood Geek)
“
I used to know a carnival man turned preacher who said the key to his success was understanding the people of what he called Snake's Navel, Arkansas. He said in Snake's Navel, the biggest thing going on Saturday night was the Dairy Queen. He said you could get the people there to do damn near anything --pollute their own water, work at five-dollar-an-hour jobs, drive fifty miles to a health clinic-- as long as you packaged it right. That meant you gave them a light show and faith healings and blow-down-the-walls gospel music with a whole row of American flags across the stage. He said what they liked best, though --what really got them to pissing all over themselves-- was to be told it was other people going to hell and not them. He said people in Snake's Navel wasn't real fond of homosexuals and Arabs and Hollywood Jews, although he didn't use them kinds of terms in his sermons.
”
”
James Lee Burke (Swan Peak (Dave Robicheaux, #17))
“
And yet that's all I've ever done, doubt where I'm meant to be.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
Hell is paved with good intentions. Heaven is paved with Oreos.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Heaven Is Paved with Oreos (Dairy Queen, #4))
“
Okay, so this had all the makings of a cluster fuck, but there was a Dairy Queen Oreo Cheese-Quake Blizzard waiting for me somewhere.
”
”
Janet Evanovich (Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum, #13))
“
I can hang on for five more minutes, right? And if I do, then maybe I’ll treat myself to Dairy Queen on the way home for keeping my mouth shut for once.
”
”
Penelope Douglas (Birthday Girl)
“
I cared that at night, when everything was quiet and I started thinking about him, my heart would start hurting so much that I was afraid that there was nothing in this world that would ever make it stop.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
She could not escape asking (in the exact words and mental intonations which a thousand million women, dairy wenches and mischief-making queens, had used before her, and which a million million women will know hereafter), "Was it all a horrible mistake, my marrying him?" She quieted the doubt--without answering it.
”
”
Sinclair Lewis (Main Street)
“
He had never seen a gunshot wound. He kept asking what if felt like? dull or sharp? an ache or a burn? My head was spinning and naturally I could give him no kind of coherent answer but I remember thinking dimly that it was sort of like the first time I got drunk, or slept with a girl; not quite what one expected, really, but once it happened it couldn't be any other way. Neon lights: Motel 6, Dairy Queen. Colors so bright, they nearly broke my heart.
”
”
Donna Tartt
“
Sister Carmelita says animals don't have souls"
"Of course animals have souls, where did she get that idea?"
"She said the Pope says."
"The Pope's an old meanie. Animals have much nicer souls than we do. They never tell lies or blow anybody up."
"They eat each other."
"Well, they have to eat each other; they can't go to Dairy Queen and get a large vanilla cone with sprinkles, can they? "
"They could eat grass."
"So could we, but we don't. We eat hamburgers.
”
”
Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)
“
It is adorable and healthily childlike secretly to believe in fairy tales, but the instant one articulates such viewpoints to other people, one goes from darling to dumbo, from childlike to chillingly out of touch with reality,” wrote Albert Pooley in The Imperial Consort of the Dairy Queen (1981, p. 233).
”
”
Marisha Pessl (Special Topics in Calamity Physics)
“
Milkfed Mary, Queen of the Dairy,
”
”
Jess Lourey (September Mourn (Murder-by-Month Mystery #5))
“
It's the asking that's so painful. It takes real courage, real strength, to say you're not strong enough to do it alone.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
I never for a minute would have believed a dream could be this painful.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
trying to make something sound innocent always backfires—I know that just from being a kid
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
Love is the hardest thing in the world.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Heaven Is Paved with Oreos (Dairy Queen, #4))
“
Remember guls," preached Mrs. Gulbenk, always holding the most perfect red tomato in her hand for all of us to admire, "you can fry 'em, bake 'em, stew 'em, and congeal 'em. A good wife and mutha will always have a tomata on hand.:
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
He had never seen a gunshot wound. He kept asking what it felt like? dull or sharp? an ache or burn? My head was spinning and naturally I could give him no kind of coherent answer but I remember thinking dimly that it was sort of like the first time I got drunk, or slept with a girl; not quite what one expected, really, but once it happened one realized it couldn’t be any other way. Neon lights: Motel 6, Dairy Queen. Colors so bright, they nearly broke my heart.
”
”
Donna Tartt (The Secret History)
“
But I rather like being infamous. If you're a nobody, you're just a nobody. If you're famous, they erect a statue of you and pigeons crap on your head. But if you're infamous, you're somebody without having to put up with pigeon crap. - Phinizy Mosely
”
”
Robert Inman (Dairy Queen Days: A Novel)
“
I swear, every person I know gets far more satisfaction from doing good deeds than receiving them. Maybe that's the whole point in the end, all of us putting up with good deeds, tolerating them as best we can, counting the minutes until we have the opportunity to reciprocate.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Dairy Queen (Dairy Queen, #1))
“
Daddy said that Jesus talked in parables because people have a tendency to hear but not listen. They look but don't see. I guess I was no different than anybody else. I looked and looked for that dad-gum golden egg, and I finally saw it, just like Daddy said I would. Funny thing is, I didn't want it anymore.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
In that moment, I understand the way that the noblest yearning for duty and sacrifice can be mixed up with all that is savage and shameful, like in the Bible, where a just and merciful God tells you to kill everyone, kill the children, kill the livestock, kill John Polling, leave nothing alive to sully this pure and just world. Except when it's all done you find out that wasn't really God after all, just some politician, or maybe it was God, but he taps you on the shoulder and says, 'No, dude, that isn't what I meant,' and leaves you sitting in a Dairy Queen in Bothell with blood on your hands and no further orders...
”
”
Stuart Archer Cohen (The Army of the Republic)
“
The grunt pulled his collar up around his neck. “Butterfinger.” “Yeah.” Queho nodded, a smile spreading across his face. “Butterfinger. Good one. I liked that one. I always got the candy stuck between my teeth. Same with the Heath Bar.” He picked at his teeth with his finger. “Not worth the effort.” The grunt kept pace with Queho. The caravan was traveling more like an amorphous pack. The town’s wide streets accommodated the disorganization as the posse clopped along. Queho was so preoccupied with Dairy Queen, he didn’t notice. “I always got the chocolate chip cookie dough,” Queho said, licking his lips. “Oh, that was good. And remember? They’d hold it upside down?” He held out his hand to pantomime a Dairy Queen clerk holding a cup of ice cream upside down. “That way you knew how thick they made it.” The
”
”
Tom Abrahams (Home (The Traveler, #1))
“
It was a weird thing. Before the divorce, my mom had been kind of strict, the triplets constantly wrecking shit as she sternly tried to wrangle them. She had no patience for people who might complicate her life or create more work for her, was always rolling her eyes at how stupid everyone else was. She made checklists that no one else ever checked. She frowned a lot. I was slightly afraid of her, even though I knew that she loved me. And though I knew the divorce had messed her up, it had also seemed to relax her, like the bad thing had finally happened and she didn't have to keep waiting for it. She chilled out. The triplets, if they burned down the Dairy Queen, well, that was someone else's problem. If I invited some strange boy into our house and made out with him, who was she to intervene? We were eating pizza on a weekday. She was the coolest mom in Coalfield.
”
”
Kevin Wilson (Now Is Not the Time to Panic)
“
All about them the golden girls, shopping for dainties in Lairville. Even in the midst of the wild-maned winter's chill, skipping about in sneakers and sweatsocks, cream-colored raincoats. A generation in the mold, the Great White Pattern Maker lying in his prosperous bed, grinning while the liquid cools. But he does not know my bellows. Someone there is who will huff and will puff. The sophmores in their new junior blazers, like Saturday's magazines out on Thursday. Freshly covered textbooks from the campus store, slide rules dangling in leather, sheathed broadswords, chinos scrubbed to the virgin fiber, starch pressed into straight-razor creases, Oxford shirts buttoned down under crewneck sweaters, blue eyes bobbing everywhere, stunned by the android synthesis of one-a-day vitamins, Tropicana orange juice, fresh country eggs, Kraft homogenized cheese, tetra-packs of fortified milk, Cheerios with sun-ripened bananas, corn-flake-breaded chicken, hot fudge sundaes, Dairy Queen root beer floats, cheeseburgers, hybrid creamed corn, riboflavin extract, brewer's yeast, crunchy peanut butter, tuna fish casseroles, pancakes and imitation maple syrup, chuck steaks, occasional Maine lobster, Social Tea biscuits, defatted wheat germ, Kellogg's Concentrate, chopped string beans, Wonderbread, Birds Eye frozen peas, shredded spinach, French-fried onion rings, escarole salads, lentil stews, sundry fowl innards, Pecan Sandies, Almond Joys, aureomycin, penicillin, antitetanus toxoid, smallpox vaccine, Alka-Seltzer, Empirin, Vicks VapoRub, Arrid with chlorophyll, Super Anahist nose spray, Dristan decongestant, billions of cubic feet of wholesome, reconditioned breathing air, and the more wholesome breeds of fraternal exercise available to Western man. Ah, the regimented good will and force-fed confidence of those who are not meek but will inherit the earth all the same.
”
”
Richard Fariña (Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me)
“
Remember, guls,” preached Mrs. Gulbenk, always holding the most perfect red tomato in her hand for all of us to admire, “you can fry ’em, bake ’em, stew ’em, and congeal ’em. A good wife and mutha will always have a tomata on hand.” I can still hear those words rumbling around my head some nights when I'm lying in bed and can't sleep. And the worst part, the really tragic part of it all, is that now, all grown up, I always have a couple of tomatoes sitting on the kitchen counter. That's just how strong a hold the tomato can have over a Southern girl.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
Where do the biggest movie star of his generation and a revered director (and great actor in his own right) stay when they are visiting someone?
Would you believe the local Holiday Inn?
Hoping to forge a better connection to Chris, Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper came to see me and the rest of the family in early spring of 2014, before they started filming American Sniper. The unpretentiousness of their visit and their genuine goodwill floored me. It was a great omen for the movie.
Bubba and I picked them up at the local airport and brought them home; within minutes Bubba had Bradley out in the back playing soccer. Meanwhile, Clint and I talked inside. He reminded me of my grandfather with his courtly manners and gracious ways. He was very funny, with a quiet, quick wit and dry sense of humor. After dinner--it was an oryx Chris had killed shortly before he died--Bradley took Bubba to the Dairy Queen for dessert.
Even in small-town Texas, he couldn’t quite get away without being recognized, and when someone asked for his photo, he stepped aside to pose. Bubba folded his arms across his chest and scanned the area much as his dad would have: on overwatch.
I guess I didn’t really understand how unusual the situation was until later, when I dropped them off at the Holiday Inn. I watched them walk into the lobby and disappear.
That’s Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper! Awesome!
”
”
Taya Kyle (American Wife: Love, War, Faith, and Renewal)
“
My bedroom looked very different the morning of my eighteenth birthday. It looked lonely. I opened my eyes just as the sun started creeping through the window, and I stared at the white chest of drawers that had greeted me every morning since I could remember. Maybe it’s stupid to think that a piece of furniture had feelings, but then again, I’m the same girl who kept my tattered old baby doll dressed in a sweater and knitted cap so she wouldn’t get cold sitting on the top shelf of my closet. And this morning that chest of drawers was looking sad. All the photographs and trophies and silly knickknacks that had blanketed the top and told my life story better than any words ever could were gone, packed in brown cardboard boxes and neatly stacked in the cellar.
Even my pretty pink walls were bare. Mama picked that color after I was born, and I’ve never wanted to change it. Ruthis Morgan used to try to convince me that my walls should be painted some other color. ‘Pink’s just not your color, Catherine Grace. You know as well as I do that there’s not a speck of pink on the football field.’
There was nothing she could say that was going to change my mind of the color on my walls. If I had I would have lost another piece of my mama. And I wasn’t letting go of any piece of her, pink or not.
Daddy insisted on replacing my tired, worn curtains a while back, but I threw such a fit that he spent a good seven weeks looking for the very same fabric, little bitsy pink flowers on a white -and-pink-checkered background. He finally found a few yards in some textile mill down in South Carolina. I told him there were a few things in life that should never be allowed to change, and my curtains were one of them.
So many other things were never going to stay the same, and this morning was one of them. I’d been praying for this day for as long as I could remember, and now that it was here, all I wanted to do was crawl under my covers and pretend it was any other day. . . .
I know that this would be the last morning I would wake up in this bed as a Sunday-school-going, dishwashing, tomato-watering member of this family. I knew this would be the last morning I would wake up in the same bed where I had calculated God only knows how many algebra problems, the same bed I had hid under playing hide-and-seek with Martha Ann, and the same bed I had lain on and cried myself to sleep too many nights after Mama died. I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it through the day considering I was having such a hard time just saying good-bye to my bed.
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
Daddy said you can see the devil in people's eyes, but maybe the devil is nothing more than the sadness they carry around inside of them, bottled up so tight that it comes out as pure ugliness, like it does with Mrs. Dempsey.
”
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Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
all I knew was that I had spent my life begging the Lord to hear me out, to let me know He was out there somewhere, actually caring about what happened to Catherine Grace Cline. Turns out, I think He was talking to me all along, I just never bothered to listen to what He had to say.
”
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Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
My Daddy and My Car
By Marilyn Akers, Georgia Grits
At fifteen, I came home from school one afternoon to find a faded red car with a white hardtop and a damaged front fender parked in the driveway. Since my daddy often worked on cars, both for himself and others, I noticed it only in passing. That is until my daddy explained that it was a 1971 Mercury Comet…and it was mine!
Trouble was, it had a blown engine, and it was my job to overhaul it. So after school and on weekends I washed car parts, rode to the junk yard for replacement parts (and foot-long hot dogs from the Dairy Queen), handed my dad all sorts of tools, fixed coffee with cream and sugar, and occasionally got to do a “real” job under the hood. I remember being so excited when he asked me to get on the creeper and roll under the car (the children were never allowed under the car!) to tighten a fender bolt.
Another day, I helped him connect the spark-plug wires to the distributor cap. I asked him why this particular job was so important for him to show me. He replied, “So if you’re ever out with a boy and the car breaks down, you’ll know what to look for.” He meant intentional removal of the wires, and it didn’t occur to me until many years later to ask if that advice was from personal experience!
When the engine work was done, we took it to Earl Scheib for one of his infamous $99 paint jobs. I was so proud of that car and the work done side by side with my dad. We sold it less than a year later, after I stuck my foot through a rusted hole in the floorboard.
I lost my dad in 2001 following a sixteen-year battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. But the bond formed between a teenage daughter and her father, and the lessons I learned from him, will be with me for a lifetime.
”
”
Deborah Ford (Grits (Girls Raised in the South) Guide to Life)
“
He saved for months (mowing lawns, taking
extra shifts at the Dairy Queen) and when
finally he brought it home, I helped him
swirling rags, polishing until the hubcaps shone,
the tires special ordered to fit. Easy ride, he'd say,
slamming the brakes - his big joke - instrumental panel
lighting the glove box filled with the manual's
sweet talk - fuel injector, carburetor, exhaust
manifold. So when the call came, I couldn't
help but wonder if he'd planned it all along -
the shut garage, engine idling, sunglasses
slung from the mirror. On the passenger's side
a school book lay open; chewed gun on the seat.
”
”
Bruce Snider (Paradise, Indiana)
“
He saved for months (mowing lawns, taking
extra shifts at the Dairy Queen) and when
finally he brought it home, I helped him
swirling rags, polishing until the hubcaps shone,
the tires special ordered to fit. Easy ride, he'd say,
slamming the brakes - his big joke - instrumental panel
lighting the glove box filled with the manual's
sweet talk - fuel injector, carburetor, exhaust
manifold. So when the call came, I couldn't
help but wonder if he'd planned it all along -
the shut garage, engine idling, sunglasses
slung from the mirror. On the passenger's side
a school book lay open; chewed gum on the seat.
”
”
Bruce Snider (Paradise, Indiana)
“
Max had been actively recruited by the CIA for years before she was even eighteen, but Charlie had put the kibosh on that. Unsure of what her big sister had done to discourage that interest—the CIA was not an organization that was usually put off by an easily stressed eighteen-year-old who loathed her father and had been fired from Dairy Queen once because she’d put a mouthy patron in a headlock—Max came to realize that organizations like the CIA, the FBI, or the military weren’t for her. They were too regimented. Too cautious. You had to take orders. Max hated taking orders from anyone but Charlie.
”
”
Shelly Laurenston (Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles, #3))
“
Being comfortable with yourself. Because if you're not okay with who you are, why should anyone else be?
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Front and Center (Dairy Queen, #3))
“
he walked out of Dairy Queen with my son on his shoulders, bloodied knuckles wrapped around Connor’s foot, a tray of sundaes in his other hand.
”
”
Becka Mack (Unravel Me (Playing For Keeps, #3))
“
I wish she was more like a normal girl, but I'd rather be with her and deal with her eccentricities than never see her again.
”
”
Carlton Mellick III (Every Time We Meet at the Dairy Queen, Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes)
“
It wasn’t until I moved to Virginia, to a pleasant valley near the Blue Ridge, that I first experienced sky deprivation, or forest claustrophobia. In Virginia I felt gloomy without knowing why—it was only after many drives home to Texas that the reason finally became clear. I began to notice that once I crossed the Mississippi at Memphis and began to proceed across the delta, the Arkansas flats, my spirits would suddenly lift. The sky had quickly opened up, become a Western sky, with Western horizons beneath it. Coming into that openness, time after time, brought relief and indeed a kind of exhilaration. This lifting (and a corresponding lowering as I drove back east) occurred many times; I began to understand that it bespoke a kind of sky longing which many Westerners have.
”
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Larry McMurtry (Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond)
“
Matt Frauenshuh joined his family’s Dairy Queen franchises in 2006 when the group comprised only seven stores across the country.
”
”
Matt Frauenshuh
“
Calories Are Insignificant Compared to Hormones Think about this — if you exercise moderately for 1 hour, you might burn 350 calories. That’s equivalent to several teaspoons of salad dressing. No big deal! The real benefits of exercise occur one to two days later, but only if the environment is almost perfect. In other words, if you do things correctly and don’t violate the fatburning environment, you will burn fat. Fat-storing hormones can easily nullify the fatburning hormones. The worse off your hormone health, the more perfect the other factors need to be. What you eat before, during and after Any carbohydrates (except vegetables) will stimulate insulin, which nullifies the fatburning hormones. This means if you consume sugars 1 hour before or during exercise, you can inhibit the entire purpose of exercise — fat burning. Since fat burning can only occur in the absence of carbohydrates, consuming carbs 14 to 48 hours later can also inhibit fat burning. Drinking several alcoholic beverages can set the liver’s function back for days, preventing fat burning. Protein before workouts is best.2 Eat an egg, some nuts, a small piece of fish or some cheese before exercising. I had a patient who would reward herself for exercising by going to Dairy Queen every day and wondered why she wasn’t losing weight. I had another who would drink half a glass of wine before bed, at the same time working out intensely with no results — I wonder why? Consuming sugar, juice or refined carbohydrates before bed can inhibit fatburning hormones while you sleep. The important thing to remember is that a very small amount of carbohydrates through the day can keep you out of fatburning mode.
”
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Eric Berg (The 7 Principles of Fat Burning: Lose the weight. Keep it off.)
“
Harley Diekerhoff looked up from peeling potatoes to glance out the kitchen window. It was still snowing... even harder than it had been this morning. So much white, it dazzled. Hands still, breath catching, she watched the thick, white flakes blow past the ranch house at a dizzying pace, enthralled by the flurry of the lacy snowflakes. So beautiful. Magical A mysterious silent ballet in all white, the snow swirling, twirling just like it did in her favorite scene from the Nutcracker—the one with the Snow Queen and her breathtaking corps in their white tutus with their precision and speed—and then that dazzling snow at the end, the delicate flakes powdering the stage. Harley’s chest ached. She gripped the peeler more tightly, and focused on her breathing. She didn’t want to remember. She wasn’t going to remember. Wasn’t going to go there, not now, not today. Not when she had six hungry men to feed in a little over two hours. She picked up a potato, started peeling. She’d come to Montana to work. She’d taken the temporary job at Copper Mountain Ranch to get some distance from her family this Christmas, and working on the Paradise Valley cattle ranch would give her new memories. Like the snow piling up outside the window. She’d never lived in a place that snowed like this. Where she came from in Central California, they didn’t have snow, they had fog. Thick soupy Tule fog that blanketed the entire valley, socking in airports, making driving nearly impossible. And on the nights when the fog lifted and temperatures dropped beneath the cold clear sky, the citrus growers rushed to light smudge pots to protect their valuable, vulnerable orange crops. Her family didn’t grow oranges. Her family were Dutch dairy people. Harley had been raised on a big dairy farm in Visalia, and she’d marry a dairyman in college, and they’d had their own dairy, too. But that’s the part she needed to forget. That’s why she’d come to Montana, with its jagged mountains and rugged river valleys and long cold winters. She’d arrived here the Sunday following Thanksgiving and would work through mid-January, when Brock Sheenan’s housekeeper returned from a personal leave of absence. In January, Harley would either return to California or look for another job in Crawford County. Harley was tempted to stay, as the Bozeman employment agency assured her they’d have no problem finding her a permanent position if she wanted one.
”
”
Jane Porter (Christmas at Copper Mountain (Taming of the Sheenans Book 1))
“
Just ’cause I like serving ice cream, Miss Cline, don't make me stupid. Or are you too smart to figure that out, too?” Eddie
”
”
Susan Gregg Gilmore (Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen)
“
Dairy Queen’s Frozen Hot Chocolate: A hot chocolate blended with ice to give it a frosty crunch. 191 McDonald’s Big Mac Poutine: McDonald’s classic golden fries topped with their famous Big Mac sauce. 192 Wendy’s Grand Slam: Also known as the Meat Cube, this burger has a total of four patties. 193 White Castle’s Seasoned Fries: You can get your fries with additional seasoning free of charge. 194 Starbucks Nutella Misto: Order a Caffè Misto with a shot of chocolate and hazelnut topped with caramel drizzle. 195
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”
Keith Bradford (Life Hacks: Any Procedure or Action That Solves a Problem, Simplifies a Task, Reduces Frustration, Etc. in One's Everyday Life (Life Hacks Series))
“
Q: How did Burger King get Dairy Queen pregnant? A: He forgot to wrap his Whopper.
”
”
Scott McNeely (Ultimate Book of Jokes: The Essential Collection of More Than 1,500 Jokes)
“
He had to be kidding. If he had been any more toned, I might have dry humped his leg when I first saw him at Dairy Queen.
”
”
S.M. Reine (Shifters After Dark)
“
she was sitting in the drive-through of the Dairy Queen Bank & Trust withdrawing money to pay an anonymous blackmailer who might have murdered Steve Chasen, and keeping it all a tidy secret from her long-lost boyfriend who had no idea they had a history together. She thought her head might explode.
”
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Stephanie Bond (Voodoo or Die (Voodoo in Mojo, #2))
“
Question for you,” Marlin said. “Any chance Harley Frizzell was struck with a cane?” He had stopped for a visit with Lem Tucker at the Blanco County morgue, which had previously been a Dairy Queen many years earlier. The only equipment that remained from those days was the walk-in freezer, which had obviously come in handy. Somebody had finally scraped the friendly “Y’all come back” sticker off the inside of the glass front door.
”
”
Ben Rehder (Stag Party (A Blanco County Mystery, #8))
“
The iron rule in a bookshop is that good books don't pull bad books up; bad books pull good books down. even a few bad books can make a whole room full of good books look tatty.
”
”
Larry McMurtry (Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond)
“
Most people found Tosi’s dishes to be charming and clever. I thought they were among the most subversive creations in the history of American dining. Tosi grew up in a suburban household in Virginia, feeding her limitless energy with horrendous amounts of Dairy Queen and junk food. While so many pastry chefs devote themselves to mastering the European standards, Tosi did not shun what had shaped her. It helped her stand out. She developed her fluency in Americana into a cheery rebellion at Milk Bar, which started out as a bakery in the back room of Ssäm Bar selling confections like birthday cake truffles and “Compost Cookies.” There were no canelés, macarons, or mille-feuilles on the premises. The point of Milk Bar was to challenge the notion that a great pastry chef had to be a French-trained dude. People caught onto Tosi’s brilliance quickly.
”
”
David Chang (Eat a Peach)
“
If you’re lucky, you’re posting at the Dairy Queen parking lot, just trying to enjoy your Reese’s Blizzard in peace. And then, bam, four minutes later you’re standing in a puddle of blood, trying to put somebody’s insides back, well, inside.
”
”
Jean Knight Pace (Pulse: A Paramedic's Walk Along the Lines of Life and Death)
“
root beer float. Of course we stopped for Dairy Queen on the way home. It is summer, after all.
”
”
Lisa Greenwald (My Summer of Pink & Green: Pink & Green Book Two (Pink & Green series 2))
“
out on the grass. The four girls sat around Lise’s picnic basket. They unpacked their lunch. The basket was full of sandwiches and delicious tarts. For dessert, Anna had brought flangendorfers. “So, Anna, what’s it like to live in the castle?” Sigrid asked. She lived on a dairy farm. Every morning she got up early and milked the cows. Then she helped her
”
”
Erica David (Frozen Anna & Elsa: All Hail the Queen (Disney Chapter Book (ebook)))
“
Does it make sense to call a vegetarian a meathead? Does the Cable Guy eat TV dinners? Does the Royal Family dine at Burger King and Dairy Queen? Does smoked salmon require rolling paper?
”
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Sidney S. Prasad (The World's Dumbest Questions)
“
You're old enough to hear this, Randy. You're old enough to learn from it. Someday you'll be married, and at first it'll be a bed of roses, and then the humdrum starts in and you forget to do the small things that made that person fall in love with you in the first place. You stop saying good morning, and picking up his shoes when he forgets to take them to his closet, and bringing home the special kind of Dairy Queen he likes. After all, it's out of your way and you're in a hurry. When he says, Do you want to take a bike ride after supper? you say no because you've had a rough day, so he goes alone and you don;t stop to realize that you'd gone with him it would have made your day a little better, And when he takes a shower before bed, you roll over and pretend to be asleep already because, believe it or not, you become to consider sex work. You stop doing these things, and then the other one stops doing them, and pretty soon you're substituting criticism for praise, and giving orders instead of making requests, and letting sex fall by the wayside, and in no time at all the whole marriage falls apart.
”
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LaVyrle Spencer (Bygones)
“
It is important to eat Oreos the right way.
”
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Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Heaven Is Paved with Oreos (Dairy Queen, #4))
“
Today exists between yesterday and tomorrow.
”
”
Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Heaven Is Paved with Oreos (Dairy Queen, #4))