Deck The Halls Quotes

Percy and Hedge lay on the deck, looking exhausted. Hedge was missing his shoes. He grinned at the sky, muttering, “Awesome. Awesome.” Percy was covered in nicks and scratches, like he’d jumped through a window. He didn’t say anything but he grasped Annabeth’s hand weakly as if to say, Be right with you as soon as the world stops spinning. Leo, Piper, and Jason, who’d been eating in the mess hall, came rushing up the stairs. “What? What?” Leo cried, holding a half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich. “Can’t a guy even take a lunch break? What’s wrong?” “Followed!” Frank yelled again. “Followed by what? Jason asked. “I don’t know!” Frank panted. “Whales? Sea monsters? Maybe Kate and Porky!” Annabeth wanted to strangle the guy, but she wasn’t sure her hands would fit around his thick neck. “That makes absolutely no sense.

LONDON. Michaelmas Term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snow-flakes — gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas in a general infection of ill-temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if the day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest. Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs; fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little ’prentice boy on deck. Chance people on the bridges peeping over the parapets into a nether sky of fog, with fog all round them, as if they were up in a balloon, and hanging in the misty clouds. Gas looming through the fog in divers places in the streets, much as the sun may, from the spongey fields, be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy. Most of the shops lighted two hours before their time — as the gas seems to know, for it has a haggard and unwilling look. The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is densest, and the muddy streets are muddiest near that leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation, Temple Bar. And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln’s Inn Hall, at the very heart of the fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery.

...the Magnificent Seven consisted of one swimmer of color, a representative from each extreme of the educational spectrum, a muscle man, a giant, a chameleon, and a one-legged psychopath. When I envision us walking seven abreast through the halls of Cutter High, decked out in the sacred blue and gold, my heart swells.

Your Midas touch on the Chevy door November flush and your flannel cure "This dorm was once a madhouse" I made a joke, "Well, it's made for me" How evergreen, our group of friends Don't think we'll say that word again And soon they'll have the nerve to deck the halls That we once walked through One for the money, two for the show I never was ready, so I watch you go Sometimes you just don't know the answer 'Til someone's on their knees and asks you "She would've made such a lovely bride What a shame she's fucked in her head, " they said But you'll find the real thing instead She'll patch up your tapestry that I shred

But to fight something, you really have to try to understand its motivations—particularly when the something you’re fighting holds most of the cards, the deck is stacked against you, and the whole gambling hall is on fire and filled with thugs.

A ring-whorled prow rode in the harbour, ice-clad, outbound, a craft for a prince. They stretched their beloved lord in his boat, laid out by the mast, amidships, the great ring-giver. Far fetched treasures were piled upon him, and precious gear. I have never heard before of a ship so well furbished with battle tackle, bladed weapons and coats of mail. The massed treasure was loaded on top of him: it would travel far on out into the ocean's sway. They decked his body no less bountifully with offerings than those first ones did who cast him away when he was a child and launched him alone over the waves. And they set a gold standard up high above his head and let him drift to wind and tide, bewailing him and mourning their loss. No man can tell, no wise man in hall or weathered veteran knows for certain who salvaged that load.

Is that...the Looney Tunes theme?" Mer and St. Clair cock their ears. "Why,yes.I believe it is," St. Clair says. "I heard 'Love Shack' a few minutes ago," Mer says. "It's official," I say. "America has finally ruined France." "So can we go now?" St. Clair holds up a small bag. "I'm done." "Ooo,what'd you get?" Mer asks. She takes his bag and pulls out a delicate, shimmery scarf. "Is it for Ellie?" "Shite." Mer pauses. "You didn't get anything for Ellie?" "No,it's for Mum.Arrrgh." He rakes a hand through his hair. "Would you mind if we pop over to Sennelier before we go home?" Sennelier is a gorgeous little art supply sore,the kind that makes me wish I had an excuse to buy oil paints and pastels. Mer and I went with Rashmi last weekend. She bought Josh a new sketchbook for Hanukkah. "Wow.Congratulations,St. Clair," I say. "Winner of today's Sucky Boyfriend award.And I thought Steve was bad-did you see what happened in calc?" "You mean when Amanda caught him dirty-texting Nicole?" Mer asks. "I thought she was gonna stab him in the neck with her pencil." "I've been busy," St. Clair says. I glance at him. "I was just teasing." "Well,you don't have to be such a bloody git about it." "I wasn't being a git. I wasnt even being a twat, or a wanker, or any of your other bleeding Briticisms-" "Piss off." He snatches his bag back from Mer and scowls at me. "HEY!" Mer says. "It's Christmas. Ho-ho-ho. Deck the halls. Stop fighting." "We weren't fighting," he and I say together. She shakes her head. "Come on,St. Clair's right. Let's get out of here. This place gives me the creeps." "I think it's pretty," I say. "Besides, I'd rather look at ribbons than dead rabbits." "Not the hares again," St. Clair says. "You're as bad as Rashmi." We wrestle through the Christmas crowds. "I can see why she was upset! The way they're hung up,like they'd died of nosebleeds. It's horrible. Poor Isis." All of the shops in Paris have outdone themselves with elaborate window displays,and the butcher is no exception. I pass the dead bunnies every time I go to the movies. "In case you hadn't noticed," he says. "Isis is perfectly alive and well on the sixth floor.

Opening the door quietly, I slipped in without switching on the light. From the entrance hall, I could see the dining room at the end of the corridor, the table still decked out for the party. The cake was there, untouched, and the crockery still waited for the meal. I could make out the motionless silhouette of my father in his armchair, as he observed the scene from the window. He was awake and still wearing his best suit. Wreaths of smoke rose lazily from a cigarette he held between his index and ring fingers, as if it were a pen. I hadn't seen my father smoke for years.

This was why love was so dangerous. Love turned the world into a garden, so beguiling it was easy to forget that rose petals sails appeared charmed. They blazed red in the day and silver at night, like a magician’s cloak, hinting at mysteries concealed beneath, which Tella planned to uncover that night. Drunken laughter floated above her as Tella delved deeper into the ship’s underbelly in search of Nigel the Fortune-teller. Her first evening on the vessel she’d made the mistake of sleeping, not realizing until the following day that Legend’s performers had switched their waking hours to prepare for the next Caraval. They slumbered in the day and woke after sunset. All Tella had learned her first day aboard La Esmeralda was that Nigel was on the ship, but she had yet to actually see him. The creaking halls beneath decks were like the bridges of Caraval, leading different places at different hours and making it difficult to know who stayed in which room. Tella wondered if Legend had designed it that way, or if it was just the unpredictable nature of magic. She imagined Legend in his top hat, laughing at the question and at the idea that magic had more control than he did. For many, Legend was the definition of magic. When she had first arrived on Isla de los Sueños, Tella suspected everyone could be Legend. Julian had so many secrets that she’d questioned if Legend’s identity was one of them, up until he’d briefly died. Caspar, with his sparkling eyes and rich laugh, had played the role of Legend in the last game, and at times he’d been so convincing Tella wondered if he was actually acting. At first sight, Dante, who was almost too beautiful to be real, looked like the Legend she’d always imagined. Tella could picture Dante’s wide shoulders filling out a black tailcoat while a velvet top hat shadowed his head. But the more Tella thought about Legend, the more she wondered if he even ever wore a top hat. If maybe the symbol was another thing to throw people off. Perhaps Legend was more magic than man and Tella had never met him in the flesh at all. The boat rocked and an actual laugh pierced the quiet. Tella froze. The laughter ceased but the air in the thin corridor shifted. What had smelled of salt and wood and damp turned thick and velvet-sweet. The scent of roses. Tella’s skin prickled; gooseflesh rose on her bare arms. At her feet a puddle of petals formed a seductive trail of red. Tella might not have known Legend’s true name, but she knew he favored red and roses and games. Was this his way of toying with her? Did he know what she was up to? The bumps on her arms crawled up to her neck and into her scalp as her newest pair of slippers crushed the tender petals. If Legend knew what she was after, Tella couldn’t imagine he would guide her in the correct direction, and yet the trail of petals was too tempting to avoid. They led to a door that glowed copper around the edges. She turned the knob. And her world transformed into a garden, a paradise made of blossoming flowers and bewitching romance. The walls were formed of moonlight. The ceiling was made of roses that dripped down toward the table in the center of the room, covered with plates of cakes and candlelight and sparkling honey wine. But none of it was for Tella. It was all for Scarlett. Tella had stumbled into her sister’s love story and it was so romantic it was painful to watch. Scarlett stood across the chamber. Her full ruby gown bloomed brighter than any flowers, and her glowing skin rivaled the moon as she gazed up at Julian. They touched nothing except each other. While Scarlett pressed her lips to Julian’s, his arms wrapped around her as if he’d found the one thing he never wanted to let go of. This was why love was so dangerous. Love turned the world into a garden, so beguiling it was easy to forget that rose petals were as ephemeral as feelings, eventually they would wilt and die, leaving nothing but the thorns.

There's more to Philadelphia than Cheesesteaks and Wawa Hoagies, Here is a list of 1 places you will love in Philadelphia: The Betsy Ross House Reading Terminal Market Boat House Row/Kelly Drive National Constitution Center Delaware River waterfront The Liberty Bell Benjamin Franklin Parkway Franklin Institute Philadelphia Museum of Art City Hall and it's Observation deck

Allow me to introduce you to two men, Alan and Ben. Without thinking about it too long, decide who you prefer. Alan is smart, hard-working, impulsive, critical, stubborn and jealous. Ben, however, is jealous, stubborn, critical, impulsive, hard-working and smart. Who would you prefer to get stuck in an elevator with? Most people choose Alan, even though the descriptions are exactly the same. Your brain pays more attention to the first adjectives in the lists, causing you to identify two different personalities. Alan is smart and hard-working. Ben is jealous and stubborn. The first traits outshine the rest. This is called the primacy effect. If it were not for the primacy effect, people would refrain from decking out their headquarters with luxuriously appointed entrance halls. Your lawyer would feel happy turning up to meet you in worn-out sneakers rather than beautifully polished designer Oxfords. The

Close and slow, summer is ending in Hampshire, Ebbing away down ramps of shaven lawn where close-clipped yew Insulates the lives of retired generals and admirals And the spyglasses hung in the hall and the prayer-books ready in the pew And August going out to the tin trumpets of nasturtiums And the sunflowers’ Salvation Army blare of brass And the spinster sitting in a deck-chair picking up stitches Not raising her eyes to the noise of the ‘planes that pass Northward from Lee-on-Solent.

Hall loved the surprise of intelligence work and loved knowing the real stories behind events reported in the news, which often were censored. For example, Room 40 learned the real fate of a German submarine, U-28, that attacked a ship carrying trucks on its main deck. One shell fired by the U-boat's gun crew blew up a load of high explosives stored in the ship, and suddenly "the air was full of motor-lorries describing unusual parabolas," Hall wrote. Officially, the U-boat was lost because of explosion. But Hall and Room 40 knew the truth: one of the flying trucks had landed on the submarine's foredeck, penetrating its hull and sinking it instantly. "In point of actual fact," wrote Hall, "U-28 was sunk by a motor-lorry!

And then now a very strange argument indeed ensues, me v. the Lebanese porter, because it turns out I am putting this guy, who barely speaks English, in a terrible kind of sedulous-service double-bind, a paradox of pampering: viz. the The-Passenger’s-Always-Right-versus-Never-Let-A-Passenger-Carry-His-Own-Bag paradox. Clueless at the time about what this poor little Lebanese man is going through, I wave off both his high-pitched protests and his agonized expression as mere servile courtesy, and I extract the duffel and lug it up the hall to 1009 and slather the old beak with ZnO and go outside to watch the coast of Florida recede cinematically à la F. Conroy. Only later did I understand what I’d done. Only later did I learn that that little Lebanese Deck 10 porter had his head just about chewed off by the (also Lebanese) Deck 10 Head Porter, who’d had his own head chewed off by the Austrian Chief Steward, who’d received confirmed reports that a Deck 10 passenger had been seen carrying his own luggage up the Port hallway of Deck 10 and now demanded rolling Lebanese heads for this clear indication of porterly dereliction, and had reported (the Austrian Chief Steward did) the incident (as is apparently SOP) to an officer in the Guest Relations Dept., a Greek officer with Revo shades and a walkie-talkie and officerial epaulets so complex I never did figure out what his rank was; and this high-ranking Greek guy actually came around to 1009 after Saturday’s supper to apologize on behalf of practically the entire Chandris shipping line and to assure me that ragged-necked Lebanese heads were even at that moment rolling down various corridors in piacular recompense for my having had to carry my own bag. And even though this Greek officer’s English was in lots of ways better than mine, it took me no less than ten minutes to express my own horror and to claim responsibility and to detail the double-bind I’d put the porter in—brandishing at relevant moments the actual tube of ZnO that had caused the whole snafu—ten or more minutes before I could get enough of a promise from the Greek officer that various chewed-off heads would be reattached and employee records unbesmirched to feel comfortable enough to allow the officer to leave; 42 and the whole incident was incredibly frazzling and angst-fraught and filled almost a whole Mead notebook and is here recounted in only its barest psychoskeletal outline.

Making good use of that room?” Lucius asked them, having a laugh with the trollop at his side. Oscar stood unwavering in the center of the hall, forcing Lucius to skirt around him. “You’re a pig,” Camille replied, but he only squealed and snorted like a sow. “Either of you figure out yet how we’re going to get home?” Lucius asked. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m perfectly content here for the time being.” A pair of sloppy-looking men stumbled through the front door, obviously drunk, and howling like wolves. Oscar stepped up beside Camille, blocking her from their view. His shoulders and chest were the perfect shield against whatever misguided attentions the men might show her. “When did you become concerned about the three of us sticking together?” she asked Lucius. “We haven’t set eyes on you since you disappeared into the orlop deck of the Londoner.” Lucius nodded over his shoulder. “I’m being nursed back to health, can’t you see?” She glared at him. Why someone like Lucius had survived the shipwreck instead of a worthier person like her father angered her. Maybe she really was cursed. “You don’t have a plan, do you?” Lucius asked Oscar, who continued to block Camille from the two men anxiously waiting by the front door for someone to greet them. Lucius snorted a laugh. “Should’a guessed as much.” Oscar took a step forward, pressing Camille between his chest and Lucius’s. “What do you mean by that?” Lucius laced his fingers together and bowed them, cracking his knuckles. “Just that everyone knew you were only good for dishing out orders that came from someone else.” Camille placed one hand on Oscar’s chest and the other on Lucius and shoved them apart. “Stop it,” she said. “I liked it better when you were out of sight, Lucius.

[Nero] castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the assizes and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images,​ fondly kissing him from time to time. That he even desired illicit relations with his own mother, and was kept from it by her enemies, who feared that such a help might give the reckless and insolent woman too great influence, was notorious, especially after he added to his concubines a courtesan who was said to look very like Agrippina. Even before that, so they say, whenever he rode in a litter with his mother, he had incestuous relations with her, which were betrayed by the stains on his clothing. He so prostituted his own chastity that after defiling almost every part of his body, he at last devised a kind of game, in which, covered with the skin of some wild animal, he was let loose from a cage and attacked the private parts of men and women, who were bound to stakes, and when he had sated his mad lust, was dispatched​ by his freedman Doryphorus; for he was even married to this man in the same way that he himself had married Sporus, going so far as to imitate the cries and lamentations of a maiden being deflowered. He made a palace extending all the way from the Palatine to the Esquiline, which at first he called the House of Passage, but when it was burned shortly after its completion and rebuilt, the Golden House. Its size and splendour will be sufficiently indicated by the following details. Its vestibule was large enough to contain a colossal statue of the emperor a hundred and twenty feet high; and it was so extensive that it had a triple colonnade​ a mile long. There was a pond too, like a sea, surrounded with buildings to represent cities,​ besides tracts of country, varied by tilled fields, vineyards, pastures and woods, with great numbers of wild and domestic animals. In the rest of the house all parts were overlaid with gold and adorned with gems and mother-of‑pearl. There were dining-rooms with fretted ceils of ivory, whose panels could turn and shower down flowers and were fitted with pipes for sprinkling the guests with perfumes. The main banquet hall was circular and constantly revolved day and night, like the heavens. His mother offended him by too strict surveillance and criticism of his words and acts. At last terrified by her violence and threats, he determined to have her life, and after thrice attempting it by poison and finding that she had made herself immune by antidotes, he tampered with the ceiling of her bedroom, contriving a mechanical device for loosening its panels and dropping them upon her while she slept. When this leaked out through some of those connected with the plot, he devised a collapsible boat,​ to destroy her by shipwreck or by the falling in of its cabin. ...[He] offered her his contrivance, escorting her to it in high spirits and even kissing her breasts as they parted. The rest of the night he passed sleepless in intense anxiety, awaiting the outcome of his design. On learning that everything had gone wrong and that she had escaped by swimming, driven to desperation he secretly had a dagger thrown down beside her freedman Lucius Agermus, when he joyfully brought word that she was safe and sound, and then ordered that the freedman be seized and bound, on the charge of being hired to kill the emperor; that his mother be put to death, and the pretence made that she had escaped the consequences of her detected guilt by suicide.

The very next morning It was Valentine’s Day! They grabbed all their cards and went on their way. The classroom was decked out in red, pink, and white, with balloons and streamers, so festive and bright. Someone dropped by with a giant bouquet addressed to the teacher, who blushed right away. The card was signed “From a secret admirer,” but everyone knew it was Mr. O’Meyer! They played pin the heart and won goofy toys, and girls ran away from kissy-face boys. The art teacher came and painted kids’ faces. She put hearts on cheeks and sillier places! At last it was time to deliver the cards. Look! One for Lisa, Jim, and Bernard. They opened them up, read them and smiled, and laughed at the cards that were totally wild. Then they ate goodies, sweet cherries, and grapes, and drank punch with ice cubes in little heart shapes. And just when they thought the party was done, a knock on the door came at quarter past one. When what to their wondering eyes should appear, but the principal himself dressed in full Cupid gear! His arrows--how golden! His bow--curved and tight! The wig that he wore was a comical sight. He spoke not a word and was gone in a minute, leaving a present behind. Now what could be in it? They read Cupid’s note as he leapt down the hall: “Happy Valentine’s Day-- to one and to all!

Mrs Pungent McShark was a horrible soul, Her face resembled a squashed sausage roll, She was bitter and twisted, heartless and cruel, With breath that smelt worse than a septic cesspool. The story goes that Mrs McShark, Had once been in love with Mr Narcbark, He was employed as the Cresington Park Keeper, The locals called him the Cresington Grim Reaper. He was wicked, twisted, nasty and grey, An encounter with Narcbark darkened your day, His was skinny, wrinkly, bony and sour, Stand within a foot of him, you needed a shower. But Narcbark finally paid the price, The cost for living nasty not nice, Clearing up leaves he stepped on his rake, The handle shot up, he felt his nose break, Knocked out cold, he fell to the deck, Falling awkwardly, breaking his neck.

There is elegance in your truth There is a rhyme to your youth There is a secret that keeps you whole There is an essence to your goal When you move your head to the side It is because there are rules That you don’t wish to abide You know how to make them fall You know how to deck the hall With desires that move through your veins Chasing after plans and their styles You want the moment to last forever A scrapbook of your soul and its smiles

There is elegance in your truth There is a rhyme to your youth There is a secret that keeps you whole There is an essence to your goal When you move your head to the side It is because there are rules That you don’t wish to abide You know how to make them fall You know how to deck the hall With desires that move through your veins Chasing after plans and their styles You want the moment to last forever A scrapbook of your soul and its smiles

not like when you listen in the morning, coffee up in your nostrils, a single chirp at the deck window & you really listening to find out if that’s the same sparrow as the day before. that kind of listening.

THE EMPEROR — Charles Lee Jackson, II, central figure of The Emperorverse, smart, swift, capable of amazing feats, all but indestructible, well dressed, and able to charm beautiful women with a single smile, who not only leads the fight for order and justice against all odds but collects the records of his cases and those of his partners to dramatize them for

How hard is it to count? The more I practiced, the better my times, and I found that if I was able to count one deck in twenty to twenty-five seconds I could easily keep up in any game I was in, so I simply checked to be sure I was up to this standard each time before I played. One of the members of the Blackjack Hall of Fame impressed the professionals by counting two decks in thirty-three seconds.

I craved Nick to click my clit up on my housetop. He should bury his massive dick deep in my chimney stack. Spread climactic joy with his sack smacking against my decorated box. A festive treat to please me before we flew away into the night. Nick Frost could deck my halls anytime.

Fuck you, you murderous bitch,” I grumble before decking him as hard as I can in the face with my fist. Yes, violence is not always the best choice, but I did what I had to do. Hawke can’t hit him, Ben can’t hit him, so I did what needed to be done. For them.

Klepto.

The rest of the evening passed agreeably: the crew had their games on the main deck, resigning themselves to Sirs and dice now that dancing was out, those who would go ashore to enjoy the dining halls and tea houses went after their matches were lost, and those who remained either took themselves off to an early rest or remained with the musicians, to sing out the remainder of the evening by way of a few round songs, calling out verses in melodic dissonance, singing the history of Good Marrie the Whore and though there were “Ten hands in her purse, there was still room for one more!”,

At midnight when the fire had burnt down, and leaving the door wide open that she might have the lights behind her, she went through the dark hall, drew back the bolts of the front door and took her letters to the post. The village green outside was white with moonlight. As she stepped on to it it seemed a deck, her village ship a-sail on the slant of the world. The unknown and impersonal companion within her turned with a gulp, emitted a bubble of wind and revolved in its pond. "Do you never sleep?" she enquired aloud of her belly. The hemispheres whirled above the stillness, stars shone; down at human level the lamp in the churchyard gate was still as a star.

clear my throat. “So you like Greg?” “What’s it to you?” The chill in Maggie’s voice makes Siberia sound tropical. “Just making idle chitchat.” “No need. You can go back to ignoring me.” I face her. “When have I ever, in the history of you and me, ever ignored you?” She rolls her eyes. “Perhaps ‘ignore’ isn’t the right word. Maybe I should say you avoid me.” “I don’t avoid you.” “Sure. Let’s go with that.” The parents are now dancing with the bride and groom. We have a minute, so I grab Magnolia’s elbow and tug her into a nearby hall. “What’s your problem?” “My problem?” she hisses. “Didn’t you know? It’s always been you. You have some damn nerve, acting like you and Vanessa didn’t keep me up half the night. Pretending you didn’t know your room was right next door to mine.” I still, my feet rooted to the ground. “What are you talking about? Vanessa left last night.” She scoffs. “Someone was howling, ‘oh, Daddy, hit it harder’ on the other side of my wall. I seem to recall you had that room. In fact, I saw you open that door this morning, half-clothed, so don’t lie.” Oh, shit. I laugh, relieved as hell, now that I understand why her feathers are all ruffled. “Michael Oliver, don’t you dare laugh at me.” Her face is flushed, and she looks like she might deck me. She’s beautiful in her fury. Ready to bust me up if I’m not careful. Makes me want to kiss the hell out of her. I hold up both hands. “Just listen, okay?

Beyond Borders and Dogma (Sonnet 1590) Monkeys obsess over chunks of land, takes a human to home the world. Leeches obsess over guns and badges, takes a human to deck the halls. Beyond borders and dogma, beyond division and doctrine, beyond malignant maleficence, everyone is my kith and kin. Any ape can boast about their culture, I'll die roaring for every culture on earth, except my own. Monkeys obsess over chunks of land, I stand guard till all are one. Nationalists mark borders by raising guns, like dogs mark their territory by raising legs. Monkeys seek refuge in archaic sovereignty, Human am I, my refuge is the human race.

To Merveilleuse's surprise she comes across a large ram in a clearing, with gilt horns and a garland of flowers round his neck, reposing on a couch of orange blossom beneath a pavilion of golden cloth. But still, a ram, with his nose like an ink blot, flies on his white lashes, wool the color of curds. Around him a hundred gaily decked sheep graze not on grass but coffee, sherbet, ices, and sweetmeats, whilst partaking in games of basset and lansquenet. Soon he takes her into a cavern, which is a gate to his underworld kingdom. It has meadows of a thousand different flowers; a broad river of orange-flower water; fountains of Spanish wine and liqueurs. There are entire avenues of trees, stuffed with partridges better larded and dressed than you would get them at the finest Paris restaurants; quails, young rabbits, and ortolans. In certain parts, where the atmosphere appears a little hazy, it rains bisque d'écrevisses, foie gras, and ragout of sweetbreads. His palace is formed by tangled orange trees, jasmines, honeysuckle, and little musk-roses, whose interlaced branches form cabinets, halls, and chambers, all hung with golden gauze and furnished with large mirrors and fine paintings.

Later, some of his supporters decide that Antifa orchestrated the whole thing. It’s as if Antifa, probably taking advantage of a group-discount rate at the MAGA store, suddenly show up decked out in all this crap, I mean, merchandise, and duped the poor, pathetic Make America Great Again crowd. Sometimes reality is an orphan in the valley of the true believers.

Deck the halls with loads of coffee.

Fine, you want to deck her halls with—

She was mine. If she wanted Christmas crap all over the house, I should’ve been the man to reach the high places, to secure the heavy tree in its planter, to fucking deck the halls if she wanted me to because just existing in the same place at the same time as this slip of a blond girl made my fucking blood sing.

The court and jury convened in the mess hall, two decks below the flight deck. A “Grand Inquisitor” interrogated the pollywogs with the help of “scribes” and “kibitzers.” The accused were asked preposterous and insulting questions, and no matter how they answered, they were likely to be held in “contempt of court.

She observes their habits and the games they play to stay alert. Regicide, Nine-gambit and Senet in the officers’ refectory; Ashtapada in cartography; Gow, and Hounds and Wolves, in the war room; games of dice and wager in the billet decks; hands of Tarock on the fuse canisters of the autoloaders; rounds of Song and Cartomance in the dining halls, fast-shuffled turns of Thrice-My-Trick in the boiler sumps.

Love is Like Sounds" Late snow fell this early morning of spring. At dawn I rose from bed, restless, and looked Out of my window, to wonder if there the snow Fell outside your bedroom, and you watching. I played my game of solitaire. The cards Came out the same the third time through the deck. The game was stuck. I threw the cards together, And watched the snow that could not do but fall. Love is like sounds, whose last reverberations Hang on the leaves of strange trees, on mountains As distant as the curving of the earth, Where snow still hangs in the middle of the air.

There were some upperclassmen in a room at the end of the hall who asked if there was anything they could do to make us feel more at home. They were being overly polite to us when they introduced themselves, and asked if they could show us how to make our beds. I smelled a rat, as did my new roommates, so we respectfully declined their offer, and it’s good that we did. They laid their kindness on so thick, that I knew it was a sham and guessed that they were sizing us up for things to come. I knew I was right when some other muggs asked a question of them, and wound up in the coal bin, shoveling coal from one side of the bunker to another for half the night. Usually the upperclassmen came in two’s or three’s, and when they came, they banged on the door with their fists. The door flew open as they pushed their way in, making as much noise as possible and shouting the command, “Attention on Deck!” Perhaps the idea of shoveling coal was a holdover from the days when ships used coal as fuel….

Once, a terribly important war never got declared, and all because the King, decked in spangles and crystal pendants, hung three days from the ceiling of the main hall and passed for a chandelier, holding his mouth to keep from laughing out loud at the ministers rushing about frantically below.

Philadelphia has more to offer than Philadelphia has more to offer than Cheesesteaks and Wawa Hoagies Here’s a list of ten places to visit and you’ll never regret visiting this beautiful city of Brotherly Love. The Betsy Ross House- 239 Arch Streets Reading Terminal Market-12th and Arch Streets Boat House Row/Kelly Drive-1 Boathouse Row National Constitution Center-525 Arch St Delaware River Waterfront-121 N. Columbus Blvd The Liberty Bell-526 Market St Benjamin Franklin Parkway- Franklin Institute-222 N 20th St Philadelphia Museum of Art-2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy City Hall and its Observation deck-1400 John F Kennedy Blvd and WaWa Hoagies Here’s a list of ten places to visit and you’ll never regret visiting this beautiful city of Brotherly Love. The Betsy Ross House- 239 Arch Streets Reading Terminal Market-12th and Arch Streets Boat House Row/Kelly Drive-1 Boathouse Row National Constitution Center-525 Arch St Delaware River Waterfront-121 N. Columbus Blvd The Liberty Bell-526 Market St Benjamin Franklin Parkway- Franklin Institute-222 N 20th St Philadelphia Museum of Art-2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy City Hall and its Observation deck-1400 John F Kennedy Blvd

I'm sure it's all worth it. It's just a totally different world, and it's one I doubt I'll ever understand. Our worlds couldn't be further apart. And yet here we are. You and me. Sitting on the deck of my villa at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, drinking champagne. It looks like our worlds have collided very well.

Philadelphia has more to offer than Cheesesteaks and WAWA hoagies, Here’s a list of ten places you’ll enjoy while visiting this beautiful city of Brotherly Love. The Betsy Ross House- 239 Arch Streets Reading Terminal Market-12th and Arch Streets Boat House Row/Kelly Drive-1 Boathouse Row National Constitution Center-525 Arch St Delaware River Waterfront-121 N. Columbus Blvd The Liberty Bell-526 Market St Benjamin Franklin Parkway- Franklin Institute-222 N 20th St Philadelphia Museum of Art-2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy City Hall and its Observation deck-1400 John F Kennedy Blvd

It was left to Senator Isidor Rayner to conclude the hearings by saying: “As the ship was sinking, the strains of music were wafting over the deck. … It was a rallying cry for the living and the dying - to rally them not for life, but to rally them for their awaiting death. Almost face to face with their Creator, amid the chaos of this supreme and solemn moment, in inspiring notes the unison resounded through the ship. It told the victims of the wreck that there was another world beyond the seas, free from the agony of pain, and, though with somber tones, it cheered them on to their untimely fate. As the sea closed upon the heroic dead, let us feel that the heavens opened to the lives that were prepared to enter. “…If the melody that was rehearsed could only reverberate through this land ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee,’ and its echoes could be heard in these halls of legislation, and at every place where our rulers and representatives pass judgment and enact and administer laws, and at every home and fireside…and if we could be made to feel that there is a divine law of obedience and of adjustment…far above the laws that we formulate in this presence, then, from the gloom of these fearful hours we shall pass into the dawn of a higher service and of a better day, and then…the lives that went down upon this fated night did not go down in vain.

Afterwards he sat with the paper, the Sunday edition, immense and sleek, which had lain unopened in the hall. In it were articles, interviews, everything fresh, unimagined; it was like a great ship, its decks filled with passengers, a directory in which was entered everything that had made any difference to the city, the world. A great vessel sailing each day, he longed to be on it, to enter its salons, to stand near the rail.

This was absurd. One gorgeous, smart single gay man turns up in town and I’m all over him like a dog in heat.

I had issues. I had a problem with how the world worked, and I was cynical and angry at a system I couldn’t change. No prospective guy wanted to deal with that on top of me working ninety hours a week. Hell, I didn’t even want to deal with me.

It’s happening again,” he whispered, nudging Jayden. “I know,” Jayden replied. “This needs to be studied.” Um, what?

I turned to find none other than Soren, with his breathtaking smile and those damn firefighter coveralls, which he had done up now. Sadly, no tight gray T-shirt on display. “I’m beginning to think you’re following me,” I said. His grin widened. “Oh, I absolutely am. Watched you walk in here and told the boss I was going to lunch.

had a real good feeling about him. I dunno how or why, because he was certainly not my type, but there was something—something—about Robinson O’Reilly that made my heart take notice.

Of course he was washing the fire engine. Because of course he was. Of course he was wearing his coveralls rolled down to his waist, and of course his gray T-shirt clung to his ripped body like a glove. Of course it did.

—and the house is cold, and my bed is lonely. Everything is gray and gloomy over there, and everything here is warm and yellow.” He chuckled. “Thank you for describing my house like a urine sample.

You mean venturing outside? When there were perfectly good books to be read inside by the fire?

Mika grabbed my beard, pulled it, and whispered, “I’m horny. Let’s have a little quickie in a vacant room or bathroom.” “I was thinking more like the morgue area,” I whispered against her lips. “The fuck kind of shit is that Keegan?” she blurted, causing all to oddly look at us. Walking to the door, I whispered, “I heard one can bust in under two minutes. I won’t give a fuck about doing the most. I’ll be focused on us catching the quickest nut in the temporary land of corpses.

Placing my hands on her stomach, I kissed her neck before dragging my mouth to her ear. Lovingly, I breathed, “Be prepared for me, soon-to-be Mika Roshelle Walker. Round two through fifteen will be fucking epic.

of

something

Can Axeel convince her to let Daddy Gnome deck her halls with his balls?

Relax,” he murmured into her ear, and within her slippers her toes curled as though he were giving attention to them. “I am relaxed.” Liar, liar. “You’re as stiff as a poker. I’m going to position your hands, your stance.” “I think you’re wrong. I think they are exactly as they need to be.” “Not if you wish to beat me.” Turning her head to the side, she met and held his gaze. “Why would you assist me in giving you a sound thrashing and miss out on your kiss? If you truly wanted it—” “Oh, I truly want it,” he said in a silken voice. “And I intend to have it.” Suddenly, one of his hands was cupping her cheek, while his fingers plowed through her hair. He somehow managed to twist and bend her slightly so she was cradled in his other arm. He lowered his head, and his mouth plundered. No soft taking this, but an urgency. He ravished with his tongue as though he would die if he didn’t taste her, as though he would cease to exist if he left anything unexplored. This was exactly what she had imagined kissing him would be like during the months when they had flirted,

He dragged his lips along her throat, and she found herself arching up toward him, offering him more. “You haven’t won,” she said breathlessly. They hadn’t even started to play. Raising his head, he gave her a dark grin. “Oh, but I have.

With as little effort as though she weighed no more than a pillow, he lifted her up and laid her on the billiards table. She was vaguely aware of the balls scattering. Leaning over her, he braced his arms on either side of her head, his gaze intent. “Don’t marry him,” he urged, his voice low and sensual until it more closely resembled a caress. “I have to.” “Because of the kiss in the garden?” Her heart slammed into her ribs. “What do you know of the garden?” “Only rumors. The rest of your life shouldn’t be determined by a kiss.” Yet here she was thinking that if she weren’t betrothed, the kiss he had just delivered would have been the guiding star for the remainder of her life. No one else’s would ever measure up. A broken betrothal . . . Litton would sue. Her father wouldn’t allow that sort of scandal to happen. “You’re being a bit hypocritical. You’re asking me to change the direction of my life because you managed to steal a kiss that left me breathless. You had your chance with me, Chetwyn. You chose another. Now so have I.” “I can explain.

An image flashed of him kissing her. She had often wondered at his flavor, but she would not fall for him again, she would not. “For God’s sake, I am betrothed.” “As I’m well aware.” She saw a flicker of sadness and regret cross his features. “You should know, Merry, that I am here only because of you.” “Your flirtation is no longer welcome, Chetwyn. I shall be no man’s second choice.” “You were always my first.” His eyes held sincerity and something else that fairly took her breath: an intense longing. Dear God, even Litton didn’t look at her like that. Chetwyn’s revelation delighted, angered, and hurt at the same time. She released a bitter laugh. “Well, you had a frightfully funny way of showing it, didn’t you?” She stepped away. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve become quite parched.

Then in early spring a soldier delivered a letter from Walter, long after he was gone. The man hadn’t posted it for fear it would become lost on the journey from the Crimea. Walter’s words had shaken Chetwyn to the core. As he lay ill, he must have known that the Grim Reaper was hovering nearby, because he asked Chetwyn to promise to ensure that his betrothed was happy. Chetwyn, numbskull that he was, had thought the only way to ensure Lady Anne’s well-being was to marry her himself, so he’d held his growing feelings for Lady Meredith in check. When the next Season was upon them, he turned his attentions to securing Lady Anne’s happiness while Lady Meredith slipped beyond reach. He had no right to ask her for forgiveness, no right to ask for a second chance. She had moved on with her life, she had found another. It was time for him to do the same, to stop living in the past, to stop focusing on what might have been— If he’d not been so insistent on restoring his estates to their former glory.

Play billiards with me.” His eyes held a challenge that she knew had little to do with the actual game. He was daring her to stay, to risk being with him. Did he know how much she was drawn to him, how very dangerous he was to her? “I’ll teach you,” he said.

She angled her chin haughtily. “I already know how to play. Litton taught me. What do I gain if I win?” “What would you like?” “For you to leave immediately.” He furrowed his brow. “The room?” “The manor, the estate, the shire.” She knew the challenge was now in her gaze, and she could see him considering it, perhaps wondering how truly skilled she was. “And if I win?” he asked, his voice thrumming with an undercurrent that should have frightened her off. “What do I receive?” “Our last night here there is to be another ball. A dance. Whichever one you want. I shall let you sign my card first.” He picked up her cue stick and studied it as though he were trying to determine how it had been made. “A kiss.” He shifted his gaze over to her and captured her as though he’d suddenly wrapped his arms around her. “As soon as I sink my last ball.” “That would be entirely inappropriate.” He gave her a devilish grin. “Which is why I want it.” “You always struck me as quite the gentleman.” A shadow crossed his features. “Not tonight. I’ve spent too much time contemplating past mistakes.

Do you love him? You never truly answered my question last night. Tell me that much at least. Do you love him?” She angled her chin. “With all my heart.” Hope soaring through him, he gave her a slow, triumphant grin. “You always were a poor liar, Merry.” Then he covered her mouth with his.

Don’t go out far, Merry.” “Honestly, Chetwyn, you worry too much. The duchess told me that the pond has been iced over for a couple of weeks now.” “That doesn’t mean it’s perfectly safe.” Safer than you, she thought. She welcomed the brisk air brushing over her face, the snow melting on her eyelashes. With the silence, she could almost imagine that she was completely and absolutely alone. It was what she’d thought she wanted. Only now she realized that she wanted to be with him: walking, talking, her arm linked with his. She pirouetted to face him. She heard a crack of thunder. He was rushing toward her. “Merry, don’t move!” Another crack, louder than the first, and she realized with horror that the storm wasn’t above her, but beneath her. “Chetwyn!” Then the ice gave way.

I trusted you with my heart once. I won’t do it again.” “I know I bruised your feelings.” “You did nothing of the sort.” Reaching down, she snatched up her skates. “I won’t give up,” he said. “Not until Christmas.” “Why that particular day?” “Because your love is the only gift I wish to receive.

Not an hour passes by that I don’t miss him, not a day goes by that I don’t regret not finding another way. I could have married any number of women with dowries that would have provided me with the means to live more luxuriously. Instead, I was holding out for love. I was waiting for you.” She did not move away when his lips joined hers. His tongue stroked the seam of her mouth, urging her to open it for him. She shouldn’t have, but she did, because if she was honest with herself, she would admit that she had been waiting for him as well.

Tell them you made your way here, but the storm prevented you from going farther, and you’ve been waiting it out.” “I don’t understand. You’ll be here.” He stroked her cheek, and the sadness in his eyes almost made her weep. “No. I won’t have your reputation dragged through the mud by having us found together.” She flattened her hand against his chest. “But the discovery of us together will ensure that we marry. My father will very well insist.” He brought her in close, then tucked her beneath his chin. “I want you, Merry, more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life, but not at the risk of bringing you shame or more pain than I’ve already caused. Nor will I do as Litton and force you into marriage.” Dipping his head, he kissed her short and sweet, but in the tenderness of the moment she heard volumes: love, caring, goodbye. Then he was rushing out of the room as though the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels, while the duke’s hounds were barking more loudly with their approaching nearness. Feeling lost and bereft, she went through the motions of slipping back into her stiff but dried riding habit. She was buttoning up the last of the pearl disks when she heard a door slam open and the stomp of feet.

Dragging his mouth along the arch of her throat, he rasped, “I want you, Merry. You can’t imagine how much I want you.” Oh, she could imagine it very well, because she wanted him. As wrong as it was, she wanted him with an intensity that fairly threatened to destroy her. When Litton had kissed her in the garden, she hadn’t wanted to melt into him, to meld her body with his. With Chetwyn, all rational thought scattered away like dried leaves before an autumn breeze. She couldn’t think, didn’t want to think, wanted only to feel the eager press of his hands, the hunger of his mouth against her flesh. Shifting his weight, he carried her down to their makeshift velveteen bed. She thought the thickest of mattresses could not be more welcoming. Rising above her, he stared down on her. She combed her fingers through his unruly locks before bringing her palms down to cradle his jaw. The rough bristles tickled her tender skin. “I was a fool, Merry,” he whispered. “Misguided, trying to do right by my brother, putting my own wants, needs, and happiness aside. I want you. I need you. You bring me happiness such as I’ve never known. Let me show you how much I can love you.

Alistair Wakefield, the Marquess of Chetwyn,

From his shadowed corner, he now watched Lady Meredith Hargreaves dance with her betrothed, Lord Litton. Based on her smile and the way her gaze never strayed from his, she appeared to be joyous and very much in love with the fellow. Although perhaps she was simply imbued with the spirit of the season. He could always hope. He knew he should look about for another dance partner. The problem was that she was the only one with whom he wished to waltz. Hers were the only eyes into which he longed to gaze, hers the only fragrance he yearned to inhale, hers the only voice he wanted whispering near his ear as passion smoldered. It had been that way for some time now, but he had fought back his burgeoning desire for her out of a sense of obligation and duty, out of a misguided attempt to make amends regarding his younger brother, Walter, who had sacrificed his life in the Crimea.

The decorated tree in the parlor, the sprigs of holly scattered about, and the red bows on the portraits that had greeted him upon his arrival had served as an unwarranted reminder that the auspicious morning was quickly approaching, and then she would be lost to him forever. But if she loved Litton, could he deny her what he had granted Anne: a life with the man she loved? It was a quandary with which he struggled, because he wished only happiness for Lady Meredith, but he was arrogant enough to believe that he could bring her joy as no one else could. No other gentleman would hold her in such high esteem. No other man would adore her as he did. Convincing her that she belonged with him was going to be quite the trick, as he suspected she’d rather see him rotting in hell than standing beside her at the altar. Despite the fact that she was engaged to marry, he kept hoping that she would glance over, would give him a smile, would offer any sort of encouragement at all. Instead she waltzed on, as though for her he no longer existed.

His inability to resist her was what had led to them being caught the night of Greystone’s ball in the garden in a very compromising situation that had resulted in a rather hasty betrothal. Her father had managed to limit the damage done by ensuring that no one other than he and her brothers knew of the discovery. Litton had been quick to propose on the spot, but then her father could be quite intimidating. As they were discovered before they had moved beyond a kiss, the wedding was not being rushed. Meredith knew Litton was an honorable man. He could have run off, but he didn’t. He stood by her and offered to marry her. She didn’t like the little niggle of doubt that surfaced from time to time and made her wonder if he arranged to be caught. If he did, was it because he so desperately wanted her or her dowry? As he smiled down on her now, she sent the irritating doubts to perdition and accepted that he was madly in love with her. They would be wondrously happy together. If only her heart would cooperate.

Deck the halls with chopped-up bodies fa la la, fa la la, la la laaaa. ’Tis the season to be bloody fa la la, fa la la, la la laaaa. Satan’s servants murder faithful fa la la, fa la la, la la laaaa. Smell the blood and be hateful.