“
Do you guys remember that time when we were all definitely going to die and then Ben grabbed the steering wheel and dodged a ginormous freaking cow and spun the car like the teacups at Disney World and we didn't die?
”
”
John Green (Paper Towns)
“
When you arrive in your driveway and turn off the car, you remain behind the wheel another ten minutes. You fear the night is being locked in and coded on a cellular level and want time to function as a power wash. Sitting there staring at the closed garage door you are reminded that a friend once told you there exists the medical term—John Henryism—for people exposed to stresses stemming from racism. They achieve themselves to death trying to dodge the buildup of erasure. Sherman James, the researcher who came up with the term, claimed the physiological costs were high. You hope by sitting in silence you are bucking the trend.
”
”
Claudia Rankine (Citizen: An American Lyric)
“
Tim stared at the steel rod in the gloved hand. "Is that a magic wand?"
The Covenant Man appeared to consider. "I suppose so. Although it started life as the gearshift of a Dodge Dart, America's economy car, young Tim."
"What's America?"
"A kingdom filled with toy-loving idiots. It has no part in our palaver.
”
”
Stephen King (The Wind Through the Keyhole (The Dark Tower, #4.5))
“
It's that moon again, slung so fat and low in the tropical night, calling out across a curdled sky and into the quivering ears of that dear old voice in the shadows, the Dark Passenger, nestled snug in the backseat of the Dodge K-car of Dexter's hypothetical soul.
That rascal moon, that loudmouthed leering Lucifer, calling down across the empty sky to the dark hearts of the night monsters below, calling them away to their joyful playgrounds.
”
”
Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
“
Streams of pedestrians dodged them on the sidewalk as they stood with her hand in his, but neither of them noticed. The blaring mixture of car horns, laughter, and music from a nearby club thrashed and echoed around them, but neither of them heard the noise. Simply lost in one another in that moment, nothing else existed. Emily tore her gaze from his…
”
”
Gail McHugh (Collide (Collide, #1))
“
So sell the Hummer, buy a Dodge, and move into a trailer. (Wulf)
Oh, yeah, right. Remember when I traded the Hummer for an Alpha Romeo last year? You burned the car and bought me a new Hummer and threatened to lock me in my room with a hooker if I ever did it again. And as for the perks…Have you bothered to look around this place? We have a heated indoor pool, a theater with surround sound, two cooks, three maids, and a pool guy I get to boss around, not to mention all kinds of other fun toys. I’m not about to leave Disneyland. It’s the only good part in this arrangement. I mean, hell, if my life has to suck there’s no way I’m going to live in the Mini-Winni. Which knowing you, you’d make me park out front anyway with armed guards standing watch in case I get a hangnail. (Chris)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Kiss of the Night (Dark-Hunter, #4))
“
Because I've had a change of heart."
Im off the car before I know whats happened, caged between the cold metal hood and Nicholas. There is no room to dodge around him, nowhere to go. My senses reel, overpowered by him, collapsing into his touch to mend us perfectly together. His dark stare glitters with fear and fury, and something else that takes me another half second to translate. Need. Deep and burning. If I weren't pinned, my knees would buckle.
He places his hand over my thumping, traitorous heart, commanding every nerve ending, every single desire. I am wide, wide awake. He shudders an exhile and his face descends so close that I think it must end with a kiss, which is why I close my eyes.
"Your heart is mine," he says.
”
”
Sarah Hogle (You Deserve Each Other)
“
Well, if someone is a bad driver and all the other drivers around them are good drivers, then they are safe because all the good drivers will dodge the bad driver so that there is no car crash. But if there is another bad driver, then there can be a crash.
”
”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
“
He leads me down to the small parking lot behind the dorm that I’ve never stepped foot into because everyone always picks me up from the loading zone out the front. I know which car is his immediately because there’s no car that screams BDE like the black Dodge Challenger Hellcat, and the grin he shoots at me when he unlocks it is total smug asshole.
”
”
J. Bree (Broken Bonds (The Bonds that Tie, #1))
“
Dodge Demon behind the car. It’s a black Shelby Super Snake, the quintessential high-performance car, possibly $125,000 off the showroom floor. He
”
”
Dean Koontz (Devoted)
“
Okay, I have a follow-up question."
Madden exhales. "Yes."
"Is this car worth a lot in your human money?"
"Paige, there's nothing around. Okay? You're going to be fine. Just get in the car, turn on the ignition, and do the obstacle course."
"In that order?"
"Yes."
...
A 2016 Dodge Viper SRT costs exactly $87,895. I know, because I just crashed one.
”
”
Andrea Portes (Liberty: The Spy Who (Kind of) Liked Me)
“
Are you suppose to move away if there is a car coming at you that say’s “Dodge” on the front?
”
”
Sidney S. Prasad (The World's Dumbest Questions)
“
The names Dodge City and Wichita conjure visions of cowboys on horseback moving herds of cattle long distances, but as we found ourselves in the Blue Stem flint hills and tallgrass prairies we stopped the car and got out to rest. And with what felt like a cyclone trying to rip our ears off all we could see was …… nothing;
Big sky, big land, unceasing horizon and cold-blooded and ruthless prairie.
”
”
Karl Wiggins (Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe)
“
Until as late as the early 1950s a round-trip aeroplane ticket from Australia to England cost as much as a three-bedroom suburban home in Melbourne or Sydney. With the introduction by Qantas of larger Lockheed Super Constellation airliners in 1954, prices began to fall, but even by the end of the decade travelling to Europe by air still cost as much as a new car. Nor was it a terribly speedy or comfortable service. The Super Constellations took three days to reach London and lacked the power or range to dodge most storms. When monsoons or cyclones were encountered, the pilots had no choice but to put on the seat-belt signs and bounce through them. Even in normal conditions they flew at a height guaranteed to produce more or less constant turbulence. (Qantas called it, without evident irony, the Kangaroo Route.) It was, by any modern measure, an ordeal.
”
”
Bill Bryson (In a Sunburned Country)
“
I saw a man swerve his car and try to hit a stray dog, but the quick mutt dodged between two parked cars and made his escape. God, I thought, did I just see what I think I saw? At the next red light, I pulled up beside the man and stared hard at him. He knew that'd I seen his murder attempt, but he didn't care. He smiled and yelled loud enough for me to hear him through our closed windows: 'Don't give me that face unless you're going to do something about it. Come on, tough guy, what are you going to do?' I didn't do anything. I turned right on the green. He turned left against traffic. I don't know what happened to that man or the dog, but I drove home and wrote this poem. Why do poets think they can change the world? The only life I can save is my own.
”
”
Sherman Alexie (War Dances)
“
I’m supposed to meet Ainsley for lunch and then...we’re hanging out.”
He was silent for a moment and then shoved his hands into his pockets. “Cool.” His gaze flipped up and over me. I turned slightly, spying Hector’s car coming down the center aisle. “I’d like to meet her.”
Wait.
What?
He wanted to meet Ainsley?
Rider bit down on his lower lip. “So, you know, I’m sort of inviting myself along.”
He really wanted to meet my best friend?
His head tilted to the side. “And if you think that’s not cool, this is about to get real awkward.
”
”
Jennifer L. Armentrout (The Problem with Forever)
“
Hey, ≤i≥ mami,” ≤/i≥ Hector called out, his grin spreading as he bit down on his lower lip. ≤i≥ “Que cuerpo tan brutal.”≤/i≥
I had no idea what he’d just said, but it seemed to be directed at me.
“Shut up,” Rider replied, planting his large hand in Hector’s face and shoving him back into the driver’s side of the car. ≤i≥ “No la mires.” ≤/i≥
***
“Wait,” I said, surprising the crap out of myself as she faced me, eyes wide. My cheeks heated. “What...does no la mires mean?” I’d totally butchered the words like a typical white girl who couldn’t speak any form of Spanish would.
Her brows shot up again. “Why are you asking that?”
I raised my shoulders.
“Did someone say that to you?” When I didn’t answer, because I was no longer sure I wanted to know what it meant, she sighed. “It basically translates to don’t look at her.”
”
”
Jennifer L. Armentrout (The Problem with Forever)
“
I sat on the porch floor, pulling Lend’s head into my lap and hoping he wouldn’t be bruised from that fall. “Reth!” I shouted. “Reth!” Where was that blasted faerie?
After a few minutes Jack walked over, rubbing at his wrists with a sour look on his face as he casually dodged around the sentinel dragon. “I always forgot how little sense of humor police officers have. Shame, really, considering how much fun they could have with their jobs.”
“I’d kill for a siren and lights. Or, you know, a car and a license.”
Jack sat on the steps, leaning back on his elbows. “That was a little more excitement than I usually like at dawn.
”
”
Kiersten White (Endlessly (Paranormalcy, #3))
“
If you hadn’t been jealous of Ayden and thrown me in your car, Eros would never have had to come to my rescue which started this whole fiasco.” “Don’t try to pin this on me!”
“The lonely lone wolf didn’t deny he loved Aurora.” Blake chuckled and dodged out of the Aussie’s swack.
“Ugh.” Ayden walked beside me and put a hand around my waist.
“Now I have to compete for your affection with both Blake and Matthias.”
I rolled a dramatic shrug. “I tried to put him down easy, but he’s so infatuated. It’s embarrassing. Even with all those other girls after him.”
“I can’t bloody stand you!” Blake sighed. “Me thinks he doth confess too much.”
A & E Kirk (2014-05-26). Drop Dead Demons: The Divinicus Nex Chronicles: Book 2 (Divinicus Nex Chronicles series) (p. 565). A&E Kirk. Kindle Edition.
”
”
A. Kirk
“
A starling sits on a wire on the busy street, and I watch him as I wait at a red light. He flies down to a spot in the middle of the road, walks around with that curious, potbellied strut, neck craned at something that lies in the road. Food? The traffic thickens and roars up, and the bird rises back up to the wire, only to drop down again, walking tight circles around the object. My car nears, and my heart sinks to see that the bundle in the road is another starling, just killed. Fearless, the starling dodges trucks and cars to be near the lifeless mess that was its mate. An hour later, the bird still sits on the wire, watching the little spot of feathers. I wonder whether anyone else passing noticed this small tragedy, and I remember a fragment of verse about swatting a mosquito: a life so small, but to itself, so dear.
”
”
Julie Zickefoose (Letters From Eden: A Year at Home, in the Woods)
“
SILVER CITY IS NO PLACE FOR AMATEURS I left Colorado Springs the next morning and got back in the fucking car for another day of driving for the Tour of the Gila. I’d never driven in snow before, but I made it to Santa Fe and then Albuquerque in the afternoon, careful to dodge all the tumbleweeds on the highway in New Mexico. I hadn’t known that those existed outside of cartoons. Already exhausted when I got off the interstate, I was surprised when my GPS said “48 miles remaining, 1.5 hours’ drive time”—I was sure that couldn’t be right. Then I saw the steep climbs, bumpy cattle guards, and dangerous descents on the road into Silver City. I drove as fast as I could, sliding my poor car around hairpins in the dark. I made it to the host house, fell asleep, and found two flat tires when I went outside to unpack the car in the morning. They probably weren’t meant for drifting. My luck didn’t improve when the race started. I got a flat tire when I went off the road to dodge a crash, and I chased for over an hour to get back to the field. Between the dry air and altitude, I got a major nosebleed. My car was parked at the base of the finishing climb, and I got there several minutes behind the field, my new white Cannondale and all my clothes covered in blood. The course turned right to go up the climb, and I turned left, climbed into my car, and got the hell out of there. I might have made the time cut, but for the second time in two weeks, I opted to climb in the car instead. I got out of that town like I was about to turn into a pumpkin, and made it back to San Diego nine hours later. If there wasn’t a Pacific Ocean to stop me, I’d have driven another day, just to get farther from Gila.
”
”
Phil Gaimon (Pro Cycling on $10 a Day: From Fat Kid to Euro Pro)
“
In the Mountains, they cooked, too.
Joe Godwin made liquor in Muscadine. Moe Shealey made it in Mineral Springs. Junior McMahan had a still in ragland. Fred and Alton Dryden made liquor in Tallapoosa, and Eulis Parker made it on Terrapin Creek. Wayne Glass knew their faces because he drove it, and made more money hauling liquor than he ever made at the cotton mill. He loaded the gallon cans into his car in the deep woods and dodged sheriffs and federal men to get it to men like Robert Kilgore, the bootlegger who sold whiskey from a house in Weaver, about ten minutes south of Jacksonville. "I could haul a hundred and fifty gallons in a Flathead Ford, at thirty-five dollars a load," he said. Wayne lost the end of one finger in the mill, but he was bulletproof when he was running liquor, and only did time once, for conspiracy. "They couldn't catch me haulin' liquor," he said, "so they got me for thinkin' about it.
”
”
Rick Bragg (The Prince of Frogtown)
“
I could just see that little bandy rooster straightening his belt and buttoning up his old Eisenhower jacket as he got out and walked on two then solid legs up to the ancient, black-primer Dodge. I could see him pushing his old campaign hat back with a thumb, like he used to do, and leaning on the back of the Dodge’s windowsill as the window rolled down. “Hey, Chief.” He wasn’t joking; Frank Red Shield was a chief of the Northern Cheyenne. “I pulled you over ’cause you’ve got a couple ’a taillights out back here.” He said the old chief ’s eyes twinkled, and he patted Lucian’s arm that rested on the car. “Oh, that’s okay. I thought you were pulling me over ’cause I didn’t have no license.” Lucian said he nearly bit his lip to bleeding trying to not laugh until Mrs. Red Shield slapped her husband across the chest and said, “Don’t pay no attention to him, Sheriff. He don’t know what he’s sayin’ when he’s been drinkin’.
”
”
Craig Johnson (The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire, #1))
“
I am assured that this is a true story. A man calls up his computer helpline complaining that the cupholder on his personal computer has snapped off, and he wants to know how to get it fixed. “Cupholder?” says the computer helpline person, puzzled. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’m confused. Did you buy this cupholder at a computer show or receive it as a special promotion?” “No, it came as part of the standard equipment on my computer.” “But our computers don’t come with cupholders.” “Well, pardon me, friend, but they do,” says the man a little hotly. “I’m looking at mine right now. You push a button on the base of the unit and it slides right out.” The man, it transpired, had been using the CD drawer on his computer to hold his coffee cup. I bring this up here by way of introducing our topic this week: cupholders. Cupholders are taking over the world. It would be almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of cupholders in automotive circles these days. The New York Times recently ran a long article in which it tested a dozen family cars. It rated each of them for ten important features, among them engine size, trunk space, handling, quality of suspension, and, yes, number of cupholders. A car dealer acquaintance of ours tells us that they are one of the first things people remark on, ask about, or play with when they come to look at a car. People buy cars on the basis of cupholders. Nearly all car advertisements note the number of cupholders prominently in the text. Some cars, like the newest model of the Dodge Caravan, come with as many as seventeen cupholders. The largest Caravan holds seven passengers. Now you don’t have to be a nuclear physicist, or even wide awake, to work out that that is 2.43 cupholders per passenger. Why, you may reasonably wonder, would each passenger in a vehicle need 2.43 cupholders? Good question. Americans, it is true, consume positively staggering volumes of fluids. One of our local gas stations, I am reliably informed, sells a flavored confection called a Slurpee in containers up to 60 ounces in size. But even if every member of the family had a Slurpee and a personal bottle of
”
”
Bill Bryson (I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away)
“
The automobile, like the all-important domestic façade, is another mechanism for outdoor class display. Or class lack of display we'd have to say, if we focus on the usages of the upper class, who, on the principle of archaism, affect to regard the automobile as very nouveau and underplay it consistently. Class understatement describes the technique: if your money and freedom and carelessness of censure allow you to buy any kind of car, you provide yourself with the meanest and most common to indicate that you're not taking seriously so easily purchasable and thus vulgar a class totem. You have a Chevy, Ford, Plymouth, or Dodge, and in the least interesting style and color. It may be clean, although slightly dirty is best. But it should be boring. The next best thing is to have a "good" car, like a Jaguar or BMW, but to be sure it's old and beat-up. You may not have a Rolls, a Cadillac, or a Mercedes. Especially a Mercedes, a car, Joseph Epstein reports in The American Scholar (Winter 1981-82), which the intelligent young in West Germany regard, quite correctly, as "a sign of vulgarity, a car of the kind owned by Beverly Hills dentists or African cabinet ministers.
”
”
Paul Fussell
“
The Robot With Human Hair Pt2"
Said it's the coming of man
And I forget when you went away
Like a kick to the face
Not winning the race
(Lion, I've seen you from afar)
I've seen her in the car
Knowing that you deserve such more
Deserved to know you're free
Leave, I'm the director
Agree to the role of the pilot inspector
Breathe, pilot inspector
Feed off the role of the radar detector
Leave, I'm the director
Agree to the role of the pilot inspector
Breathe, pilot inspector
Feed off the role of the radar detector
Well, then, you said you could do this on your own
I'm sorry baby, I can't aid you
(And then you say, hands down, right now, I'll let this go)
You...
Well, now it's up to god to save you
Save you from all of those bruised,
bruised and battered wounds
(Wave right with a gun in his hand wave right)
Can you taste this blood
Dripping sweeter than...?
And over your eyes
And I, and I fall to both knees
Not to beg for your forgiveness
But to hate the word
And you speak
Take a right off these cliffs
The ground is staring at your wounded weapons
Wounded weapons
(And I can't believe that you're right)
You can bank the night on this its round
And glaring at your well
I get hyphy
Tell 'em I get hyphy
And this is where it ends
Well, then, you said you could do this on your own
I'm sorry baby, I can't aid you
(And then you say, hands down, right now, I'll let this go)
You...
Well, now it's up to god to save you
Save you, save you
Save you, save you
I can't believe these long words
Come from many national absurd
This is a line cut across
Hope, defeat, the line, the loss
I can never be this lone wolf
You can never see me across this earth
This will be a light that I run from
You thought you were so strong
You pleaded to never be wrong
(Brace yourself, fasten belts)
Well, now that you go
(Close the hatch, flip the latch)
I sit here and wonder
(They're not dead, speed ahead)
Times have changed
It's like we've been trashing silos
(Well, now that you go)
In the time bomb aisle
(I sit here and wonder)
Maybe they'll dodge the spill
Oil kills, sure it will
And I can't breathe the air
(Hide your daughter 'cause I'm coming over)
To reach for this light
(You know I'm not lying about)
(Trashing silos in the time bomb aisle)
And you can't breathe the air
(About trashing silos in the time bomb aisle)
Not leaving her to reach
The line, the work, the rope, the love
And I have seen such worse for you
It's a no, I'm not coming back
It's a no, I'm not coming back
It's a no, I'm not coming back
And now you see the sky has turned black
Why do think everyone has turned back?
It's cause he's gone
And now you see the sky has turned black
Why do think everyone has turned back?
It's cause he's gone
And now you see the sky has turned black
Why do think everyone has turned back?
It's cause he's gone
”
”
Dance Gavin Dance
“
Is this a date? Are you on a date with him? And who the hell’s car is this?”
Before I can answer, Genevieve makes a move toward me, which I dodge. I run behind the pillar. “Don’t be such a baby, Lara Jean,” she says. “Just accept that you lose and I win!”
I peek from behind the pillar, and John is giving me a look--a look that says, Get in. Quickly I nod. Then he throws open the passenger door, and I run for it, as fast as I can. I’ve barely got the door closed before he’s driving off, Peter and Gen in our dust.
I turn back to look. Peter is staring after us, his mouth open. He’s jealous, and I’m glad. “Thanks for the save,” I say, still trying to catch my breath. My heart is pounding in my chest so hard.
John is looking straight ahead, a broad smile on his face. “Anytime.”
We stop at a stoplight, and he turns his head and looks at me, and then we’re looking at each other, laughing like crazy, and I’m breathless again.
“Did you see the looks on their faces?” John gasps, dropping his head on the steering wheel.
“It was classic!”
“Like a movie!” He grins at me, jubilant, blue eyes alight.
“Just like a movie,” I agree, leaning my head back against the seat and opening my eyes wide up at the moon, so wide it hurts. I’m in a red Mustang convertible sitting next to a boy in uniform, and the night air feels like cool satin on my skin, and all the stars are out, and I’m happy. The way John is still grinning to himself, I know he is too. We got to play make-believe for the night.
”
”
Jenny Han (P.S. I Still Love You (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #2))
“
At the time that he had seriously begun to consolidate his organization, Parker was working in a custom photo lab. The reader who is not much taken by audiovisual pastimes may have a deficient picture of that place where Parker was employed; or perhaps not so much a deficient picture--the dyes faded, shoddily spotted, brutishly burned in and doltishly dodged by subhuman technicians under the glare of the enlargers--as an image which had been misfiled in the archives of the memory, representing instead one of those bleak Photo Drive-Ups and Presto Printses located nowadays on the corner of almost every large parking lot, in which the clerks wait sadly behind their glass counters, but no one comes in, and the air becomes darker and darker over the course of the morning as a result of exhaust fumes (there goes another brain cell; ping! - THAT thought will never be completed now); and the pink chubby tots smiling at your from the walls in sample enlargements become steadily more grimy, and by the lunch break they are brown; and the day ticks off on the loud digital clock; and then finally a car creeps into the lot, and a popeyed couple locks that vehicle doors listlessly; they request a reprint of a washed-out snapshot of their son who was killed in the Indian Wars, and they go away; and after a long time here comes a slick-haired teenager who once took a few pix of his girlfriend holding a balloon at the zoo in front of the monkey cage on a dirty overcast day, and the clerk can tell just by looking at this customer that they won’t come out, because the guy’s a loser if the clerk knows anything at all about losers and in fact he knows a hell of a lot about losers because why else would he be stuck with this job?
”
”
William T. Vollmann (You Bright and Risen Angels (Contemporary American Fiction))
“
You okay?” Marlboro Man called out. I didn’t answer. I just kept on walking, determined to get the hell out of Dodge.
It took him about five seconds to catch up with me; I wasn’t a very fast walker. “Hey,” he said, grabbing me around the waist and whipping me around so I was facing him. “Aww, it’s okay. It happens.”
I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to hear it. I wanted him to let go of me and I wanted to keep on walking. I wanted to walk back down the hillside, start my car, and get out of there. I didn’t know where I’d go, I just knew I wanted to go. I wanted away from all of it--riding horses, saddles, reins, bridles--I didn’t want it anymore. I hated everything on that ranch. It was all stupid, dumb…and stupid.
Wriggling loose of his consoling embrace, I squealed, “I seriously can’t do this!” My hands trembled wildly and my voice quivered. The tip of my nose began to sting, and tears welled up in my eyes. It wasn’t like me to display such hysteria in the presence of a man. But being driven to the brink of death had brought me to this place. I felt like a wild animal. I was powerless to restrain myself. “I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life!” I cried.
I turned to leave again but decided instead to give up, choosing to sit down on the ground and slump over in defeat. It was all so humiliating--not just my rigid, freakish riding style or my near collision with the ground, but also my crazy, emotional reaction after the fact. This wasn’t me. I was a strong, confident woman, for Lord’s sake; I don’t slump on the ground in the middle of a pasture and cry. What was I doing in a pasture, anyway? Knowing my luck, I was probably sitting on a pile of manure. But I couldn’t even walk anymore; my knees were even trembling by now, and I’d lost all feeling in my fingertips. My heart pounded in my cheeks.
If Marlboro Man had any sense, he would have taken the horses and gotten the hell out of there, leaving me, the hysterical female, sobbing on the ground by myself. She’s obviously in the throes of some hormonal fit, he probably thought. There’s nothing you can say to her when she gets like this. I don’t have time for this crap. She’s just gonna have to learn to deal with it if she’s going to marry me.
But he didn’t get the hell out of there. He didn’t leave me sobbing on the ground by myself. Instead he joined me on the grass, sitting beside me and putting his hand on my leg, reassuring me that this kind of thing happens, and there wasn’t anything I did wrong, even though he was probably lying.
“Now, did you really mean that about not wanting to do this the rest of your life?” he asked. That familiar, playful grin appeared in the corner of his mouth.
I blinked a couple of times and took a deep breath, smiling back at him and reassuring him with my eyes that no, I hadn’t meant it, but I did hate his horse. Then I took a deep breath, stood up, and dusted off my Anne Klein straight-leg jeans.
“Hey, we don’t have to do this now,” Marlboro Man said, standing back up. “I’ll just do it later.”
“No, I’m fine,” I answered, walking back toward my horse with newfound resolve.
”
”
Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels)
“
School Library Journal
Gr 3–6—This interactive manual is fun to read and even more fun to put into practice. From hopscotch to dodge ball, jacks to solitaire, and string games to memory games, all types of activities are included. Games to play with a ball, with cards, in a car on the go, alone, or in a group are all here to be enjoyed. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. There are also historical and factual asides for many of the entries. Some include variations on the main game or alternate names for the activity that have been used through the years. The illustrations depict children demonstrating a particular aspect of a game or just enjoying themselves playing. This is a great resource for parents and teachers, as well as for children.—Cynde Suite, Bartow County Library System, Adairsville, GA
”
”
J.J. Ferrer (The Art of Stone Skipping and Other Fun Old-Time Games: Stoopball, Jacks, String Games, Coin Flipping, Line Baseball, Jump Rope, and More)
“
Without ever deciding to, Collin moved his legs. He crossed the bustling downtown street, just aware enough of the cars, buses, and bicycles zipping by to dodge them. But his eyes remained on the man who looked like him, who checked his watch No, that's my watch, he reminded himself-and then picked up his pace, apparently realizing he was about to be late for work. Late for
”
”
Robin Parrish (Relentless (Dominion, #1))
“
The fedayeen attack that had been planned on the army camp was aborted at the last moment by none other than the fedayeen themselves. They took this decision because Abid Ahmed alias Abid Suzuki, the driver of the Maruti Suzuki they were in, was driving really badly. The little car veered sharply to the left, then sharply to the right, as though it was dodging something. But the road was empty and there was nothing to dodge. When Abid Suzuki's companions (none of whom knew how to drive) asked him what the matter was, he said it was the houris who had come to take them all to heaven. They were naked and dancing on the bonnet, distracting him.
There's no way to ascertain whether the naked houris were virgins or not.
But Abid Suzuki certainly was one.
”
”
Arundhati Roy (The Ministry of Utmost Happiness)
“
oaks, the forest opened up and we flew in an oval pattern around the scene. The grille of a blue Mustang was nosed up against an earthen barrier, the vehicle’s doors open. Two bodies, both male, were sprawled nearby in the grass. Between the long drying sheds, three gray, refrigerated semitrailers were lined nose to tail like elephants on parade. The truck windows and windshields were shot through and spiderwebbed. Behind the last semi was a black Dodge Viper with two dead men in the front seat. The pilot landed out by the highway, where a perimeter had been established. After checking in with the Virginia State Police lieutenant and the county sheriff, we went to the crime scene on foot. It was hot. Insects buzzed and drummed in the forest around the tobacco facility. Truck engines idling swallowed the sound of blowflies gathering around the Viper. “They’ve swept their way out again,” Mahoney said when we were ten yards from the Dodge. I looked at the glistening dirt road between the Viper and us. I saw faint grooves in the moist dirt and said, “Or raked.” The door to the muscle car was ajar. The window was down. The driver had taken a slug through the back of the skull, left occipital. Blood spattered the windshield and almost covered two bullet holes, one exiting, and one entering. The passenger in the Viper had been rocked back, his left eye a bloody socket and a spray of carnage behind him.
”
”
James Patterson (Cross the Line (Alex Cross, #24))
“
I open my car door and start to slide in, but I start to think that Bob might want my phone number in case something changes before Saturday. I jot it down really quickly on the back of a receipt and go to give it to him. I hear one of the men he’s with as I walk closer. “Who was that on your bike?” He laughs sharply. It’s not like the laughter I heard from him today at all. “Just a girl.” Just a girl? A girl I have a date with on Saturday, or my name would have been better. But apparently, I am just a girl. “She got a name?” one of them asks. “I never can remember their names,” he says. “Too many of them.” He laughs sharply again and lights a cigarette. “That one is no different from the rest. Just something to do.” My heart sinks all the way down to my toes. I crumple my phone number up and drop it to the ground. At least I won’t have to get dressed up on Saturday. Maybe I just dodged a bullet.
”
”
Tammy Falkner (Yes You (The Reed Brothers #9.5))
“
Uh-huh. I’m a very smart guy. I haven’t a feeling or a scruple in the world. All I have the itch for is money. I am so money greedy that for twenty-five bucks a day and expenses, mostly gasoline and whiskey, I do my thinking myself, what there is of it; I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops and of Eddie Mars and his pals, I dodge bullets and eat saps, and say thank you very much, if you have any more trouble, I hope you’ll think of me, I’ll just leave one of my cards in case anything comes up. I do all this for twenty-five bucks a day—and maybe just a little to protect what little pride a broken and sick old man has left in his blood, in the thought that his blood is not poison, and that although his two little girls are a trifle wild, as many nice girls are these days, they are not perverts or killers. And that makes me a son of a bitch. All right. I don’t care anything about that. I’ve been called that by people of all sizes and shapes, including your little sister. She called me worse than that for not getting into bed with her. I got five hundred dollars from your father, which I didn’t ask for, but he can afford to give it to me. I can get another thousand for finding Mr. Rusty Regan, if I could find him. Now you offer me fifteen grand. That makes me a big shot. With fifteen grand I could own a home and a new car and four suits of clothes. I might even take a vacation without worrying about losing a case. That’s fine. What are you offering it to me for? Can I go on being a son of a bitch, or do I have to become a gentleman, like that lush that passed out in his car the other night?
”
”
Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1))
“
The Night Bomber by Stewart Stafford
Stefan and Elyse came home by rote,
To find a stranger's chilling note,
"I’m going to kill you" scrawled in red,
Pranks locked out with nothing said.
Then the hall window smashed,
In a firework’s screaming flash,
They threw it out before it burned,
Danger had not passed, they learned.
A ticking device left behind,
Elyse kicked it away just in time,
A garden explosion's massive bang,
Their ears and windows loudly rang.
They wondered what psycho did this deed,
And how they'd crossed this evil breed,
Then they heard them bomb their neighbours
who thought Stefan and Elyse were perpetrators.
Then another blast three doors down,
Stefan ran to help with a worried frown,
Concerned to see who else got hit,
Seeing their attacker was still at it.
A bomber in a ski mask did a backflip,
To dodge their lunging, angry grip,
He swung on ropes and vaulted high,
An acrobat mocking with a stylish eye.
The bomber fled in his getaway car,
A neighbour leapt on before he got far,
He held on tight but got dragged along,
Rolled to the kerb, he couldn't hold on.
The Night Bomber of Sheila’s Cabin
On the loose, an explosive phantom,
Stalking without any reason or pity,
His laughter echoed across the city.
© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.
”
”
Stewart Stafford
“
Our driver bumped the cars in front and behind us to make space, then we crossed on to the other side in our big 4x4 and started driving the wrong way up the motorway, dodging cars coming at us. I thought back to it afterwards and decided it had felt worryingly normal. I realised I’d been munching on a flapjack and Craig had been texting. I wondered if we were becoming just slightly too immune to risk.
”
”
Simon Reeve (Journeys to Impossible Places: By the presenter of BBC TV's WILDERNESS)
“
Dodging across the alley, covered by the blackness, the three men maneuvered to the front of the next hut. The air was still, soundless. It was so quiet that Tommy thought that every infinitesimal noise they made was magnified, trumpet like, a klaxon noise of alarm. To move silently in a world absent all external noises is very difficult. There were no nearby city sounds of cars and buses or even the deep whomp-whomp-whomp of a distant bombing raid. Not even the joking voices of the goons in the towers or a bark from a Hundführer's dog creased the night to distract or help conceal every footstep they made. For a moment, he wished the British would break into some rowdy song over in the northern compound. Anything to cover over the top of the modest noises they made.
”
”
John Katzenbach (Hart's War)
“
Aucune drogue n'est plus puissante que le réel, m'avait dit un jour John Seasons, car le réel, malgré notre obstination arrogante, terrifiée et pleine d'espoir, n'a pas besoin de nos perceptions, tout juste de notre présence impuissante.
”
”
Jim Dodge (Not Fade Away)
“
718 A vivid memory of mine is a 1979 viewing of a late night rerun of the ABC TV movie Hot Rod (a.k.a. Rebel of the Road). It’s the story of an outcast rodder, his struggles with a corrupt small-town police force, and an eventual drag strip showdown with an Olds 4-4-2 sponsored by the Munn’s Root Beer company. At the beginning of the flick, the hero drives a 1965 Coronet sedan, presumably an A990. After the cops force him off the road, totaling the Dodge, he swaps the Hemi into a 1941 Willys. You probably remember the movie now. But has anyone noticed that he steals a replacement Hemi out of an AMC Matador cop car? I sure did! It stands as yet another tribute to the mythical legacy of Hemi-powered cop cars on TV and in the movies.
”
”
Steve Magnante (Steve Magnante's 1001 Muscle Car Facts (Cartech))
“
If Jack had followed him instead of trying to reclaim his car, he would undoubtedly have voiced his disappointment that they were not yet shooting laser cannons. Frankly, Richard thought dodging the police’s bullets would be problematic enough.
”
”
Alexander Ferrick (HACK3R)
“
That tank," Bucktooth pointed at the gas gauge on the dashboard of the decidedly unfredneck-like '65 Dodge Dart, "is almost empty. We ain't going much farther."
"Indeed it is." A solemn Phosphate agreed. "I suggest we stop the car and weigh our options."
"What options?" Professor Buckley asked. "Why do-that is- we've been traveling up and down this path for over an hour without seeing anyone or encountering anything. Even the doughnut shop cannot be relocated. In light of this, what options do we have?"
It was difficult to argue with the ex-history teacher's typically alarmist position. Brisbane's reliable old automobile had indeed been expending its remaining fuel supply in what seemed to be a hopeless effort to exit the unnamed dirt path. After leaving the doughnut shop and the blonde presidential descendant who worked there, they'd been unable to find DeMohrenschildt Lane again, or any other side street.
”
”
Donald Jeffries (The Unreals)
“
Now let’s get your shit in the car and get the hell out of Dodge so we can get Scott Aberdeen to Witchy-Woo-Woo Camp so he can run around naked through the woods letting his dingle dangle!
”
”
B.G. Thomas (Summer Lover (Seasons of Love, #2))
“
IT'S THAT MOON AGAIN, SLUNG SO FAT AND LOW IN THE tropical night, calling out across a curdled sky and into the quivering ears of that dear old voice in the shadows, the Dark Passenger, nestled snug in the backseat of the Dodge K-car of Dexter's hypothetical soul.
”
”
Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
“
IT'S THAT MOON AGAIN, SLUNG SO FAT AND LOW IN THE tropical night, calling out across a curdled sky and into the quivering ears of that dear old voice in the shadows, the Dark Passenger, nestled snug in the backseat of the Dodge K-car of Dexter's hypothetical soul. That rascal moon, that loudmouthed leering Lucifer, calling down across the empty sky to the dark hearts of the night monsters below, calling them away to their joyful playgrounds.
”
”
Jeff Lindsay (Dearly Devoted Dexter (Dexter, #2))
“
The unmarked black V8 Dodge Charger roared down the ramp and onto the Lake Washington Floating Bridge. Theirs was not the standard vehicle assignment for Seattle Police detectives, but David happened to be at the right place at the right time to propose a six-month test period for the Charger within the Seattle’s Homicide Unit. They worked well for Traffic, and it was decided they might fill a need for Homicide as well. Red and blue strobes flashed their warning from behind the Charger’s front grill as well as the car’s rear window well.
”
”
Karl Erickson (The Blood Cries Out)
“
The line went dead as I checked the mirror. The blue Dodge was back, but didn’t stay long. It appeared twice more, never closer than three or four cars, and I never picked out the cars that replaced it. I wouldn’t have known the Dodge was following me if they hadn’t jumped the red. Jumping the red had cost them. I passed UCLA and the National Cemetery in Westwood, and reached Brentwood when Pike texted. HERE Pike, saying he was ready. 12OUT Me, saying I was twelve minutes away. Kenter Canyon was a narrow box canyon in the foothills of Brentwood above Sunset. The canyon was dense with upscale homes, but higher, beyond the houses, the hills were undeveloped, and thick with scrub oak and brush. Unpaved roads and trails had been cut for fire crews, and were open to hikers and runners. Pike and I ran the trails often, and knew the canyon well. A single, innocuous residential street led into the canyon, and appeared to be the only way to enter or leave. Smaller streets branched and re-branched from this larger street as it wound its way higher, but the smaller streets appeared trapped in the canyon. This wasn’t true, but the convoluted route using these smaller back streets wasn’t easily found. Pike and I knew this way, and another, but I was betting the tail cops behind me didn’t, and wouldn’t, until I was already gone. I
”
”
Robert Crais (The Promise (Elvis Cole, #16; Joe Pike, #5; Scott James & Maggie, #2))
“
San Francisco is still the loveliest city in the world for my money, despite how they've tried to ruin her. Yeah, it attracts all the weirdos, and some of them aren't harmless like they used to be in days gone by, but for the most part the people are lovely and easygoing, and there is a romanticism that exists in San Francisco that you can genuinely feel as you walk around. The wonderful things about her still remain; the wharf and fabled Pier 39; the little cable cars climbing upward toward the stars; the Painted Ladies of Victorian Row; the thousand or so acres of Golden Gate Park; and the up-and-down streets where Steve McQueen once hopped in his '68 Mustang and chased the bad guys in their '68 Dodge Charger. Tony Bennett left his heart here for good reason.
”
”
Bobby Underwood (Gypsy Summer)
“
Another unusual detail is that Cuauhtémoc’s pose was imitated by the exceptional soccer forward, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, who for about twenty years (1992–2012) was the supreme virtuoso of Mexican soccer. Born in the Tlatilco neighborhood, Blanco dashed about the playing field with the sassiness of someone who came from a place where soccer was played dodging cars from which players often stole rearview mirrors. He regularly copied the pose of his Aztec namesake until the prim authorities asked him not to disrespect a symbol of the nation. But
”
”
Juan Villoro (Horizontal Vertigo: A City Called Mexico)
“
Fast cars and the roar of a beer-drinking crowd. A whirlwind of excitement for a sixteen-year-old girl.” She sucks in a sharp inhale, her hand tapping against her quivering lips. “My heart and innocence packed into a Dodge Viper, painted in a shimmery adrenaline-red with wide black stripes, racing for another win.” She refills her glass from the wine bottle, the crimson liquid sloshing up the sides of the goblet. “And exploding into flames before the finish line.
”
”
Brandy Hynes (Carving Graves (KORT, #2))
“
Dodge Caravan three weeks ago, out in Pittsfield.’ Pittsfield, she thought, right across the state border from Albany. Where a woman vanished just last month. She stood with the receiver pressed to her ear, her pulse starting to hammer. ‘Where’s that van now?’ ‘Our team sat tight and didn’t follow it. By the time they heard back about the plates, it was gone. It hasn’t come back.’ ‘Let’s change out that car and move it to a parallel street. Bring in a second team to watch the house. If the van comes by again, we can do a leapfrog tail. Two cars, taking turns.’ ‘Right, I’m headed over there now.’ She hung up. Turned to look into the interview room where Charles Cassell was still sitting at the table, his head bowed. Is that love or obsession I’m looking at? she wondered. Sometimes, you couldn’t tell the difference. Twenty-eight DAYLIGHT WAS FADING when Rizzoli cruised up Dedham Parkway. She spotted Frost’s car and pulled up behind him. Climbed out of her car and slid into his passenger seat. ‘And?’ she said. ‘What’s going on?’ ‘Not a damn thing.’ ‘Shit. It’s been over an hour. Did we scare him off?’ ‘There’s still a chance it wasn’t Lank.’ ‘White van, stolen plates from Pittsfield?’ ‘Well, it didn’t hang around. And it hasn’t been back.’ ‘When’s the last time Van Gates left the house?’ ‘He and the wife went grocery shopping around noon. They’ve been home ever since.’ ‘Let’s cruise by. I want to take a look.’ Frost drove past the house, moving slowly enough for her to get a good long gander at Tara-on-Sprague-Street. They passed the surveillance team, parked at the other end of the block, then turned the corner and pulled over. Rizzoli said: ‘Are you sure they’re home?’ ‘Team hasn’t seen either one of them leave since noon.’ ‘That house looked awfully dark to me.’ They sat there for a few minutes, as dusk deepened. As Rizzoli’s uneasiness grew. She’d seen no lights on. Were both husband and wife asleep? Had they slipped out without the surveillance team seeing them? What was that van doing in this neighborhood? She looked at Frost. ‘That’s it. I’m not going to wait any longer. Let’s pay a visit.’ Frost circled back to the house and parked. They rang the bell, knocked on the door. No one answered. Rizzoli stepped off the porch, backed up the walkway, and gazed up at the southern plantation facade with its priapic white columns. No lights were on upstairs, either. The van, she thought. It was here for a reason. Frost said, ‘What do you think?’ Rizzoli could feel her heart starting to punch, could feel prickles of unease. She cocked her head, and Frost got the message: We’re going around back. She circled to the side yard and swung open a gate. Saw just a narrow brick walkway, abutted by a fence. No room for a garden, and barely room for the two trash cans sitting there. She stepped through the gate. They had no warrant, but something was wrong here, something that was making her hands tingle, the same hands that had been scarred by Warren Hoyt’s blade. A monster leaves his mark on your flesh, on your instincts. Forever after, you can feel it when another one passes by. With Frost right behind her, she moved past dark windows and a central air-conditioning unit that blew warm air against her chilled flesh. Quiet, quiet. They were trespassing now, but all she wanted was a peek in the windows, a look in the back door. She rounded the corner and found a small backyard, enclosed by a fence. The rear gate was open. She crossed the yard to that gate and looked into the alley beyond it. No one there. She started toward the house and was almost at the back door when she noticed it was ajar. She and Frost exchanged a look. Both their weapons came out. It had happened so quickly, so automatically, that she did not even remember having drawn hers. Frost gave the back door a push, and it swung
”
”
Tess Gerritsen (Body Double (Jane Rizzoli & Maura Isles, #4))
“
I’m coming,’ Henry called. He soon appeared from behind the Dodge, walking a bicycle. The frame was painted red and the wheels, which didn’t quite match in size, had been scrubbed and oiled. The handlebar grips, made out of strips of leather from an old car seat, had been crafted by Henry himself. The basket on the handlebars barely resembled the wicker cray pot it had originally been; an item that had somehow travelled far from the sea to the junkyard. Henry brought the bicycle to a halt in front of Sissy.
”
”
Tony Birch (The White Girl)
“
Paz smiled, and answered the way Hero would learn she always answered: rather than lying, or even dodging the question, she preferred to speak the supposedly shameful truth as if it were something to be proud of. Of course not, she said, her voice sweet and direct. We're too poor to have anything like a car.
She made it sound like it was desirable not to have a car, ridiculous to even want one. Hero had been impressed, not least of all because even she'd gotten in the habit of leaving a room whenever Tita Ticay entered it, terrified of her venomous tongue, her keen eyes, the ease with which she spotted weakness, and the please with which she toyed with it.
”
”
Elaine Castillo (America Is Not the Heart)
“
Rotaries are known as roundabouts here. This is where you are most likely to be T-boned and sideswiped at the same time. In Mississippi you must exercise patience while the driver ahead of you studies the rotary, discarding various theories and adopting others, before lurching forward against the flow of traffic. Avoid at all costs using the rotary’s two-lane system to pass another car. That is what fucked up Dante. The person in the lane beside you is always in the wrong lane at the last second and will swerve into your door, and there you go. Never fuck with anybody in a Dodge Charger. They are all Mississippian Satanists, which is the great white shark of Satanists. Never vote for any politician who reads books about city management and road systems because if you vote for a politician who reads books somebody might, behind your back, insinuate that maybe you are homosexual. In fact, all decisions in life, especially what presidential-candidate bumper sticker you put on your car, should be based entirely on what better promotes your heterosexual prowess.
”
”
Lee Durkee (The Last Taxi Driver)
“
Elijah, which was a promise I wasn't sure I was going to be able to keep, judging by the way Elijah had looked nowhere but at Tori for the entire half an hour car ride to my grandparents' beach house. I only knew that Elijah had been watching Tori because the area my eyes could go to was minimal, thanks to the fact that I had to avoid looking toward the front of the car. I hadn't realized Ky would be coming along with us, but I guessed it made sense. With Ky and Tori there, there would probably be a whole lot of people trying to steer clear of others at the house. Although, I wasn't sure whether I was going to be dodging Ky or the other way around. Somewhere along the line, I'd lost track of who didn't want to see whom. "I'm surprised you lads were able to pry yourselves away from your girlfriends long enough to come to the beach for the night. Will they survive without you?" Tori's eyes were narrowed out the window as she said the words she was using as a weapon.
”
”
Julia Keanini (Crushing on My Brothers' Best Friend (Sweet Water High, #2))
“
Ever been arrested?" Bill leaned forward, his expression impossible to read.
Yes, actually. But it wasn't my fault. "No, sir!" Was it Sir? Lord? Lady? I shouldn't have done the accent! Fantastic!
He pulled out a small, black folder and an ink pad from the front pocket of his pants. "I'll just need your prints here and here, so we can do a background check. The questionnaire is pretty straight forward."
I had a sudden vision of getting found out and my escape including dodging bullets and trees, while narrowly making it through a crack in the shrubs, only to get hit by a car.
I started the slow process of inking my fingers and pressing them to the paper with Bill's help. They stuck, then came up. I was going to prison. That's where honesty got me! Prison!
”
”
Rachel Van Dyken (Dirty Exes (Liars, Inc., #1))
“
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”
”
Chicago Car Locksmith
“
What was it like before?” Sophia asked Enoch a few minutes later, after they had all got drinks at the drive-thru. The autopilot was back in effect and they were heading toward the relatively bright lights of Moab, still a couple of miles distant. She was thinking about the woman reading the book in the information center. About the whole idea of information centers. About information. “Depends on how far back you want to go,” Enoch pointed out. “Just saying that for everyone else in this car the post-Moab world is basically all we’ve ever known. Where people can’t even agree that this town exists.” “What was it like when people agreed on facts, you mean?” Enoch asked. He seemed a little amused by the question. Not in a condescending way. More charmed. “Yeah. Because they did, right? Walter Cronkite and all that?” Enoch pondered it for a bit. “I would say that the ability of people to agree on matters of fact not immediately visible—states of affairs removed from them in space and time—ramped up from a baseline of approximately zero to a pretty high level around the time of the scientific revolution and all that, and stayed there and became more globally distributed up through the Cronkite era, and then dropped to zero incredibly quickly when the Internet came along. And I think that the main thing it conferred on people was social mobility, so that if you were a smart kid growing up on a farm in Kansas or a slum in India you had a chance to do something interesting with your life. Before it—before that three-hundred-year run when there was a way for people to agree on facts—we had kings and warlords and rigid social hierarchy. During it, a lot of brainpower got unlocked and things got a lot better materially. A lot better. Now we’re back in a situation where the people who have the power and the money can get what they want by dictating what the mass of people ought to believe.
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Fall; or, Dodge in Hell)
“
I had a fast thought of I am just going to be posted here spread eagle for some poor person to find me. Surely, after, I am roadkill; yes, I felt as if I was going to be his canvas for his twisted artwork! I was running for my life barefoot. I could feel the stones cut me up as I was trying to outrun his car over and over, he was teasing me by speeding up and slowing down for miles, it was a sick game to him! Just flat-out terrifying to me! I even tried running into a wheat field, and he chased me with his car until I was trapped, and I got pinned up against a barbwire fence and he then floored it, and the wires ripped into my back and my butt, and legs.
Oh, how it was a wonder I was not cut completely in half, or decapitated! I do not know why he stopped, he could have killed me then and there, no he wanted me to feel more pain. Oh, what he called his love! I ran! I dashed! I jogged! I sprinted until I could not run anymore and he was behind the wheel laughing his head off at me falling tripping to the concrete, and gravel, and then I had to get back up and run some more. He would run that reddish-orange Dodge Challenger with the black racing stripes; bumper right up on me until it touched my nude petite butt, as I was running, and I know there was nowhere to run but forwards down the road, all day until late evening and the nightfall. Besides, after I collapsed from exhaustion, he would scoop me up and throw me back into the car, and get his way once more, and I would be too tired to fight him off me.
”
”
Marcel Ray Duriez (Nevaeh Struggle with Affections)
“
Rule #6: Force Leftists to Answer Questions. This is really just a corollary of Rule #4. Leftists are only comfortable when they are forcing you to answer questions. If they have to answer questions, they begin to scratch their heads. The questions they prefer to ask are about your character; the questions they prefer not to answer are all of them. Instead, they like to dodge issues in favor of those character arguments. If you force a leftist to answer whether he or she would prefer to give up mom or dad in the name of political correctness – after all, all families are equal, so what difference does it make? – they will avoid. If you force a leftist to answer whether they would force churches to perform same-sex marriages, they will avoid. If you force a leftist to answer why we should all give up our nice cars while the Chinese and Russians continue to dump toxic waste into the atmosphere, they will avoid.
”
”
Ben Shapiro (How to Debate Leftists and Destroy Them: 11 Rules for Winning the Argument)
“
Everything felt awkward. There was a sense of being on a perfectly good road in a perfectly sound car that was, however, veering into a ditch.
”
”
Neal Stephenson (Fall; or, Dodge in Hell)
“
Charlestown’s most characteristic pastime had long been the reckless sport of “looping.” The young “looper” played by a rigid set of rules. First, he stole a car in downtown Boston. Then he roared into Charlestown, accelerating as he reached City Square, where the District 15 police station stood in a welter of bars, nightclubs, and pool halls. Often he had to take a turn around the square before the first policeman dashed for his patrol car or motorcycle. Then the chase was on: down Chelsea Street to Hayes Square, up the long slope of Bunker Hill Street to St. Francis de Sales’ Church at the crest, then down again, picking up speed, often to 70 or 80 miles per hour, until a screeching left into Sullivan Square took him onto Main Street, where, dodging the stanchions of the El, he roared into City Square again, completing the “loop.” All that remained was to ditch the car before the police caught up. Looping was an initiation rite, proof that a Townie had come of age. But it was something else as well: a challenge flung at authority, a middle finger raised to the powers that be. Before long, looping became a kind of civic spectacle, pitting the Town’s young heroes against the forces of law and order. Plans for a loop circulated well in advance. At the appointed hour, hundreds of men, women, and children gathered along Bunker Hill Street, awaiting the gladiators. When the stolen car came in sight, racing up the long hill, a cheer would rise from the spectators, followed by jeers for the pursuing policemen. The first recorded “loop” was performed in 1925 by a sixteen-year-old daredevil named Jimmy “Speed King” Murphy, but most renowned of all was “Shiner” Sheehan, the teenage son of a federal alcohol agent, whose exploits so electrified the Town that he drew round him a group of young acolytes. Membership in their “Speeders Club” was limited to those who could produce newspaper clippings showing they had bested the police.
”
”
J. Anthony Lukas (Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families (Pulitzer Prize Winner))
“
Ducks and Skunks A baby duck and a baby skunk raced across the highway, dodging cars and narrowly escaping death. Their families, however, were all killed by a truck barreling down the highway. Upon reaching the other side, the little duck tells the baby skunk, "My parents both died and didn't tell me what I am."
"Well," says the baby skunk, "You are yellow and you have a bill and webbed feet. You must be a duck."
The duck thanked him.
The baby skunk then tells the duck, "My parents didn't tell me what I am, either."
"Well," says the baby duck, "You're not quite black and you're not quite white and you smell bad. You must be Mexican.
”
”
mad comedy (World's Greatest Truly Offensive Jokes 2018 (World's Greatest Jokes Book 3))
“
Twenty-three seconds. In this fleeting stretch of time, you can sprint down a New York City block, weave through the moving mass of people, and feel the concrete pulse beneath your feet. If you’re standing still, you can down a few shots of tequila with a coworker at a local bar and feel the world spin a little faster. Maybe, if you’re bored, you can scroll through the meaningless social media posts of people you
never really liked, wondering if anyone else feels as alone as you do. You can text a meme to your friend and make him laugh about some stupid inside joke. You can read the first line of Dune. You can buy a bagel and a schmear from a food truck with no line. Or, you can call that shitty Chinese restaurant on West 17th Street to order an egg roll at midnight. In twenty-three seconds, you can also dodge an approaching subway car. But my dad didn’t.
”
”
F.F. Mormanni (Mind the Gap)