“Incapable of conjuring up any facial expression that she did not learn from watching television, Jessica Alba plays a brilliant scientist who inadvertently acquires the ability to make herself invisible. This is not a gift Alba seems particularly comfortable with, as the last thing she needs is to be heard but not seen.” NeedsPlaySeemsLastsAbilityHeardTelevisionExpressionComfortableScientistBrilliantInvisibleAcquireIncapableFacialJessicaConjuringWatching TelevisionFacial Expression Author:Joe Queenan
“A friend once told me that the real message Bram Stoker sought to convey in 'Dracula' is that a human being needs to live hundreds and hundreds of years to get all his reading done; that Count Dracula, basically nothing more than a misunderstood bookworm, was draining blood from the necks of 10,000 hapless virgins not because he was the apotheosis of pure evil but because it was the only way he could live long enough to polish off his extensive reading list. But I have no way of knowing if this is true, as I have not yet found time to read 'Dracula.” IfsWayNeedsYearsHumansLongRealDoneEnoughEvilReadingFoundHuman BeingsKnowingBloodPureMessagesListsNecksVirginsMisunderstoodPolishDrainingBookwormsApotheosisPure EvilStokerCount DraculaExtensive Reading Author:Joe Queenan
“People who need to possess the physical copy of a book, and not merely an electronic version, are in some sense mysteics. We believe that the objects themselves are sacred, not just the stories they tell. We believe that books possess the power to transubstantiate, to turn darkness into light, to make being out of nothingness.” PeopleNeedsBelieveBookStoriesLightTurnsDarknessObjectsSacredVersionsCopiesNothingness Author:Joe Queenan
“Books did not need to be beautiful back in the Fifties, because nothing else was beautiful back then. Books were simply there: you read them because they were diverting or illuminating or in some way useful but not because the books themselves were aesthetically appealing.” WayNeedsBookBeautifulIlluminating Author:Joe Queenan