J. Perelman
J. Perelman
controlled degraded dreary enormous ethical industrial pack taste town
A dreary industrial town controlled by hoodlums of enormous wealth, the ethical sense of a pack of jackals and taste so degraded that it befouled everything it touched.
eyes favorite flew pencils salad wallet
Their the waiters' eyes sparkled and their pencils flew as she proceeded to eviscerate my wallet - p%tZ, Whitstable oysters, a sole, filet mignon, and a favorite salad of the Nizam of Hyderabad made of shredded five-pound notes.
privilege dubious given
The dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he’s given the freedom to starve anywhere.
music symphony quartets
I tried to resist his overtures, but he plied me with symphonies, quartets, chamber music, and cantatas.
running apples feet
I have no truck with lettuce, cabbage, and similar chlorophyll. Any dietitian will tell you that a running foot of apple strudel contains four times the vitamins of a bushel of beans.
country widows-and-orphans entrepreneur
Where would the Rockefellers be today if old John D. had gone on selling short-weight kerosene ... to widows and orphans instead of wisely deciding to mulct the whole country.
obligation
The main obligation is to amuse yourself.
kindness too-much found
English life, while very pleasant, is rather bland. I expected kindness and gentility and I found it, but there is such a thing as too much couth.
cities wife fool
A farm is an irregular patch of nettles bounded by short-term notes, containing a fool and his wife who didn’t know enough to stay in the city.
personality facts
The fact is that all of us have only one personality, and we wring it out like a dishtowel. You are what you are.
boys ears body
Nature, it appears, has been rather more bountiful to Paul's body and purse than to his intellect; above the ears, speaking bluntly, the boy is strictly tapioca.
years twelve ponies
As for consulting a dentist regularly, my punctuality practically amounted to a fetish. Every twelve years I would drop whatever I was doing and allow wild Caucasian ponies to drag me to a reputable orthodontist.
pale-yellow oil house
A basic ingredient in the manufacture of perfume, the attar-a heavy, pale-yellow oil stored in small metal drums-had been put up as collateral by Bulgaria, in lieu of gold, at the Moscow Narodny Bank, a Communist finance house for East-West trade.
brother scotch sides
I'm half Scotch-Irish on both sides, and when I lose my temper-brother, I go.