It was a war of reason against barbarism, supposedly, with the issues at stake on such a high plane that most of our feverish fighters had no idea why they were fighting—other than that the enemy was a bunch of bastards.

“Bad chemicals and bad ideas were the Yin and Yang of madness.”

“He was talking about the sign that said 'THE COMPLICATED FUTILITY OF IGNORANCE.…”

“The waitress brought me another drink. She wanted to light my hurricane lamp ag…”

“This was a pretty girl, except she had legs like an Edwardian grand piano...”