Gossip seems to manifest itself in its purest form in the coffee-klatsch. From everyday experience a coffee-klatsch is typically a circle of acquaintances who—either in a café or at home in a living room—gather for coffee and cake and unburdened by pressing obligations, turn their attention to one thing: the discussion of the flaws and actions of their absent acquaintances and endless talk about things that do not concern them.

(I find that he is analgesic and anaesthetic; evidently he is in a state of passive somnambulism.) E. A. Did you feel anybody touch you? K. No. There's no one near me. (He continues laughing and talking. […] )

The maze on the children's menu goes unwandered with the crayons the waitress brings in a cup. Instead you pummel me, your knuckles knocking against my ribs.

When the Republicans found out that Wilson's second bill was actually being credited to Al Blumenthal and Fred Ohrenstein, two Democrats the Republicans have a particular animosity toward, they, to put it mildly, threw a shit-fit.