But Joseph’s mobile phone seemed permanently off, and we soon learned that he had been caught by the police with a trunkload of whiskey.

If life were nothing but what gets phrased and substanced, the world might as well be rolled up and laid away again in darkness.

The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudo-science and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

a soil that is highly retentive of rainwater