Pratchett of the (I found a good one and felt like writing it)

     Agnes hadn't seen a mob like this before. Mobs, in her limited experience, were noisy.  This one was silent. Most of the town was in on it, and to Agnes' surprise, they'd brought along many of the children.
     It didn't surprise Perdita. They're going to kill the vampires, she said, and the children will watch.
     Good, thought Agnes, that's exactly right.
     Perdita  was horrified. It'll give them nightmares!
     No, thought Agnes, it'll take the nightmares away.  Sometimes, everyone has to know that the monsters are dead, and remember, so they can tell their grandchildren.

- Carpe Jugulum, p 319, when the villagers of Escrow have risen up against the Magpyrs, and are quietly making their way to Don'tgonearthe Castle. Pretty close to the end, but kind of the beginning of the end, when the story is all laid out, and we get down to the bit where we find out if the story has a happy ending or not, or sometimes both.

To Beat the Devil

Kris Kristofferson wrote a song.

Yeah, I know, Kris Kristofferson wrote a LOT of songs, and lots of other people sang them too.

But this is a song called, 'To Beat the Devil', and we should all listen to it for a little while.



Senate Bill 941 is progressing in the Oregon Senate, and many of us are writing our legislators, and our local governments, to try to stem the tide, while outside money floods in to the coffers of our opponents.  It's easy to feel like a thing is inevitable, and that we can't win, and it's easy to want to give up.  When all you get is silence when you try to talk to your public servants, its easy to just walk on and forget it.  And THAT, that feeling right there, THAT'S the devil that Kris sings about.  The little voice inside that says 'you aren't making a difference'.

The very richest people keep getting richer, and the very poorest keep getting bought.  The Left and Right just lie and steal and cheat, and it feels like the whole damn place is going straight to pot.

The best we can do it keep singin'.  Keep singin', because somewhere, someone DOES want to hear.  And if we all keep trying, sooner or later, we can beat the devil.

At the very least, we can drink his beer for nothing.

Pratchett of the (Unsuitably long time period)

One of the things he might see, perhaps, was the face of Two Fire Herb.  This was not a nice face. It was podgy and had tiny little pupils in its eyes, and looked like a living example of the fact that although people could be oppressed by kings and emperors and mandarins, the job could often be done just as well by the man next door.

- Interesting Times, p 154, when he's with the Red Army in HungHung, and he can't help but notice that Lotus Blossom has the sort of a face that makes a man think of potatoes.