Quotes

Quote 322 of 521

[A]nyone depressed over his weight became a "gentle giant" and every
binge drinker was the life of the party.  ... As the Portraits
accumulated over weeks and months, I began performing mental
translations, from a sugary base 8 to a real-life base 10. The
fifty-four-year-old vegetarian office temp, a bachelor with "strong
opinions" who preferred "short-term jobs," was, I would bet, an
absolutely impossible man; but I would prefer to have known him rather
than the bland reincarnation forced to share a page with the other
murdered souls under headings like "The Joys of Fatherhood" and
"Perpetual Motion." If Rudolph W. Giuliani had perished in the
attacks, as he nearly did, he would be remembered in the Portraits as
a rabid Yankees fan who sometimes liked to put on lipstick.

Thomas Mallon, "The Mourning Paper," <cite>The
		   American Prospect</cite>, Spring 2002, cited in "The
		   Bravery of Thomas Mallon," by Timothy Noah
		   http://slate.msn.com/id/2067338/

Tags: rudolphwgiuliani bingedrinker yankeesfan impossibleman officetemp nyone perpetualmotion strongopinions reincarnation lipstick headings portraits bachelor translations jobs