“If I don’t spend the next three days and nights preparing everything from scratch, how will we all enjoy the seven to 10 minutes it takes for us to wolf down our meal?”

“I had been looking forward to setting aside my dignity and personal safety just to save a few bucks.”

“Slowly, it half-raised one unnaturally long arm, and I noticed that its black sleeve hung down in tatters, like the robe of a visitor from the dead.”

“I plugged in the clippers, cinched a towel around Mark’s neck until he made a slight gurgling noise, and made my first pass, just behind his left ear…”

“The one-day trial played out a lot like you see on TV—just more boring.”

“What says love more than doing what your wife wants—especially when it means so much to her sense of cultural identity?“