The Right Word

Born helpless, nude and unable to provide for himself, Lore Sjöberg eventually overcame these handicaps to become a handyman, a handicapper and a handmaiden.

Johnny spun to face a bookcase of art criticism and wondered desperately if K came before or after N.  The alphabet, a pillar, a solace and a certainty since kindergarten, had suddenly deserted him.  He stood, bewildered and staring, as if he’d suffered a crisis of faith.  Does the alphabet exist?  If the alphabet exists, why is there so much suffering in the world?  The alphabet is dead.
—Cathleen Schine, The Love Letter

Huckleberry Finnegans Wake. A plucky lad and a runaway slave fall asleep
on a raft in the stream of consciousness.

Inherit the Wind in the Willows. A mole, a rat, and a toad are brought
to trial by weasels for daring to believe in evolution.

Moby-Dick-and-Jane. "Look, Ishmael! See Dick breach. Breach, Dick, breach!"

All animals are famous for 15 minutes,
but some are more famous than others.

—George Warhol, author of Animal Farm
and leader of pop art movement.

God gave a loaf to Mr. Scrooge,
But just a crumb to me.

—Emily Dickens, author of "Because I Could not
Stop for Death" and A Christmas Carol.

I live in fear of being called out on my inappropriate use of the majestic semicolon, that someone will notice it and realize that I do not even have a grade school-level education in punctuation and grammar. Sure, I may have nearly gone to the National Spelling Bee when I was 11, but I cannot form a proper sentence.

[ . . .]

In the end, however, I think I would prefer it if no one spoils the mystery for me. I will sleep more easily at night (The Guy Snoring Above Me notwithstanding) knowing that there is yet a little magic in the world, something I cannot explain.

The broken thought is finishing; the thought is done.

He could not handle the embrace; he would have cried and shaken.

The thing you search for is here; you search for spiraling punctuation.