unearths some literary gems.
From Murder Gone Minoan, by Clyde B. Clason:
***
[PROFESSOR] NIELSEN: There is weighty evidence for believing that Knossos, the principal seat of Minoan civilization, fell circa 1400 B.C.
INVESTIGATOR BROWN: Then they're all dead?
NIELSEN: I believe so.
INVESTIGATOR BROWN: Then why bother about 'em?
NIELSEN: I have sometimes asked myself the same question.
***
"Why did you have the doodad carved on the panels of your, what-you-may-call-it?"
[That's the most *polite* whatchamacallit I've ever encountered. But I wonder if it is, in fact, an etymological ancestor of the latter.]
***
"Stay where you are!" Glendon shouted with wholehearted gusto. "Drop that grip! Put up your hands!"
The obedience average to the three commands was .000.
