unearths some literary gems.
***
[The necklace] couldn't have fallen off. Those massive, overlapping links had been clinched together for aeons to come by an old-time artisan who'd known whereof he clinched.
***
"He was in a highly aggravated state of profanity when I left him."
***
"A man doesn't go buying a new set of false whiskers every day in the week, does he?"
***
"Look at this." He pulled out a long drawer filled with beards and mustaches in every possible shade and design. "And this, and this, and this."
He seemed ready to go on slamming drawers and waving beards indefinitely, but Max conceded the point.
***
Max opened his eyes and smiled, causing his mustache to twist beguilingly though he hadn't intended it to.
***
An avocado plant some seven feet high had its pot mounted on roller skates and its branches festooned with strings of gilded peanuts.
***
