As a connoisseur of enigmatic titles . . . the Gouldian title that gives me most pleasure is a joint paper, Clams and brachiopods: Ships that pass in the night, in a learned journal.

It is tempting to dismiss spermism as a quaint curiosity in the history of ideas, on a par, say, with believing that the Earth is flat.

You can drink the coffee when it's cooled down.

They either starve, take up smuggling or invade the citronella circuit in a beat-up revival.