Getting people to think about the future is difficult. Just ask some of the people who end up being most concerned about sprawl—the millions who move into suburban subdivisions, only to have their dreams of the good life spoiled by maddening traffic and water bans, because millions more moved into the next subdivision over.

For example we have words like ofay, pink, fade, space, Mr. Charlie, cracker, peckawood, hoojah, and so on—nice words and bitter.]

I managed to purchase a square-cut early sixties coat in a fabric we used to call poodle cloth for the price of a kebab and chips on The Smoke.

When, in 1841, a shipwrecked Frenchman noticed that Androsian sponges were of higher quality than those found in the Greek isles, the Androsian sponge industry took off.