Have you ever seen Glenn Beck in operation? It is the most terrifying thing. It's so bad that you think he's going to announce in a minute that it's all a great con. He makes Sarah Palin look reasonable and steady.
From Bill Bryson
Des Moines is like your typical American city; it's just these concentric circles of malls, built outward from the city.
I always tell people there's only one trick to writing: You have to write something that people are willing to pay money to read. It doesn't have to be very good, necessarily, but somebody, somewhere, has got to be willing to pay money for it.
I'm not funny in person. I mean I'm really not. I'm one of those people who always screw up anecdotes.
Where I grew up, in Des Moines, Iowa, there is hardly any downtown economic activity now. Everybody shops in malls - you don't find a sense of community in malls.
One of the brilliant things about Britain is the way you've managed to save old things but to keep using them - that they've not just become museums the way they do in the United States.
I've never quite understood that feeling: that you arrive in a strange place, yet you want to have nothing but familiar experiences.
You don't need a science degree to understand about science. You just need to think about it.
Much as I resented having to grow up in Des Moines, it gave me a real appreciation for every place in the world that's not Des Moines.
I'm definitely an American, because I grew up here. But I've lived very happily in Britain.
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