Scrap book

Once about 10 years ago I thought I might turn out to be a novelist. I kept a notebook of interesting turns of phrase, and when I was at work, I jotted little ideas and quotes on scraps of paper and then stuffed them into the notebook later. I recently came across this material (materiel?) and have decided to recycle it. For one thing, if I do suddenly decide to write a novel, I probably won't be incorporating ideas I thought were cool in 1995. Also I don't even remember the context of most of these notes--for example whether or not I made them up or cribbed them from other authors. But for the sake of my biographer, I'm transcribing a few of these precious notes (precious enough to squirrel away and take with me from place to place, year after year) before I rel[ega][oca]te them to the recycling bin.

• "You're all alone where there is no phone and I can't keep tabs on you." (Actually I think this is a lyric from "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" a la Glenn Miller.)
  
• "Perhaps in search of a candy to feed him during the act."
  
• "creak of metal pots; drinking H2O like vodka"
  
• "Mr. Henry kept staring at the edge of the mountains the way you play with your wedding ring."
  
• "A car with 4 dogs peering out between a thousand imprints of dirty noses"
  
• "People seem more upset when it rains from a clear sky."
  
• "My thesis grew, I could no longer afford a typist."
  
• "Judges pretending to be goats, badly"
  
• "I took everyone's childhood games and made a big deal out of them. And new rules."
  
• "The smell of Europe: Vespas, street corners, sun on concrete. The smell of dandelions: sixth grade, dust, blacktop. Within the hour. Related?"
  
• "She lived for 3 years on honey and sweet vermouth until her children put her in a rest home."
  
• "She was mulish, but not a horse's ass."
  
• "When I look up a word, I want a bigger word, not a smaller word."
  
• "I always had a little crush on Laertes."
  
• "This dream has the linings of a nightmare."
  
• "Sensualism can widen the blinders of materialism."
  
• "No weapons allowed in Holy City"