The patriotic theme comes through very strong, finding its most eloquent expression in the Batesville Casket Company's "Valley Forge," designed to reflect the tugged, strong, soldierlike qualities associated with that historic theme. "Its charm lies in the warm beauty of the natural grain and finish of the finest maple hardwoods. A casket designed indeed for a soldier—one that symbolizes the solid, dependable, courageous American ideals so bravely tested at Valley Forge." For all its soldierlike qualities, it looks most comfortable, with its nice beige pillow and sheets. On the wall behind it hangs a portrait of George Washington, who is looking, as usual, rather displeased.

—Jessica Mitford, The American Way of Death

Everyone else was inside the cabin making dinner while my friend Sam and I tended the fire in the gathering dusk. It was a cold July evening in the north. The kind of night when all my life's decisions seemed, in retrospect, to have been good ones.

—Claire Dederer, Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma

"He sits around in his room with the door locked and does lines and listens to this song by the Buffalo Springfield, over and over . . . you know that one? 'Something's happening here . . . what it is ain't exactly clear . . . .' It's weird. People get upset, all of a sudden they want to listen to old hippie garbage they would never listen to if they were in their right mind, when my cat died I had to go out and borrow all these Simon and Garfunkel records."

—Donna Tartt, The Secret History (ellipses in original)

 After they left, I lay on Francis's couch, smoking his cigarettes and drinking his Scotch, and watched "Jeopardy." One of the contestants was from San Gilberto, which is really close to where I grew up, only five or six miles away. All those suburbs tend to run into one another out there, so you can't always tell where one ends and the next begins.

After that came a made-for-television movie. It was about the threat of the earth colliding with another planet and how all the scientists in the world united to avert the catastrophe. A hack astronomer, who is constantly on talk shows and whose name you would probably recognize, played himself in a cameo role.

For some reason, I felt uneasy about watching the news alone when it came on at eleven, so I turned to PBS and watched something called "History of Metallurgy." It was actually quite interesting, but I was tired and a bit drunk, and I fell asleep before it ended.

—Donna Tartt, The Secret History