Two Quotes

I finished A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse yesterday. It certainly is lovely to read something funny and sweet, even if it IS a romantic comedy. I thought I'd share a few lines with you that mixes the funny with the bittersweet:

"Hullo-ullo-ullo-ullo-ullo-ullo-ul-Lo! Topping morning isn't it!" observed Reggie. "The sunshine! The birds! The absolute what-do-you-call-it of everything and so forth, and all that sort of thing, if you know what I mean! I feel like a two-year-old!"
George, who felt older than this by some ninety-eight years, groaned in spirit. This was more than man was meant to bear.

But I guess that reads better in context. It really is funny when you can hear Reggie's infernal chirping as the foil of George's gloominess in your head. You kinda have to know why Reggie is so ebullient (just asked the girl he loves to marry him) and why George is so depressed (just found out the girl he loves is in love with someone else). I tried to include some part of the quote from before this piece, or after, but each time I tried, I wanted to include more of it. Just read the darn book, people. I know that except for the happy ending (hope I'm not spoiling it!), it's one I identify with and I find speaks volumes about life and how sometimes, even though crappy stuff happens, you don't have to lose your sense of humor or your impulse to do what's right.

How about another quote, this one from the Numb3rs finale. I liked the wedding homily so much, I saved the recording so I could transcribe it. It's read by Peter MacNicol, who will always be Peter MacNicol for me (except when he's Janosz in Ghostbusters II).

Peter MacNichol: At the request of the bride and groom, I'll keep my remarks short and non-technical.
As you all know, the four fundamental forces in physics: electro-magnetism, strong nuclear interaction, weak nuclear interaction, and gravity.
FBI Dude (ironically played by an actor who has an engineering degree from MIT): So I wonder what the technical version sounds like.
Peter MacNichol: I heard that.
We've been talking here about the forces that bind the universe. But what binds humans? Love. Powerful in small spaces, yet with profound effect on distance. Love defies time, outliving both its source and its object. Love is faster than light, for light requires time in order to travel through space, but love reaches its object instantaneously. Love journeys forever, into infinity, and it's here binding together two lives.

The wedding setting here was less of a significant point to me than an excuse for them to say something very interesting about the physics of love. This statement focuses on the love between humans because it's at a wedding, but I think this love can be felt to and from other things/entities. I know the love I feel for Nature, for my Boys, for my friends, and for my family are no less profound than the romantic love being spoken of in this wedding homily, but it's something I have to remind myself of all the time.