What is Wealth?

The people of San Lorenzo had nothing but diseases, which they were at a loss to treat, or even name. 

By contrast, Johnson and McCabe had the glittering treasures of literacy, ambition, curiosity gall, irreverence, health, humour, and considerable information about the outside world."

from "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut

Why we pay 16.5% tax on shirts from Bangladesh and 0% on shirts from Colombia

Protecting U.S. trade means following an incredibly elaborate set of rules spelled out in a giant book that's more than 3,000 pages long. Michael Cone, a customs and international trade attorney in New York, calls it "the book of everything." Its official name is the “Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.”

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/12/06/247361423/the-giant-book-that-creates-and-destroys-entire-industries

"peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God"

from Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

"always an innovator, quick to form a resolution and quick to carry it out...they never hesitate...
and so they go on working away...seldom enjoying their possessions because they are always adding to them. In a word, they are by nature incapable of living a quiet life or allowing anyone else do to so."

An ancient emissary speaking of Athenians.
quoted in History of the World, a Mental Floss Publication by Erik Sass, Steve Weigard, et al.
Doesn't that sound like modern america?

We Speak a little Bantu Every Day

"Bantu derived languages are as complicated as hell"
History of the World, a Mental Floss Publication by Erik Sass, Steve Weigard, et al.

Nonetheless, English managed to pick up
banjo
bongo
jumbo
marimba
safari
samba
zombie

"as clear as creation day"
from Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill

An Over-Sized Monday

"an over-sized Monday"
from The Merry Mysogenist by Colin Cotterill