Quote of the Day - 27 December 2006

This is a follow-up to the Christmas day quote - the Terry Pratchett take on the same question:

"Susan," said Twyla, from somewhere under the blankets.

"Yes?"

"You know last week we wrote letters to the Hogfather?"

"Yes?"

"Only . . . in the park Rachel says he doesn't exist and it's your father really. And everyone else said she was right."

There was a rustle from the other bed. Twyla's brother had turned over and was listening surreptitiously.

Oh dear, thought Susan. She had hoped she could avoid this. It was going to be like that business with the Soul Cake Duck all over again.

"Does it matter if you get the presents anyway?" she said, making a direct appeal to greed.

"'es."

Oh dear, oh dear. Susan sat down on the bed, wondering how the hell to get through this. She patted the one visible hand.

"Look at it this way, then," she said, and took a deep mental breath. "Wherever people are obtuse and absurd . . . and wherever they have, by even the most generous standards, the attention span of a small chicken in a hurricane and the investigative ability of a one-legged cockroach . . . and wherever people are inanely credulous, pathetically attached to the certainties of the nursery and, in general, have as much grasp of the realities of the physical universe as an oyster has of mountaineering . . . yes, Twyla: there is a Hogfather."

There was silence from under the bedclothes, but she sensed that the tone of voice had worked. The words had meant nothing. That, as her grandfather might have said, was humanity all over.