...we were at last in Monte Cristo's country, fairly into the country of the fabulous, where extravagance ceases to exist because ...everything is extravagant, and where the wildest dreams come true.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Calico Pie, The little Birds fly... Down to the calico tree, Their wings were blue, And they sang "Tilly-loo!" Till away they flew-- And they never came back to me!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Mildred Pierce: You look down on me because I work for a living, don't you? You always have. All right, I work. I cook food and se...ll it and make a profit on it, which, I might point out, you're not too proud to share with me. Monte Beragon: Yes, I take money from you, Mildred. But not enough to make me like kitchens or cooks. They smell of grease. Mildred Pierce: I don't notice you shrinking away from a fifty- dollar bill because it smells of grease.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Mildred Pierce: And just what do you do, Mr. Beragon? Monte Beragon: I loaf. Oh, in a decorative and highly charming manner.<...br />Mildred Pierce: Is that all? Monte Beragon: With me, loafing is a science.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Monte Beragon: When I'm close to you like this, there's a sound in the air like the beating of wings. Do you know what that is? ... />Mildred Pierce: No, what? Monte Beragon: My heart, beating like a schoolboy's. Mildred Pierce: Is it? I thought it was mine.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Kitchens were different then, too--not only what came out of them, but their smells and sounds. A hot pie cooling smells different... from a frozen pie thawing. Oilcloth and linoleum and apples in an open bowl and ruffled rubber aprons make a different aromatic mix from Formica and ceramic tile and mangoes in an acrylic fruit ripener and plastic-coated aprons printed with "Who invited all these tacky people?" And the kitchen sounds. I am not sure that today's kitchen is noisier. But the noises are different. Today you get the song of the food processor and the blender, the intermittent hum of the reefer and the freezer, the buzz-slosh-and-grunt of the dishwasher, the violently audible digestive processes of the waste disposal in the sink. Then it was the whir and clatter of the hand-powered eggbeater, the thunk-thunk-thunk of somebody mashing potatoes, or, in green-pea season, the crisp pop of pea pod and the rattle-rattle-rattle of peas into the pan.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
At Joe's Eats You get your fish or chicken on meat platters.... With coleslaw, macaroni, candied sweets, Coffee and apple pie. You go out full. (The end is--isn't it?--all that really matters.)LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Now he sings of Jacky Horner, Sitting in the chimney corner,... Eating of a Christmas pie, Putting in his thumb, O fie! Putting in, O fie! his thumb, Pulling out, O strange, a plum.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »