The world is full of maitres d'hotel, many of whom are able, well-informed men. But only one in a hundred thousand is blessed with that rarest, most pricelesss of qualities so generously evident in Gabriel, the Maitre of the Cocofinger Palace Hotel in New York.

We see this peculiar talent in the profile (to the left), behind the ear, under "Detail and Executive Ability." It is the faculty of "Anticipation," an astral clairvoyance with which to sense catastrophe, anywhere in the wide realm of his authority. Not only to feel it ahead, but to prepare fo it and minimize the effect thereof.

(from "'No Trouble At All'", Small Beer)

 

Quito, the oldest city in the New World, is seemingly built over a sunken roller coaster. Up and down in wide curves and sudden drops go its streets and white houses; the base of one monument is above the spray of the fountain in the next plaza. It is at once like Tunis and like Bruges, and its near-by backdrop of mountains reminds one of Innsbruck.

(from "Quito", The Donkey Inside)

 

The personality pig sat on the leather couch, but when Moses Fable came in, Dirty Eddie jumped off the couch, which was Fable's favorite seat, and ran to a small chair on which he jumped with grace. He politely refused a drink when the secretary brought in a paper cup with water, by shaking his head and smiling that engaging, sadonic smile that was to endear him to the millions.

"Nice pig," said Moses Fable, who usually paid no attention to bit players and extras.

(from "Trouble with an Actor", Dirty Eddie)

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