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And now I want to tell you about my late Uncle Alex. He was my father’s kid brother, a childless graduate of Harvard who was an honest life insurance salesman in Indianapolis. He was well-read and wise. And his principal complaint about other human beings was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy. So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, say, and talking lazily about this and that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is. So I do the same now, and so do my kids and grandkids. And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.

 

Kurt Vonnegut

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I think yet again of my father, who struggled to become a painter after he was forced into early and unwelcome retirement by the Great Depression. He has reason to be optimistic about his new career, since the early stages of his pictures, whether still or portraits or landscapes, were full of pow. Mother, meaning to be helpful, would say of each one: "That's really wonderful, Kurt. Now all you have to do is finish it." He would then ruin it. I remember a portrait he did of his only brother, Alex, who was an insurance salesman, which he called "Special Agent". When he roughed it in, his hand and eye conspired with a few bold strokes to capture several important truths about Alex, including a hint of disappointment. Uncle Alex was a proud graduate of Harvard, who would rather have been a scholar of literature than an insurance man.
When Father finished the portrait, made sure every square inch of masonite had its share of paint, Uncle Alex had disappeared entirely. We had a drunk and lustful Queen Victoria instead. This was terrible.

 

Kurt Vonnegut

 

I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

 

Kurt Vonnegut

 

Kevin Nash: I need to get in the head of an X-Division star.
Alex Shelley: Dissect them, huh?
Kevin Nash: I need to know what they do, what they think when they got on the top rope. What they think when they leave the top rope.
Alex Shelley: Hey, Kevin! Look who your talking to here, huh?
Kevin Nash: Exactly.
Alex Shelley: So, what we did is run some tapes from Mexico, from Japan, from Madagascar.
Kevin Nash: Madagascar?
Alex Shelley: That's right. Alright, Kevin, here we are in Mexico City. Now notice, watch him go up, there you go, thats right. He's going into the Spaceman Torisho Arm drag right there. You see the beauty? The form? How he arched his back? That's right, as he does a 360. What?! -- over the top rope! Kevin, come on, take these notes.
Kevin Nash: What is that?
Johnny Devine: Double Reverse Ninja Kick.
Kevin Nash: With an atomic arm drop. Where is this? I've never seen a two-sided ring before.
Alex Shelley: You're damn right you haven't! Because this is Madagascar. Japan, Mexico they got nothing on Madagascar, oh man.
Kevin Nash: But...are they sitting on the floor?
Johnny Devine: This guys --
Alex Shelley: That's right, because chairs are a luxury over there.
Kevin Nash: Doesn't look like there's that many people there. How many people are at this thing?
Alex Shelley: Three hundred, give or take.
Kevin Nash: Three hundred?
Alex Shelley: Best wrestlers in the world I tell ya, right here. Best wrestlers in the world. Yeah, write up, Kevin. You know what I'm going to do for you, Kevin? You know those two Madagascar wrestlers we were watching? We're going to fly them in business class.
Kevin Nash: Shut the front door!
Alex Shelley: That's right. Business class. Just so you can train with these fellas. Come on, Kevin.
Kevin Nash: I... love you.
Alex Shelley: Next week we'll do it up, huh
(group hug)
Alex Shelley: Hold me!
Kevin Nash: Championship...feel it.
Alex Shelley: Hold me. Not too tight.
Kevin Nash: Okay, Sorry.

 

Kevin Nash

 

Alex is cool because a lot of people can relate to her. She's not the most popular girl in school, but she's also not a geek. I know what it's like to think you don't always fit in, and I think kids can relate to Alex's feelings about being average.

 

Larisa Oleynik

 

She had found the toys in a box one day, as she played by the Thames. And they were indeed wonderful.
Her little song — Uncle Charles thought it didn't mean anything. (He wasn't her real uncle, she parenthesized. But he was nice.) The song meant a great deal. It was the way. Presently she would do what it said, and then —
But she was already too old. She never found the way.

 

Lewis Padgett