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86768a9
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I know one thing for certain; it is much harder to tell whether you are lost than whether you were lost, for, on many occasions, where you are going is exactly where you are. On the other hand, if you often find that where you've been is not at all where you should have gone, and, since it's much more difficult to find your way back from someplace you've never left, I suggest you go there immediately and then decide.
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Norton Juster |
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6e67333
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For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.
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Norton Juster |
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5537edb
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Infinity is a dreadfully poor place. They can never manage to make ends meet.
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Norton Juster |
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3615707
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Does everyone grow the way you do?" puffed Milo when he had caught up. "Almost everyone," replied Alec, and then he stopped a moment and thought. "Now and then, though, someone does begin to grow differently. Instead of down, his feet grow up towards the sky. But we do our best to discourage awkward things like that." "What happens to them?" insisted Milo. "Oddly enough, they often grow ten times the size of everyone else," said Alec though..
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Norton Juster |
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3863c51
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What you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.
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Norton Juster |
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3e79f8a
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So many things are possible as long as you don't know they're impossible.
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Norton Juster |
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2deb5ee
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The Mathemagician nodded knowingly and stroked his chin several times. "You'll find," he remarked gently, "that the only thing you can do easily is be wrong, and that's hardly worth the effort."
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Norton Juster |
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2d6f4f5
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Is everyone who lives in Ignorance like you?" asked Milo. "Much worse," he said longingly. "But I don't live here. I'm from a place very far away called Context."
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ignorance
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Norton Juster |
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f67c6ea
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When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he'd even bothered.
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Norton Juster |
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f97ebe8
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Have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn?" she inquired. "Or the quiet and calm just as the storm ends? Or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause in a roomful of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're all alone in the whole house? E..
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Norton Juster |
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cf42a81
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Sometimes I find the best way of getting from one place to another is simply to erase everything and begin again.
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Norton Juster |
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9c66e0f
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We're right here on this very spot. Besides, being lost is never a matter of not knowing where you are; it's a matter of not knowing where you aren't - and I don't care at all about where I'm not.
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Norton Juster |
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0f663a3
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What a shame," signed the Dodecahedron. "They're so very useful. Why, did you know that if a beaver two feet long with a tail a foot and a half long can build a dam twelve feet high and six feet wide in two days, all you would need to build Boulder Dam is a beaver sixty-eight feet long with a fifty-one-foot tail?" "Where would you find a beaver that big?" grumbled the Humbug as his pencil point snapped. "I'm sure I don't know," he replied, ..
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Norton Juster |
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68256a5
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You see. . . it's really quite strenuous doing nothing all day, so once a week we take a holiday and go nowhere, which was just where we were going when you came along. Would you care to join us?
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Norton Juster |
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44ad67d
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today people use as many words as they can and think themselves very wise for doing so. For always remember that while it is wrong to use too few, it is often far worse to use too many.
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Norton Juster |
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deeecbf
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He paused again as a tear of longing rolled from cheek to lip with the sweet-salty taste of an old memory.
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tears
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Norton Juster |
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6fa4ed2
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You can swim all day in the Sea of Knowledge and still come out completely dry. Most people do.
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Norton Juster |
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f7980b3
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Outside the window, there was so much to see, and hear, and touch -- walks to take, hills to climb, caterpillars to watch as they strolled through the garden. There were voices to hear and conversations to listen to in wonder, and the special smell of each day. And, in the very room in which he sat, there were books that could take you anywhere, and things to invent, and make, and build, and break, and all the puzzle and excitement of every..
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Norton Juster |
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8cc440e
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And remember, also...that many places you would like to see are just off the map and many things you want to know are just out of sight or a little beyond your reach. But someday you'll reach them all, for what you learn today, for no reason at all, will help you discover all the wonderful secrets of tomorrow.
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Norton Juster |
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3a16819
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How can you see something that isn't there?" yawned the Humbug, who wasn't fully awake yet. "Sometimes, it's much simpler than seeing things that are,"he said. "For instance, if something is there, you can only see it with your eyes open, but if it isn't there, you can see it just as well with your eyes closed. That's why imaginary things are often easier to see than real ones." "Then where is Reality?" barked Tock. "Right here,"cried Ale..
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Norton Juster |
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ab4f63a
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You see," he continued, beginning to feel better, "once there was no time at all, and people found it very inconvenient. They never knew wether they were eating lunch or dinner, and they were always missing trains. So time was invented to help them keep track of the day and get to places where they should. When they began to count all the time that was available, what with 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a d..
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norton
phantom
the
time
tock
tollbooth
watchdog
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Norton Juster |
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62048b0
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Now and then, though, someone does begin to grow differently. Instead of down, his feet grow up toward the sky. But we do our best to discourage awkward things like that." "What happens to them?" insisted Milo. "Oddly enough, they often grow ten times the size of everyone else," said Alec thoughtfully, "and I've heard that they walk among the stars."
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Norton Juster |
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9e40fbe
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They walked for a while, all silent in their thoughts, until they reached the car and Alec drew a fine telescope from his shirt and handed it to Milo. "Carry this with you on your journey," he said softly, "for there is much worth noticing that often escapes the eye. Through it you can see everything from the tender moss in a sidewalk crack to the glow of the farthest star -- and, most important of all, you can see things as they really are..
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Norton Juster |
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b0b88a4
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Don't you know anything at all about numbers?" "Well, I don't think they're very important," snapped Milo, too embarrassed to admit the truth. "NOT IMPORTANT!" roared the Dodecahedron, turning red with fury. "Could you have tea for two without the two -- or three blind mice without the three? Would there be four corners of the earth if there weren't a four? And how would you sail the seven seas without a seven?" "All I meant was--" began Mi..
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Norton Juster |
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d7b0caf
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So each one of you agrees to disagree with whatever the other one agrees with, but if you both disagree with the same thing, aren't you really in agreement?
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agree-to-disagree
agreement
disagree
disagreement
epic
logic
milo
the-mathematician
the-phantom-tollbooth
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Norton Juster |
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9eca6a3
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AHA!" interrupted Officer Shrift, making another note in his little book. "Just as I thought: boys are the cause of everything."
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Norton Juster |
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9550fc7
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You often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than right for the wrong reasons.
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Norton Juster |
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ac5f4e8
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Perhaps someday you can have one city as easy to see as Illusions and as hard to forget as Reality.
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Norton Juster |
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1599f6f
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Where is the sound?" someone hastily scribbled on the blackboard, and they all waited anxiously for the reply. Milo caught his breath, picked up the chalk, and explained simply, "It's on the tip of my tongue."
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Norton Juster |
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3f25849
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Do you think it will rain? Milo: But I thought you were the Weather Man? No, I'm the Whether man, for it is more important to know whether there will be weather, whether than what the weather will be.
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Norton Juster |
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2fb5bb3
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I don't think you understand," said Milo timidly as the watchdog growled a warning. "We're looking for a place to spend the night." "It's not yours to spend," the bird shrieked again, and followed it with the same horrible laugh. "That doesn't make any sense, you see--" he started to explain. "Dollars or cents, it's still not yours to spend," the bird replied haughtily. "But I didn't mean--" insisted Milo. "Of course you're mean," interrupt..
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wordplay
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Norton Juster |
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e6408aa
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Why don't they live in Illusions?' suggested the Humbug. 'It's much prettier.' 'Many of them do,' he answered, walking in the direction of the forest once again, 'but it's just as bad to live in a place where what you do see isn't there as it is to live in one where what you don't see is.
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Norton Juster |
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1be259c
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But there's so to learn," he said, with a thoughtful frown. "Yes, that's true," admitted Rhyme; "but it's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters." "That's just what I mean," explained Milo as Tock and the exhausted bug drifted quietly off to sleep. "Many of the things I'm supposed to know seem so useless that I can't see the purpose in l..
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learning
purpose
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Norton Juster |
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219e0d6
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But that can never be," said Milo, jumping to his feet. "Don't be too sure," said the child patiently, "for one of the nicest things about mathematics, or anything else you might care to learn, is that many of the things which can never be, often are. You see," he went on, "it's very much like your trying to reach Infinity. You know that it's there, but you just don't know where -- but just because you can never reach it doesn't mean that i..
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mathematics
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Norton Juster |
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a3c7e15
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I warned you; I warned you I was the Senses Taker," sneered the Senses Taker. "I help people find what they're looking for, hear what they're listening for, run after what they're chasing, and smell what isn't even there. And, furthermore," he cackled, hopping around gleefully on his stubby legs, "I'll steal your sense of purpose, take your sense of duty, destroy your sense of proportion -- and, but for one thing, you'd be helpless ye..
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sense-of-humor
sense-of-purpose
senses
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Norton Juster |
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94c55f3
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You weren't thinking and you weren't paying attention either. People who don't pay attention often get stuck in the Doldrums.
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thinking
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Norton Juster |
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1697e1b
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just follow that line forever," said the Mathemagician, "and when you reach the end, turn left. There you'll find the land of Infinity, where the tallest, the shortest, the biggest, the smallest, and the most and least of everything are kept." "I don't have that much time," said Milo anxiously. "isn't there a quicker way?" "Well, you might try this flight of stairs," he suggested, opening another door and pointing up."It goes there, too."
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Norton Juster |
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51455c1
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They all looked very much like the residents of any small valley to which you've never been.
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Norton Juster |
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4dd0245
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The Humbug whistled gaily at his work, for he was never as happy as when he had a job which required no thinking at all. After what seemed like days, he had dug a hole scarcely large enough for his thumb. Tock shuffled steadily back and forth with the dropper in his teeth, but the full well was still almost as full as when he began, and Milo's new pile of sand was hardly a pile at all. "How very strange," said Milo, without stopping for a m..
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Norton Juster |
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6b21ece
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It's completely logical," explained the Dodecahedron. "The more you want, the less you get, and the less you get, the more you have. Simple arithmetic, that's all. Suppose you had something and added something to it. What would that make?" "More," said Milo quickly. "Quite correct," he nodded. "Now suppose you had something and added nothing to it. What would you have?" "The same," he answered again, without much conviction. "Splendid," cr..
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logic
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Norton Juster |
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94c570f
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Why, did you know that if a beaver two feet long with a tail a foot and a half long can build a dam twelve feet high and six feet wide in two days, all you would need to build Boulder Dam is a beaver sixty-eight feet long with a fifty-one-foot tail?" "Where would you find a beaver that big?" grumbled the Humbug as his pencil point snapped. "I'm sure I don't know," he replied, "but if you did, you'd certainly know what to do with him."
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Norton Juster |
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4a3d4b7
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Being lost is not a matter of knowing where you are. It's a matter of knowing where you aren't.
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Norton Juster |
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d374084
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Dictionopolis is the place where all the words in the world come from. They're grown right here in our orchards." "I didn't know that words grew on trees," said Milo timidly. "Where did you think they grew?" shouted the earl irritably. A small crowd began to gather to see the little boy who didn't know that letters grew on trees. "I didn't know they grew at all," admitted Milo even more timidly. Several people shook their heads sadly. "Well..
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Norton Juster |
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da0d61e
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My goodness', thought Milo. 'Everybody is so terribly sensitive about the things they know best.
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Norton Juster |