“Life, too, is senseless unless you know who you are, what you want, and which way the wind blows.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Smiling without good reason is demeaning.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“The poor are crazy, the rich just eccentric. - James Shin Hoo”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“I remember the will said, 'May God thy gold refine.' That must be from the Bible."
"Shakespeare," Turtle said. All quotations were either from the Bible or Shakespeare.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Your trouble comes from years of wearing the wrong kind of shoes. - Jake Wexler”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Grace sat down where the chair wasn't.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Angela could not be the bomber, not that sweet, pretty thing. Thing? Is that how she regarded that young woman, as a thing? And what had she ever said to her except "I hear you're getting married, Angela" or "How pretty you look, Angela." Had anyone asked her about her ideas, her hopes, her plans? If I had been treated like that I'd have used dynamite, not fireworks; no, I would have just walked out and kept right on going. But Angela was different.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Sunset Towers faced east and had no towers.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Friday was back to normal, if the actions of suspicious would-be heirs competing for a two-hundred-million-dollar prize could be considered normal.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Jake Wexler, standing or sitting when not lying down”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“You can't read my shorthand because I wrote in Polish.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“The sun sets in the west (just about everyone knows that), but Sunset Towers faced east. Strange!”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“All quotations were either from the Bible or Shakespeare.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Can you stand on your legs?” Sydelle Pulaski asked. “Can you walk at all?”
People never asked Chris those questions; they whispered them to his parents behind his back. “N-n-no. Why?”
“What better disguise for a thief or a murderer than a wheelchair, the perfect alibi.”
Chris enjoyed being taken for the criminal type. Now they really were friends.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Sandy fidgeted with his pen. “There’s something I didn’t write down. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you, you being a judge and all, but, well, Jake Wexler… he’s a bookie.”
No, he should not have told her. “A small-time operator, I’m sure, Mr. McSouthers,” the judge replied coldly. “It can have no bearing on the matter before us. Sam Westing manipulated people, cheated workers, bribed officials, stole ideas, but Sam Westing never smoked or drank or placed a bet. Give me a bookie any day over such a fine, upstanding, clean-living man.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“She could have been an interior decorator, a good one, too, if it wasn’t for the pressing demands of so on and so forth.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Hey Chris, bet you don't know the Latin name of the red-headed woodpecker."
That was a hard one. Chris had to say Melanerpes erythrocephalus very slowly.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“You, too, may strike it rich who dares to play the Westing game.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“The poor are crazy, the rich just eccentric,”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Hello, Jake, I'm glad you could come," Sunny (as Madame Hoo was now called) said, shaking the hand of the chairman of the State Gambling Commission.
"Boom!" Jake Wexler replied.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“daughter of the servants.” “Gee, you must have been lonely, Judge, having nobody to play with.” “I played with Sam Westing—chess. Hour after hour I sat staring down at that chessboard. He lectured me, he insulted me, and he won every game.” The judge thought of their last game: She had been so excited about taking his queen, only to have the master checkmate her in the next move. Sam Westing had deliberately sacrificed his queen and she had fallen for it. “Stupid child, you can’t have a brain in that frizzy head to make a move like that.” Those were the last words he ever said to her. The judge continued: “I was sent to boarding school when I was twelve. My parents visited me at school when they could, but I never set foot in the Westing house again, not until two weeks ago.” “Your folks must have really worked hard,” Sandy said. “An education like that costs a fortune.” “Sam Westing paid for my education. He saw that I was accepted into the best schools, probably arranged for my first job, perhaps more, I don’t know.” “That’s the first decent thing I’ve heard about the old man.” “Hardly decent, Mr. McSouthers. It was to Sam Westing’s advantage to have a judge in his debt. Needless to say, I have excused myself from every case remotely connected with”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“HOO JAMES SHIN HOO. Born: James Hoo in Chicago. Age: 50. Added Shin to his name when he went into the restaurant business because it sounded more Chinese. First wife died of cancer five years ago. Married again last year. Has one son: Douglas. SUN LIN HOO. Age: 28. Born in China. Immigrated from Hong Kong two years ago. Gossip: James Hoo married her for her 100-year-old sauce. DOUGLAS HOO (called Doug). Age: 18. High-school track star. Is competing in Saturday’s track meet against college milers. Westing connection: Hoo sued Sara Westing over the invention of the disposable paper diaper. Case never came to court (Westing disappeared). Settled with the company last year for $25,000. Thinks he was cheated. Latest invention: paper innersoles.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“TURTLE SPENT THE night at the bedside of eighty-five-year-old Julian R. Eastman. T. R. Wexler had a master’s degree in business administration, an advanced degree in corporate law, and had served two years as legal counsel to the Westing Paper Products Corporation. She had made one million dollars in the stock market, lost it all, then made five million more.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Read it out loud, dear,” Grace ordered, as Angela opened the card tied to the yellow-ribboned box. To the bride-to-be in the kitchen stuck, An asparagus cooker and lots of luck. from Cookie Barfspringer “Thank you,” Angela said, wondering which one was the Barfspringer. The next gift was an egg poacher. The box in pink ribbons contained another asparagus cooker. “I sure hope Doctor Deere likes asparagus,” someone remarked.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
“Hello, Jake, I’m so glad you could come,” Sunny (as Madame Hoo was now called) said, shaking the hand of the chairman of the State Gambling Commission.”
― Ellen Raskin, quote from The Westing Game
Ellen Raskin
Born place: in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, The United States
Born date March 13, 1928
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“Monkeys offer an unadulterated demonstration of the power of hormones, as the females are not concerned about pregnancy or what their friends will think.”
― Mary Roach, quote from Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
“Whenever you give up an apartment in New York and move to another city, New York turns into the worst version of itself. Someone I know once wisely said that the expression "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there" is completely wrong where New York is concerned; the opposite is true. New York is a very livable city. But when you move away and become a vistor, the city seems to turn against you. It's much more expensive (because you need to eat all your meals out and pay for a place to sleep) and much more unfriendly. Things change in New York; things change all the time. You don't mind this when you live here; when you live here, it's part of the caffeinated romance to this city that never sleeps. But when you move away, your experience change as a betrayal. You walk up Third Avenue planning to buy a brownie at a bakery you've always been loyal to, and the bakery's gone. Your dry cleaner move to Florida; your dentist retires; the lady who made the pies on West Fourth Street vanishes; the maitre d' at P.J. Clarke's quits, and you realize you're going to have to start from scratch tipping your way into the heart of the cold, chic young woman now at the down. You've turned your back from only a moment, and suddenly everything's different. You were an insider, a native, a subway traveler, a purveyor of inside tips into the good stuff, and now you're just another frequent flyer, stuck in a taxi on Grand Central Parkway as you wing in and out of La Guardia. Meanwhile, you rad that Manhattan rents are going up, they're climbing higher, they're reached the stratosphere. It seems that the moment you left town, they put a wall around the place, and you will never manage to vault over it and get back into the city again.”
― Nora Ephron, quote from I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
“He imagined the gazelles raising the dry dust
Like soft brush floating on the crests of sand.”
― quote from The Epic of Gilgamesh
“DJing for people is fun until someone comes up with a phone screen that has 'PLAY SOME RIHANNA' written on it. I prefer to play older songs because they're the ones I personally enjoy dancing and singing along to and modern dance music bores my brains out.”
― quote from It
“The Fool card represented one who walked without fear, aware of the choices she made in the journey of life, life itself being defined as a state of courage and wisdom and not an uncontrollable participation in society, as many people experienced their lives.”
― Ana Castillo, quote from So Far from God
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The Butterfly Garden
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