best lines and borders

so this is it - my final final word on Borders.
it has to be final, because as of today, the doors are locked.
i checked in on the neighborhood store a few times during the going-out-of-business sale, just to take mental snapshots as the stock thinned and the prices dropped. i was thrilled to see the YA section was among the first to sell out, even before the steepest price cuts. and i've been happy, too, to see more cars parked outside of the nearby Indie and to see my favorite local Indie store as crowded as ever.
but every time i walked into Borders and saw the dark cafe, i wondered about the people who used to fill the tables - especially the ladies who got together every weekend to play Mahjong.

finally, this weekend, i spotted those ladies. our neighborhood grocery store is an experiment in luxury. it has a wine bar, cafes and even a book nook with tall dark shelves and ladders and cozy tables. step into the book nook, and you don't even know you're in a grocery store. AND - step into the book nook on a Saturday afternoon, and that's where you'll find my ladies, crowded around one of those tables playing Mahjong. i knew they'd find a place to play, but it did my heart good to see they still play in a place where they are surrounded by books.

time marches on and all that.

now for a round of "best lines."
warning! foul language ahead! ...well, really just one naughty word, and i didn't even write it, for once!

this line is from a book i just finished, Bill Carter's The War for Late Night (When Leno went early and television went crazy):

But the "People of Earth" letter - the manifesto, as NBC came to call it - changed the tone. This wasn't just Conan saying no; it was Conan saying no, and you're wrong, and, by the way, go fuck yourselves.

these lines are from a book i'm reading now, Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves:

Kit was elder, after all, and as hardheaded as a statue - once she set herself on a path, dynamite couldn't blow her off it.

and

"Trying to understand Daddy is like trying to nail jelly to a tree."

i have a feeling i'll have some more "best lines" from Slice of Cherry by the time i'm done.