Once, when he was a boy, there was a total eclipse of the sun in the Midwest, and a girl in one of the poky towns across the river from St. Jude had sat outside and, in defiance of myriad warnings, studied the dwindling crescent of the sun until her retinas combusted. "It didn't hurt at all," the blinded girl had told the St. Jude Chronicle. "It felt like nothing."

Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections

Bei meinem neuen Job musste ich mich unter Strafandrohung verpflichten alles geheimzuhalten. Jetzt trau ich mich gar nicht, irgendwas zu schreiben. Aber dafür bin ich jetzt Agent, zwar noch nicht Special, aber immerhin.