When I asked him what, if anything, I could do about it, he surprised me by referring me to the director of the hall.

Was I sure, he asked, that I knew what I was applying for??

`` Why '', he went on, `` when Rob asked me if he could make his dive on this trip, I didn't think twice about it.

I have just asked these questions in the Pentagon, in the White House, in offices of key scientists across the country and aboard the submarines that prowl for months underwater, with neat rows of green launch tubes which contain Polaris missiles and which are affectionately known as `` Sherwood Forest ''.

I asked the same questions inside the launch-control rooms of an Atlas missile base in Wyoming, where officers who wear sidearms are manning the `` commit buttons '' that could start a war -- accidentally or by design -- and in the command centers where other pistol-packing men could give orders to push such buttons.

I asked Wisman what would happen if he broke out the go codes and tried to start transmitting one.

I asked.

How, I asked, could chaos be admitted to chaos??

I asked about the battle between life and death in his plays.

Given a theological lead, I asked what he thinks about those who find a religious significance to his plays.

At a party an English intellectual -- so-called -- asked me why I write always about distress.

I was having lunch not long ago ( apologies to N. V. Peale ) with three distinguished historians ( one specializing in the European Middle Ages, one in American history, and one in the Far East ), and I asked them if they could name instances where the general mores had been radically changed with `` deliberate speed, majestic instancy '' ( Francis Thompson's words for the Hound Of Heaven's Pursuit ) by judicial fiat.

Just as I was about to enlarge upon my discovery of the underside of the leaf of love, memory, displeased at being asked to yield its unsavory secrets, dashed ahead of me, calling back over its shoulder: `` Skip it.

The waspish man stopped me three paces from the bicycle barricade, and asked me in French if I had papers to leave France.

I asked him.

I asked.

One of the girl students, sitting by while I ate the thick soup, asked me if I had a sleeping bag.

I asked him.

Once or twice my father asked me if I wasn't overdoing a bit in my churchgoing.

" Other notable writers who have explored regional and ethnic communities in their detective novels are Harry Kemelman, whose Rabbi Small series were set the Conservative Jewish community of Massachusetts ; Walter Mosley, whose Easy Rawlins books are set in the African American community of 1950s Los Angeles ; and Sara Paretsky, whose V. I. Warshawski books have explored the various subcultures of Chicago.

In this letter, made public in 1891 — several years after Grant's death — Rawlins wrote, " I find you where the wine bottle has been emptied, in company with those who drink, and urge you not to do likewise.

`` I could use some help '', Morgan said finally, `` but I can't afford to pay you anything.

I guess you'd better go on in the morning ''.

`` I've been mucking in a mine in the San Juan, but I used to work on a ranch.

`` I know '', Jones said dejectedly.

You fell down in front of the house, and I carried you in.

I gave you a drink and then you went to sleep ''.

`` I don't have many strays coming to my front door '', he said.

It's not much of a meal, but it's what I eat ''.

`` Mr. Morgan, it's the best-looking food I ever saw ''.

When they were finally satisfied, Jones said, `` I think he's going to give us work ''.

She said, `` I guess the Lord looks out for fools, drunkards, and innocents ''.

`` I mean, we don't have any way to get there and we can't expect you to quit work just to take us to town ''.

`` I get up early.

He stopped, embarrassed, and Morgan said, `` I understand that, but I don't savvy why you'd go off and leave your jobs in the first place ''.

I believed him.

I didn't understand why, Clay.

`` All my life '', he said, `` I tried.

I tried.

I saw you driftin away -- but I tried.

And you wanted no part of me when I had so much to give.

God in Heaven, I can't refuse you now.

There's someone there I have to see.