"This may not always be the case in terms of felines, where the fact that we are not living in theocratic countries may not prove such an impediment to what God requires of us, as manmade law may not afford such unmerited protection to cats as it does to humans."

"Self-aggrandisement: it's just not enough to know you can do it, it's so much better if lots of other people know as well. Just like reading Ulysses on the tube, or buying Le Figaro instead of an English paper, doing the crossword gives you an aura that lesser mortals can only admire (or mock, but that's their loss)."

And there was me writing off the 'national firewall' idea as a nice but unrealistic political allegory, in The Stars' Tennis Balls. [via Tom]