Computers

Today's book quote comes from David Sedaris' essay "Nutcracker.com" in Me Talk Pretty One Day. A perfect example of what makes Sedaris such a fun read: flies that are casualties of art, the smell of computers (or lack thereof), inexplicable adhesive needs, and designers as dealers. Enjoy.

I wasn't really aware of computers until the mid-1980s. For some reason, I seemed to know quite a few graphic designers whose homes and offices pleasantly stank of Spray Mount. Their floors were always collaged with stray bits of paper, and trapped flies waved for help from the gummy killing fields of their tabletops. I had always counted on these friends to loan me the adhesive of my choice, but then, seemingly overnight, their Scotch tape and rubber cement were gone, replaced with odorless computers and spongy mouse pads. They had nothing left that I wanted to borrow, and so I dropped them and fell in with a group of typesetters who ultimately betrayed me as well.