“What do they do for a village idiot when you're here?”

“It took him forever to get to downtown Vancouver although Tony had to admit that saving the world by public transportation was a particularly Canadian way to do things.”

“Dexter thrust a pamphlet into Samuel's hand. "Greenstreet Mission. We're doing a Christmas dinner. You can get a meal and hear the word of God."Samuel smiled in relief. This, finally, he understood. "Which word?""What?""Well, God's said a lot of words, you know, and a word like 'it' or 'the' wouldn't be worth hearing again but its always fun listening to Him try and say aluminum.”

“A quick check on the platoon showed everyone more or less enjoying the flight."Whatever it is you're eating, Ressk, swallow it before we land," [said Staff Sergeant Kerr]."No problem, Staff.""More like whoever he's eating," Binti muttered beside him."You ought to count your fingers," he suggested. "You're too serley stupid to notice one missing.""Maybe you ought to gren sa talamec to.""That's enough, people."When the Confederation first started integrating the di'Taykan and the Krai into what was predominantly a human military system, xenopsychologists among the elder races expected a number of problems. For the most part, those expectations fell short. After having dealt with the Mictok and the H'san, none of the younger races - all bipedal mammals - had any difficulty with each other's appearance. Cultural differences were absorbed into the prevailing military culture and the remaining problems were dealt with in the age-old military tradition of learning to say "up yours" in the other races' languages. The "us against them" mentality of war made for strange bedfellows.”

“What are you on, Samuel?"This was easier, he glanced down. "Laminate.”

“I tell you what I won't put up with. You chose how to behave.”

“Toronto's already ass-deep in cockroaches and conservatives; what's one more lower life-form?”