my kingdom for decipherable syntax

'today Glenrowan is a one-street town with a couple of pubs, a scattering of houses and a short strip of enterprises dedicated to extracting a little cash from the [Ned] Kelly legend. on this hot summer’s day there were perhaps a dozen visitors in town, including Alan, Carmel and me. the biggest of the commercial establishments, a place called Ned Kelly’s Last Stand, was covered in painted signs of a semi-professional quality. ‘this is not a place for whimps,’ said one, promisingly. another added: ‘it is absolutely absurd that after allowing yourself 10 to 20 minutes to take photos, walk up and down the street and buy some souvenirs and then have the audacity to tell your friends – ‘don’t go to Glenrowan, for there is nothing to see.’
the impression one derived from further study was that Ned Kelly’s Last Stand contained some kind of animatronic show. Alan, Carmel and i exchanged happy looks and knew that this was a place for us.'
– p236, Bill Bryson – Down Under


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+ wah, i'm a little too lazy to re-size this..sad:

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'something cracks every moment because everything cracks one day, an egg, armour, a book’s spine.
the human spine may be the only exception, though much depends on pressure, time and place. such cases are therefore rare. hardly any. because there are so many pressures, places and times around.
cracks are normally stuck together.
it is not on record that anyone would want to go about cracked, not even the whip-crackers.
cracks are mended with wax, paraffin, soldered, bandaged. or talked out of existence. this most of all.
but a mended egg is no longer an egg, soldered armour is no longer armour, a bandaged heel is an Achilles heel and a man talked out of existence is not the man he was, rather the Achilles heel of others.
worst of all is when hundreds of mended eggs pass themselves off as best eggs and hundreds of suits of soldered armour as true armour, thousands of cracked people as monoliths.
then it’s all one huge crack.
all we can do in the world of cracks is now and then to call out, 'Mr Director, mind your step on the stairs, you have a crack, sir, if i may say so'.
that’s all. afterwards there’s only more cracking.'
- Brief Thought on Cracks, Miroslav Holub