In one of my favourite novels, So Long and Thanks For All The Fish by Douglas Adams (the fourth in the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' series) there's a minor character named Wonko the Sane.
I absolutely love this book, much more so than the other four. The few pages with Wonko in them are one of the best bits - they really stuck with me and I've always thought of him when the world seems too much.
He's a man on a beach in California who one day looks at a packet of toothpicks and reads:
Hold stick near center of its length.
Moisten pointed end in mouth.
Insert in tooth space, blunt end next to gum.
Use gentle in-and-out motion.
Appalled by the realisation that he now lives in a world where people might require instructions to open a can of toothpicks, he builds four walls around himself, designed to look like the outside of a house. He decides to remain in his asylum, never daring to re-enter the civilisation that allowed the toothpick instructions.
I'd like to print off that 'Candwich' thing and paste it on the door to the outside world!
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Apologies to I-mockery.com for stealing their news item!
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