I’m on a bit of a Kurt Vonnegut mission at the moment, having read two of his books for the first time: Cat’s Cradle and Sirens of Titan, both excellent and irreverent sci-fi.

Here’s a snippet from a brilliant interview with him from the 1970’s: <blockquote>
VONNEGUT
… Technically, I wasn’t really a snarf. A snarf was a person who went around sniffing girls’ bicycle saddles. I didn’t do that. Twerp also had a very specific meaning, which few people know now. Through careless usage, twerp is a pretty formless insult now.

INTERVIEWER
What is a twerp in the strictest sense, in the original sense?

VONNEGUT
It’s a person who inserts a set of false teeth between the cheeks of his ass.

INTERVIEWER
I see.

VONNEGUT
I beg your pardon; between the cheeks of his or her ass. I’m always offending feminists that way.

INTERVIEWER
I don’t quite understand why someone would do that with false teeth.

VONNEGUT
In order to bite the buttons off the backseats of taxicabs. That’s the only reason twerps do it. It’s all that turns them on.
</blockquote>
(via)

(source)

This post was originally on LiveJournal.