Bart Emanuel

“the use of atbash in the Bible sensitized the monks and scribes of the Middle Ages to the idea of letter substitution. And from them flowed the modern use of ciphers—as distinct from codes—as a means of secret communication.”
― David Kahn, The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet

“We meet fear. We greet the unexpected visitor and listen to what he has to tell us. When fear arrives, something is about to happen.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“Like every false rumor, it gained credibility while being repeated, and before long it was practically a fact.”
― John Grisham, The Accused

“Letter 68


A pod of whales was lying like long reclining Buddhas on the sea.
My sister and I put our ears to the bottom of the boat so we could listen to their songs.

We turned to my grandfather and asked, "What do their song mean?"

"The whales do not sing because they have an answer," he said.
"They sing because they have a song.”
― Gregory Colbert, Ashes and Snow: A Novel in Letters