The human world is a sad place where lives are short and meaningless
and mostly wasted, and where the fear of death drives humans either
to madness or to despair unless they find some means of distracting
themelves, which, if it's not lethal, is a kind of benign madness.

That's what they call the human comedy.

	- Robert Coover
	  ("Stick Man" - Harper's Aug. 2001, p. 45)