<nowiki>[Luisa]</nowiki> knew how to use her own ignorance as an icebreaker in conversations. Izzy was full of people who were skewed toward the Aspe… - Neal Stephenson

Izzy was full of people who were skewed toward the Asperger’s end of the social spectrum, and there was no better way to get them to start talking than to ask them a technical question.

Boredom is a mask frustration wears.

The cat, morbidly obese from eating virtually all of Isaac’s meals, fell off the table like a four-legged haggis, and trudged away.

“Where are you from?” Sophia asked.
Larry looked a bit startled. "I’m from here…Great-greats came over from Holland."
"You said ‘y’all.’"
Larry was confused....
"What was that about?" Anne-Solenne asked.
"It’s totally a Southern way of talking. Iowa is a Northern state. Fought on the Union side in the Civil War. Never had slavery…Northerners don’t talk like that, they don’t drawl, they don’t say ‘y’all’..."
“Or put the Stars and Bars on their bumpers,” said Julian...and pointed at a Confederate flag sticker on the back of Tom and Kevin's truck.
“Point being, it was not like that to my uncle...When he was born, the Civil War was only ninety years in the past—almost within living memory. It would have seemed weird for Northerners to paste the traitors’ flag on their bumper or cop an accent from Alabama. But while he was alive—”
“The cultural border shifted north.”