Benevolent Misanthropy

His hair was iron grey, his eyebrows were still black, and his massive profile was the profile of a Caesar’s head on an old Roman coin. But his parentage was German and Scotch and English, with remote strains of Danish and French blood, giving him the temperament of a Puritan and an insatiable imagination [...]

They couldn’t set it much later than the 1960s because otherwise, the two cowboys would have been drinking latte and exchanging ironing tips on getting sharp pleats in their chaps.
— “Verity” at Albion’s Seedlings on the new Gay Cowboy epic Brokeback Mountain

“Jeeves,” I said, “may I speak frankly?”
“Certainly, sir.”
“What I have to say may wound you.”
“Not at all, sir.”
“Well, then—”
No — wait. Hold the line a minute. I’ve gone off the rails.
***
I don’t know if you have had the same experience, but the snag I always come up against when I’m telling a story is this [...]