Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore

l takes a sharp breath and I know

I feel a little whirl of dislocation—the trademark sensation of the world being more closely knit together than you expected.

I believe I can now detect a certain strain of weirdness with lab-grade precision.

The suburban mind cannot comprehend the emergent complexity of a New York sidewalk.

When I was a kid reading fantasy novels, I daydreamed about hot girl wizards. I never thought I’d actually meet one, but that’s only because I didn’t realize wizards were going to walk among us and we’d just call them Googlers.

when it comes to all human knowledge, the ratio is just the opposite—in fact, OK accounts for most things that most people know, and have ever known.

ninety-five percent of the internet was only created in the last five years

You have to wear that like a pin, like a badge.

The buzz about Google these days is that it’s like America itself: still the biggest game in town, but inevitably and irrevocably on the decline. Both are superpowers with unmatched resources, but both are faced with fast-growing rivals, and both will eventually be eclipsed. For America, that rival is China. For Google, it’s Face-book.

So trust me, I know how much sweat goes into those shapes. Typographers are designers; designers are my people; I am committed to supporting them. But now FontShop.com tells me that Gerritszoon Display, distributed by FLC Type Foundry of New York City, costs $3,989.

So of course I will try to pirate this font.