Quote of the Day (Damon Runyon, on the Problem With ‘Snatching’—i.e., Kidnapping)

“[I]f you are going to do any snatching, you cannot snatch just anybody. You must know who you are snatching, because naturally it is no good snatching somebody who does not have any scratch to settle with. And you cannot tell by the way a party looks or how he lives in town if he has any scratch, because many a party who is around in automobiles, and wearing good clothes, and chucking quite a swell is nothing but the phonus bolonus and does not have any real scratch whatever.”—Short-story writer and journalist Damon Runyon (1880-1946), “The Snatching of Bookie Bob,” in Guys and Dolls and Other Writings (2008)

I can think of one “phonus bolonus” right now. (I bet you can, too!)