A review by lapetiteprincesse
Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings by Paul Theroux

3.0

the widely used Inuit word for white person is kabloona (derived from qallunaat), which means something like "eyebrow stomachs," probably a reaction to whites' hairy bodies by the almost hairless Inuit. [p/11]

the lisping silk of women's dresses [p/262]

dishes piled high with chicken feet, or "phoenix feet." Hong Kong prostitutes enjoy the same lexical ambiguity, sometimes called chickens and sometimes phoenixes. [p/263]

"Friendly" is just a tourist-industry sobriquet. In my experience, the friendliest people on Pacific islands are those who have the greatest assurance that you are going to leave soon. [p/279]

"Your bowels shall sing like a harp," Isaiah says (in the Bible) [p/296]

Thoreau made pencils for a living, and he influenced Mahatma Gandhi in his essay on civil disobedience, and his dying words were "Moose...Indian"

Thoreau who was fascinated by queer names and bad puns, would undoubtedly have taken his revenge on the critic and made a wooden crutch joke of his name. In Cape Cod we get two groaners: a play on "littoral"/"literal" and a bit of meaningless fun with the Viking "Thor-finn" and the American adventurer "Thor-eau." [p/356]

The word fetish derives from a Portuguese expression feticceio [p/406]

English people peeking out the window and sizing up their neighbors. Mr. Beluncle is about suffocation."Then Ethel appeared in their rooms, with her hair dividing over her cheeks, and looking out from it like a savage peeping in terror from an old tent." [p/421]

he described the diesel rhythm of the boat as "slow and languorous, like the heartbeat of a sleeping woman." [p/438]

the section on unspeakable rituals is a very interesting read [p/443-453]

beaks like scissors [p/456]

this man knows so many obscure words for sex
>buccal coition