"The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by wine" Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), the transcendentalist preacher, philosopher and poet. Quote courtesy of my lunchtime smoked salmon bagel from Daily Bread ('By Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen, Maker of Quality Sandwiches'), supplier of sandwiches to The Times (and other fine papers, I'm sure).
Moral of the story: never look too closely at your sandwich wrapper (or you'll end up looking at Linda McCartney's vegetarian food website, interrogating Dictionary.com and generally wasting your lunch hour), nor take a rain-sodden walk through woods (like Waldo did) or you'll end up dying of pneumonia (like Waldo did...).
Dictionary.com: Torpid - inactive, sluggish, slow, dull, apathetic or lethargic.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: biography
Daily Bread: http://www.hain-celestial.co.uk/
