"I’m not sure how the ponies happened, though I have an inkling: ‘Can I get you anything?’I’ll say, getting up from a dinner table, ‘Coffee, tea, a pony?’ People rarely laugh at this, especially if they’ve heard it before. ‘This party’s ‘sposed to be fun,’ a friend will say. ‘Really? Will there be pony rides?’ It’s a nervous tic and a cheap joke, cheapened further by the frequency with which I use it. For that same reason, it’s hard to weed it out of my speech – most of the time I don’t even realize I’m saying it. There are little elements in a person’s life, minor fibers that become unintentionally tangled with your personality. Sometimes it’s a patent phrase, sometimes it’s a perfume, sometimes it’s a wristwatch. For me, it is the constant referencing of ponies."