First line of Against the Day?

[the Robot Vegetable]

On Fri, 6 Oct 2006, Carvill John wrote:
> 
> "A motorcycle out on the trunk road, snarling cocky as a fighter plane, 
> bypasses the village, heading up to London. The great balloons drift in the 
> sky, pearl-grown, and the air is so still that this morning's brief snow 
> still clings to the steel cables, white goes twisting peppermint-stick down 
> thousands of feet of night. "
> 
> It was that peppemint-stick twisting that got me!

yes yes yes!  just rereading and rerererereading that section.  
how lovely!