A potted version of Ambrose Bierce's deliciously wicked Devil's Dictionary. Written almost a 100 years ago, Bierce's work remains a masterpiece of cynicism and emotional depravity. Who said it was a modern malaise? B: BORE: A person who talks when you wish him to listen D: DISTANCE: The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor to call theirs, and keep M: MARRIAGE: The state or condition of a community consisting of a master, a mistress, two slaves, making in all two S: SAUCE: The one infallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces has a thousand vices. A people with one sauce has only nine hundred and ninety nine. For every sauce invented and accepted, a vice is renounced and forgiven