The House of Ideas was a big empty building with nothing in it. It had no windows and only one door. Outside the door a lizard sat at a small desk. On the desk was a little wooden box. If a lizard had an idea, he could go to the House of Ideas and give an Agama Dollar to the lizard at the desk. Then the lizard at the desk would unlock the door for the lizard with the idea, who would slip inside and shout his idea. For example, a lizard might get the idea that lizards should not give advice to their friends unless they were asked for it. He would go to the House of Ideas, pay one Agama Dollar, and shout, “Lizards should not give advice to their friends unless their friends ask for it.” Then the lizard at the desk would lock the door, and the lizard who had the idea would go away satisfied.

“In thie way,” Reynold explained, “we have kept and collected and kept safe all our ideas for generations.”

“You mean that you think all those ideas are still in there?” I asked.

“Of course,” Reynold said. “How are they going to get out?”

- “Lizard Music” Daniel Pinkwater