"Earth? Nervous, hustling sort of place isn't it?"

[Brightonian]

where does that line come from/

[pablo]

Sounds like something from Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe.. or maybe Way Station...

[prion]

I think it is a satiric short story by Robert Sheckley "Ticket to Tranai", published in the late 1950's. Quite a funny story about a Utopian society on said planet , with robots deliberately built to display clumsiness and disintegrate when kicked by their owners and place where wives are kept in stasis fields to keep them young and pretty.

regards,
prion

[Brightonian]

Thanks prion, that sounds right. I was reading a lot of Sheckley at one time, and still would if there was more of his stuff in the shops.

[Brightonian]

Yes, prion was right, recently dug out my old Robert Sheckley Omnibus and there it is.