Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Blog #35

Travel makes one modest,” said Flaubert, “you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.”  I like travel books and history books and foreign novels.  They take me to places I’ve never been and to times long ago.  I see exotic places and listen to exotic people and learn many, many things.  And yes, I learn humility as well.  How insignificant and puny we are!  We live in a place that is microscopic compared to the size of the Earth, in a time dwarfed by the thousands of years of human existence, in a society that is only the most recent of the uncountably different ways of life.  In all likelihood we will pass without leaving a mark.  Mae West said, “You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough,” so I am satisfied with my place in this progression of life, for I have my humility and my family and my books – and you!

Yes, I have you, my loyal readers, so welcome back to Limerick Oyster where together each week we embark on a new adventure.  That’s what I need – an adventure!  I seem to be in one of those low and slow periods right now.  Feeling useless and unwanted – feeling like Motel 6 would not leave the light on for me.  Do you ever feel like that?  Nothing to do?  As bored as Venus de Milo’s manicurist?  Yes, we need an adventure, but alas, I don’t think it’s in the cards for me.  The South Seas?  Timbuktu?  Papua New Guinea?  Who am I kidding?  I’m never going to get there.  The biggest adventure I have all day is discovering where I put my keys.  What adventure book am I going to write?  Dulliver’s Travels?   So I live vicariously from my books.

Adventures for me? How hilarious!
They’re costly and bold and precarious
I’m too old and boring
To go off exploring
My travels must all be vicarious.

I lived vicariously this morning by talking to my daughter in North Carolina.  That’s Jennifer, the one with a flock of chickens in her yard.  Apparently, there have been coyote sightings in the neighborhood and Jen is worried about her brood, so she checked out CNN (the Chicken News Network) as well as The National Henquirer and The St. Louis Post This Hatch. All had at one time won the Pullet-zer Prize, but they had no helpful advice.  So, she called a local wildlife specialist and he suggested that, to scare off the coyotes, she should get a llama.  You see, those animal-specialist types live in their own dream world where crickets sing to puppets and white rabbits wear pocket watches and llamas grow on trees.  Where exactly do you go for a llama, Llamas R UsNacho Llamas?  I remember years ago when a Great Horned Owl showed up on my porch, and I called one of these animal guys and asked what I should feed the creature.  He asked, “Do you have any dead mice?”  Sure, I said, I keep a box in the freezer in case Monty Hall drops by.

The last time I was down in chicken-land, I borrowed Jennifer’s van to go to McDonald’s.  It was cold that morning when Jen took the kids to school and she must have activated the seat warmer.  I didn’t even know the van had a seat warmer.  After two minutes, however, I knew.  After three minutes I was frantically searching for an on-off switch.  After four minutes I was standing up.  Have you ever tried to drive while standing up?  It ought to be a new Olympic event -- Brake Dancing.

I have an idea of how to get out of these doldrums – I’ll get into the television business.  I have some wonderful ideas for new shows.  The first one I want to produce is Dancing With The Creeps.  The contestants for Season One will be – Bill Cosby, OJ Simpson, Bo Bergdahl, John Hinckley Jr. and Harvey Weinstein.  They are all free men with nothing much else to do and the ratings would go through the roof.  Plus, it will be a great showcase to introduce the new sitcoms I have developed for each one.

Bo Bergdahl starring in Hogan’s Traitors
Bill Cosby starring in Raping Bad
John Hinkley starring in Have Gun, Will Assassinate
Harvey Weinstein starring in Still-More Girls
O.J. Simpson starring in How I Murdered Your Mother

Carol and I went to a dinner, a bi-monthly gathering of our high-school class.  There were about twenty people there, half men and half women.  Now that was a waste of words, wasn’t it?  Once I said “half men”, the rest was obvious.  Well, maybe not.  Besides male and female, Facebook now recognizes 58 other gender categories, including Pangender, Neutrois and Non-binary.  Anyway, Carol and I graduated in the same class, but when we are with people we have just met or haven’t seen in a long time, we always get the same response.  They inevitably ask my wife two questions: how she manages to stay so young-looking and why she married such an old man.  I don’t mind.  It makes me look somehow special that I attracted such a dreamy-looking wife. 

Carol hates when I say in the blog that she’s nice-looking or anything like that.  She’ll be mad.  But I had to use the word “dreamy” to get into this next bit, so get over it, Sour Puss!


There are so many common “dream” references in our language, but they all seem to refer to good dreams.  Do you have good dreams?  When you dream, do you find the girl of your dreams or the man of your dreams or the Neutrois of your dreams?   Do you dream of elysian settings with unicorns and rainbows?  Do you dream of happy and stress-free times?  I don’t.  While you’re dreaming about winning the lottery or writing the year’s bestselling book, I’m dreaming of running around a parking lot for two hours trying to find my car – naked.

A few weeks ago was Columbus Day.  I wonder if Chris knew it was Columbus Day when he discovered America.  Actually, he didn’t even know it was America.  He thought it was India.  (That’s why all the natives were called Indians.)  And besides, his name wasn’t Christopher Columbus; it was Cristobal Colόn.  But how would it sound if we celebrated Colon Day?  Instead of Italian parades and meat balls, there’d be sigmoidoscopes and Miralax.  I wonder if Columbus knew there would be statues of him all over the continent and that after 525 years everyone would want to tear them down.

And by the way, why are there Interstate Highways in Hawaii?  Please stay well, change your clocks and dream about coming back next week for another fun adventure.  I’ll leave the light on for you.

Michael                                    Send comments to:  mfox1746@gmail.com 


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