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| No Olive? |
Have you looked at it recently? I mean
really had a good look at it?
It looks awful.
For a
while it seemed to be just fine. It was rolling right along like a
gentle stream (or a thundering herd of yaks with dysentery, depending
on the day), and we all thought everything was just fine. When it
got to looking a little weary, that nice old Slovak lady from down
the street would wobble over with a basket full of those prune-filled
pastries and pat it on the head. She would mutter something in
Slovak, set the pastries down and wobble home. That brightened
things right up. That did the trick.
Why
wouldn't it?
But
somewhere along the time that we had someone in charge who liked
showing people the nasty scar from his operation, it started to shake
and shimmy when people looked at it. I always thought that the shaking wasn't as bad as the
shimmying, but everyone has his or her opinion on such things, I
suppose. After a couple of decades of shaking and shimmying, the
whole thing would stop for a bit, and then lurch off again, scaring
everyone.
Last
month, it was seen on a street corner in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Right
there, between the smoke shop and the bordello. Was it a bordello?
No, I think it was actually another smoke shop. Yeah, right between
the two smoke shops. Well, to be accurate, I should say the two
boarded-up smoke shops. Ever since smoking was made punishable by
death by beheading, the smoke shops have been closing up left and
right.
Anyhow.
There
it was, crouching down low to the pavement, trying to stick something
into one of its veins. It looked like hell, it really did, and I
wanted to say something, or try to cheer it up, or sing it a little tune, or buy it a sandwich.
Anything.
It
just isn't what it used to be, and no one seems to care. Well, there
is a group of people in that one place, just over there – the group
that keeps trying to organize a bake sale for its benefit. I think
that they care. But
not many other people care.
Do
you?
