ENRICHED WITH HYDROCORTISONE

Whenever I get off the bus at Grant and Clay I start counting 'boolas' (a person from Hawaii will automatically know what I mean). There are things which have to be counted; robot-taxis, dogs, tykes, familiar faces, street people, markedly insane folks, and, in Chinatown, boolas. It's sort of an obsession with oversize Americans. Because I am a cruel person with very little sympathy for people who drown their sorrows in carbonated beverages, fatty snacks, and corn-derived sweeteners. Which is seemingly the entire South and Midwest.

It's entirely unjudgemental, though. Oh look, there goes a whale. Who will probably have a heart-attack before hitting fifty, and deplete the world's supply of injectable insulin as well as discount supermarket sheetcake before then.

Do not feed the whales.

And I can understand how they get that way. Mmm, fatty snacks!
Say it slowly, languourously. Drawl it, oh sensuous word.
American civilization was built on fatty snacks.


As well as cynical advertising. "To maintain your girlish figure, reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet." The box of bon-bons in that picture was lovingly photographed. Luscious confection, or the acrid taste of burning leaves? Hard choice. The words "it's toasted" sealed the deal. You'd probably walk a mile for that yummalicious toasty flavour.

Waddle waddle waddle.

During the tourist months Chinatown is filled with people who did not retain their girlish figure but stole the box of bon-bons, ripping it savagely out of the trembling hands of an orphan to gobble it down post-haste with unseemly lip-smackety sounds. Somewhere some scrawny tyke on the cusp of death is weeping into her pillow over the loss. It was her last box! She had been saving it for her mommy who needed an operation! The heartache is palpable!

Did you know that if you put a sheetcake between two slices of bread it's a sandwich?
Here in San Francisco you can use sourdough. We're famous for that.
Bring some back for the folks in Podunk.


Over twenty boolas on the street yesterday in Chinatown. This is why you should avoid the main drag, one of them slows down an entire block of pedestrians. I walked in traffic on my way to the restaurant, because even though the blood circulation in the lower extremities is far from optimal, and I carry a blackthorn stick with me to gently poke at obstructions, there were slow-moving tourists everywhere gliding beatifically from one window display to the next. Even my legs are faster. A purposeful stride by comparison.

I like boolas. They make me feel good about myself.

Smoked a pipe afterwards filled with aged Virginias. Then did my shopping. Including a bunch of longans (龍眼 'lung ngaan'; dimocarpus longan, a tropical fruit) for my Indonesian Chinese downstairs neighbor. Plus substances preventative of Hong Kong foot (香港腳 'heung gong keuk'; tinea pedis), which, in hotter weather, takes out whole swathes of the country, leaving them bedbound with nothing but sheetcake sandwiches for sustenance in their suburban ranch houses with the two-car garage, from May till October. It's sad.

Here in San Francisco it is a mild risk from 'back to school' till Halloween (our Valentine's Day). And a good boy scout should always be prepared.
One must take care of one's health.


A tube of anti-itch cream for dry skin is also useful.
Especially when it gets near seventy degrees.
Moisturizers, and aloe.
66°F, sunny.


It's sweltering, man, sweltering.




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