SMOKE AND DARKNESS

Three of the lights were out, so my stretch of the street where I wait while smoking my pipe for the bookseller to get off work was shrouded in darkness. Despite which it was rather crowded. People heading to bankmachines, or further drunkenness, or, in the case of actual locals, home. Plus one or two skeevy dudes who wished to make use of the darkness but couldn't because of the foot traffic. Although I look like a harmless old geezer, I do have a stout blackthorn stick which could do serious damage, so I do not worry very much, but I do keep my eyes open. Boys, I am carnivorous. Just so you know.

Keep your fratboy marketing department well away, and no one gets hurt.

There were also some European tourists.

Harmless. Middle aged.

Gerbils.

And a whole flock of robotaxis, unevenly spaced apart, because the robots are winning. Something that can keep on circling till called has an advantage over private vehicles.
It doesn't need to park. Well over three dozen in half an hour.

Yes, being a wee bit neurotic, I counted them.

Sometimes there are mosquitoes here, which I have no problem sleeping through, but later if I use cortisone cream on the itchy spot I always remember the warning on the package which says "do not apply directly to anus". It seems especially written for Borat.
I try not to imagine a possible scene in a movie.

There are, in this life, very few things which need to be directly applied there.
Off the top of my head I cannot think of a single one.

Tonight there were no itchy bits.
The mosquitoes are gone.
It's gotten cold.

The drinking hole we ended up at was invitingly near-empty. Tat Yee was there -- earlier I had seen him at the place where I ate lunch -- but sometime in between the beer and whisky he slipped out. Per the bartender he'll be there again tomorrow. He's not an alcoholic, just retired. And for some people bars are their living room, exposure to other humans, conversational cockpit, and safe place.


Some pointless movie with Will Ferrell and Mark wahlberg as New York Detectives was on screen. It had its moments. It also made us keenly aware of neckties, though that was not the point. It was interrupted very frequently by ads for medicines which might cause death, suicidal thoughts, psychological and bowel problems, hair loss, organ damage, talk to your doctor, and healthy living, plus Chipotle, beer, and automobiles.



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