Alleged womanly humdrum
We carried Big Bill Sugar to the Cadillac and put him in next to the driver, then we all got in and waited. Okay, lets go home,’ Mike said. So we got to his house on Park Avenue, stopped the car and looked at Mike. Take him out.’ We took Big Bill out of the car, and the doorman smiled and took off his cap. ‘Nice piece of statuary you got there, Mr. Sarfatti,’ he said, respectfully. ‘At least you can tell what it is. Not like these modern things that have three heads and seven hands.’ “That’s right,’ Mike said, and he laughed. ‘It’s real classical. Greek, in fact.’ In her distress, and her soreness that she should be distressed, she drew off from the others, spoke little, spent hours away from the house, wandering in a not unpleasant abdication of thought and feeling. So, in the hot, sunny stillness of an August afternoon, she heard the music. When they got the bars back in place, the critter slipped into the cage and starting fooling with a dingus on the roof of it that looked like a complicated basket. Mose, watching, figured that the basket was some sort of control. We didnt have any charts of the area. The reason we had come out this far was so that I could make some. No ship had ever been out this far before. You must picture me, lights ablaze in that 500-fathom darkness, moving slowly down the slope of the canyon, which at this spot was about as steep as the roof of a house. The missing element—if it was still around—could not have fallen very far before coming to rest. I would find it in ten minutes or not at all. Or did we have to get this far ourselves before we could make out the meaning of the light? Did Borges work, and Jarry’s, simply have to wait for the rest of us to catch up? Perhaps we had to go the Zen route before we could contemplate the statement, Pataphysics isthe science ... with equanimity (let alone delight), and wail for our learned Academies to convene Conferences on the nature of time before Borges’ “Tlon Uqbar, Tertius Orbis” became comprehensible? And there are dozens of other angles, but by now youll have the general picture. The Avenue thinks it knows all about Hidden Persuasion—believe me, it doesn’t. The world’s bestpractical psychologists are in the east these days. Remember Korea, and brainwashing? We’ve learned a lot since then. There’s no need for violence any more; people enjoy being brainwashed, if you set about it the right way. The blond andy was at his shoulder again.Fowler, youre not doing so good today. A well-dressed man in dark blue, carrying an attaché case, stepped forward and set the case down on a table with a solidclunk that riveted attention. Hes not so bad, Leo said. I hope he’s still alive.” Then wetness cooled his body and splashed his face. He dog paddled and bit his tongue to keep from gulping. White Bar jerked him up the bank again and behind him he heard the terrible cries and the club thuds. Tears stung his eyes. But suppose I was inherited after my mothers death. Did I come with the house? A condition of its ownership? And I wonder if my mother, herself, could have paid for that first time? Or Miss Number Two? Did Mrs. Number One really say not to tell? Dear Sanford, "Youll give it to him," Sandy said. "And I dont care, I mean not about the ship. But, boss, I gotta talk to you about that kid-boy." As soon as she has supper, she can come, said Mom, handling my hours as though they had no value to me. Of course she has to go to school tomorrow.” I grinned weakly and straightened up, my face red from more than exertion. I hadnt expected themthat quickly. Hundreds of people were seated on the floor, barefoot. The few men were as small as the women, I noted..
