Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
ithour reference to previous discourse. WE just have to get a new st-
  

    
udmuffin to serve drinks poolside to the ladies while they sw-
  

    
indle elderly gentlemen all year round. It's a scandal but the man-
  

    
agement skims 20% off the top, the cops look the other way, and even
the victims get a kick out of the sm-
  

    
iles on their clients' faces when they leave the place. Until they check
their wal-
  

    
k-in closet and discover the corpse. Then the sh-
  

    
uddering begins, and the authorities are summoned, and the alibis are con-
  

    
fused with facts. You can't always be sure where the truth might be,
the stacks of files are no help and you of-
  

    
fend me when you suggest that my response to these scurrilous lies was s-
  

    
hockingly naive. I mean, I guess I should be flattered, but I
haven't been naive about anything since the Trickster claimed he was
in-
  

    
visible and he could just walk into a bank and help himself to wads of c-
  

    
oin wrappers. Like he had to have all those quarters for the
laundromat or something. But sooner or later we all learned what he
used them for, and it stayed with us for l-
  

    
onger than anyone really wanted. Soiling our minds and making
everyone who heard the story wish for a de-
  

    

cimal point to be placed before some of those zeroes because my finances a-
  

    
rdently desire to be better than they are. But then, who doesn't?
That platonic ideal keeps biting us all in the a-
  

    
rithmetic. No matter how many times I check my fig-
  

    
leaf it still seems to slide slyly away, causing some discomfort to
the dear old l-
  

    <scribbled by tnf Thu 12 Nov 15 06:04>
  

    

ounge lizard a few barstools away. He's been undressing me with his eyes all
evening, which seems kinda silly given that all I'm wearing is a f-
  

    
edora and a few well-placed tattoos. Not really what's called for in
weather like this, but I just couldn't decide wh-
  

    
ose style to adopt in my costuming for the day. Sometimes thinking it-
  

    
Che's like a bad mosquito bite only you can never find the right
place to scratch. One time I spent several weeks writing bad prose
while I at-
  

    
tempted to lose weight by eating only macaroons and chai lattes. First of
all, they don't taste very good when consumed together. And then th-
  

    
eologians tell us that not every pairing of food and liquid is
sacramental, either. Though opinions vary. I get confused by re-
  

    
curring conflict between the "tastes great!" and "less filling" fac-