______________________________________________________________________________ T ||==\\ || || ||==\\ ||==|| || || B L E N D E R C O R P O R A T I O N || || || || || || || \\ // ------------------------------------ H || || || || ||==// ||=|| >|< >>> Presents <<< || || || || || \\ || // \\ IPROSE-2.DBC E ||==// \\==// || \\ ||==|| || || #009-RT02 -- [08/20/91] ______________________________________________________________________________ Irrelevant Prose Volume Two: Boxer Shorts ------------- by Random Tox Televised Executions -------------------- Everybody died. Everyone. Every single human being on the planet Earth, Terra, died. It happened soon after World President Yassir Johnston followed up on his pledge to have a television in every home. The devastating combination of both the power drain (when three billion people turned on their sets at 8 o'clock) and the brain-damaging quality of the plethora of mindless programs took its toll. After one week, only ten percent of the original world population remained, but after CBS bought out PBS, Earth's doom was sealed, the last man expiring while watching a "Dallas" re-run. In every home across the planet, a televesion blared, the loving glow of sitcom repeats illuminating the rotting corpses sprawled before each set. The twenty-four hour emission of radiation left its mark as well, as the growing mases of proletariat housepets began to evolve. The Quiet Man ------------- He was a quiet man. He sat there at the table, not moving, not speaking. Everyone else was chattering, their American voices bleating, "Whaddaya know?" and "Lemme tell ya something!" The quiet man said nothing. For a brief moment, the conversation had a lapse, no one speaking, and the air still. The quiet man said nothing, and his silence was deafening. The conversation resumed in a moment, with the occasional sidelong glance at the quiet man. Dinner finished, and everyone stood and shook hands, mumbling their goodbyes and reaching for their hats. The quiet man just sat still in his chair and said nothing. On the way out, Mister Lapson accidentally kicked the quiet man's chair, knocking the corpse over. Irish Coffee ------------ Irish Coffee. There it sat, a rich aroma filling the swiss cafe, the aroma of coffee and liberal amounts of whiskey and various other alcoholic fluids. Stan was oblivious to it all, and looked over the cafe table at Elbrun. He smiled and slid his eyeballs up her slim legs, past the tight-fitting brown miniskirt and the ribbed black pullover that hugged her torso like Saran Wrap, accentuating her figure. Stan brought his hand to his mouth, both catching and concealing the string of spittle that hung from the corner of his mouth. Elbrun looked up and smiled, sipping her coffee in small mouthfuls, savoring each one and letting it trickle down the back of her throat, appreciating the fine Swiss workmanship of alcoholic coffees. Stan grinned back at her, and in the best tradition of the beat poets, slammed a good deal of the highly-flammable coffee past his tonsils, feeling the warmth slosh violently in his stomach as it seared its way down his gullet. He wiggled an eyebrow at Elbrun and grinned smugly with the knowledge that he was cool. Stan leaned across the table, his shirtsleeves crackling merrily in the flame of the solitary candle as he brushed the wick with his elbow. He looked into Elbrun's eyes and smiled. Then he vomited. [Note: Any resemblence to persons living or dead may not be a coincidence. Then again I'm sure Deviator knows who I'm talking about. And as a sideline, Elbrun is damn real too, quite attractive, and at the time of this writing, 12 years old. Yeesh! She doesn't look 12. At all. Not close.] The First Illusion ------------------ I was walking through the park on a crisp spring morning, quite clear- headed, the cool, damp air chilling my lungs when I inhaled. At the sound of children's giggling, I glanced over my shoulder in time to see a small brown and white bulldog run headlong though a tree, passing through unharmed, as if the tree was not there. "Well," I thought. "If it is indeed an illusion, that of a moving dog must certainly be more complex than that of a tree, so the tree must be an illusion and not the dog." And with this firm logic I backed up, bent over and charged headfirst at the tree. A week later I woke up as the nurse was emptying my bedpan. I was never very good with logic. The Real Writer (2B or not 2B) ------------------------------ He was a writer. He had all of the apparati: The black shirt, the dark beret at a provocative angle, the dark sunglasses that prevented him from hitting the toilet in the grimy cafe men's room, a smouldering cigarette hanging from his mouth at an impossible tilt, stuck to his lower lip with a week's worth of stagnant saliva. The straggling hairs of his goatee were crusty and brittle with the residue left from all the times he had dozed off and dipped his chin into his cafe-au-lait. Like a real writer, he no longer washed. He did change his underwear about twice a month or so, in secret, but he would never admit it to the other writers, who most likely had their own deep dark secrets. So he sat in the sidewalk cafe and smoked cigarettes and drank cafe-au-lait and fell asleep in his food and was a writer. He was a real writer. He wrote about the streets, the night, drunk people and the other, equally odiferous writers, the latter two often being the same. He wrote about hope, love, getting drunk, sex, and the joy of wearing black turtlenecks. He liked black turtle- necks, they made him feel more like a real writer. He sat in the sidewalk cafe until the bartender yelled loud and harsh things at him in French and threw him out. The owner locked the doors and left, leaving the writer alone in the gutter, his beret no longer at a jaunty angle. He cried and thought about hope, love and the odd sewage stains on his black turtleneck. Unfolding his legs, the writer returned to the attic flat he shared with two other foul-smelling people, one a poet and the other a painter. They got drunk together and he vomited. "I'm very glad to be a writer." He thought, and wrote it down on a piece of paper. The wind blew the note out the window. He sobbed and watched a spider burn to cinders in a candle. "Two wicks." He observed. He was very glad to be a real writer. [Note: Some "deep" stuff in here... Email me if you understood the "Two Wicks" bit... . Literary Schnozzle Supreme, neh?] ______________________________________________________________________________ (C)1991 by The Durex Blender Corporation & Random Tox All Rights Revered. Even yours. *** Spread the word of Turnex, the Blender for the Next Millenium. *** The Durex Blender Corporation : Boston (617) 696-8156 - 24oo/8N1 - 24 hours