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Friday, June 18, 2010

Oh, the manatee!

Graffiti at the end of the block, where I'm housesitting.

"Oh, the humanity!"

I overheard this conversation at the back of the city bus:

Man 1: You hear about the oil spill in the Gulf?

Man 2: I haven't had a TV for 6 months.

Man 3: Man, everything DYING! It killing all the animals* and plants and crawfish and everything.

Man 1: Don't listen to the TV, they just tell you what they want you to hear. Listen to the radio--AM 950 [Air America]. They'll tell you. This oil, it's all over everything! And it's just greed caused it. Greed!

Man 2: Why don't they clean it up?

Man 1: [pause] You ever try cleaning up a chicken dinner in cold water?

____________

*Even the manatee?

Yes. Possibly even the manatee.

5 comments:

  1. Oh, I love overheard comments. This conversation has some wisdom in it somewhere and I like the "Oh the Manatee" very much! hahaha

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  2. It sounds also like the beginning of a nonsense poem, along the lines of the pelican, whose beak holds more than his belly can. Ogden nash, I think.

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  3. SOL: Oh, the Manatee! (friendly graffiti!)
    I must use this, along with "golly Moses!"

    "oil spill" - such a mild term for what's happening; "oil spill" sounds like a typical mechanic's stain: "oops, looks like we spilled some oil."
    Oil BURST!
    Gaping Oil PUNCTURE!

    I love bus conversations; a while back, a man waiting for the same bus as me said, over the phone: "Yeah, I need to borrow a family on Tuesday from 6 - 7:30".
    I felt sure I was inside a book/movie.

    "cleaning up a chicken dinner in cold water" - heh.

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  4. MARG: I note in the next post some people call it an oilcano. That doesn't capture it either.

    POODLE: You've got it: anguish.

    I haven't known what/how to post about it so I was grateful when these two things showed up (the graffiti and the conversation), offering a way to say SOMETHING.

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