tales from an ordinary world

1999-11-12

I got off the tram this morning and I could feel something big up in the sky, watching me. I turned arouund and there were two hot-air balloons, one of them with one of the city of Melbourne logos on it, which looks unfortunately like two fingers turned up at you.

Now, I remember as a child, this same gesture was something you did in order to, well, offend someone. Somewhere along the line it got optimized into, simply, The Finger. One rather than two. How did this happen ? Why didn't I pay more attention ? It's one of those random philosophical questions like when a friend asked me if I could remember what year it might have been that shop mannequins suddenly sprouted nipples. Somewhere along the line, apparently, it just happened. Unfortunately, I couldn't really claim to have noticed this phenomenon...

My mind's lying on a couch somewhere, with some twangy Pavement song or other on repeat, while it tries to relax...

All this at 8 in the morning, too.