Oct. 2, 2015

 

Dear Hildie:

 

Boy, things are dull here. Biggest issue was how to use the special key to get the locking gas cap off the Jeep (Worst mistake I made lately; AutoZone didn’t have a non-locking one and original got lost by someone here when they filled up). I couldn’t get it off to gas up and a guy came up at Albertson’s on Essen x Perkins begging for $ because he just got out of the hospital for depression (had his papers and hospital bracelet) and he couldn’t get it off. I gave him a couple of bucks anyway. Now only one of us is depressed. So I ordered a non-locking one. Ever notice how everything in our society is aimed at keeping you out—packages of crackers, medicine bottles, toys, etc., etc.? Now gas caps. Jesus. Makes you want to be a Thoreau and live in the woods.  Oh, I forgot—You already do.

 

Today when I leave I shall call the lab crew “Churlish bate-breeding scullions.” That’s what I got by randomly opening my book of Shakespearean insults. Always makes them giggle.

 

It’s so nice and cool this morning—Makes you want to get out there and swing a scythe. But I’m allergic to scythes, due to the symbolism. Just like Haag said in 1987 when we drove up to the Raffman site and somebody said, “Look, a cemetery.” He said, “That’s the last thing I want to see.”

 

I have a solution to all the campus and school shootings: Set aside a part of each campus a small area you label O.K. CORRAL. Then let anybody with an ax to grind and/or any armed students and/or teachers go there and shoot the place up.

 

GREEN IS FOR DANGER just arrived. I look forward to watching it.

 

Take care,

 

Love,

M

October 1, 2015

 

Dear Hildie:

 

Happy October!  Nice weather to get all the current flowing, even from run-down batteries!

 

I was trying to combine into one computer file and print out for posterity (!) a copy of a manuscript from 2004. And lo! What do I discover? Chapter 38 is missing! I had to re-read it and figure out what was missing from it and now—since I can’t find the original print-out—I’ll have to write a Chapter 38, simply because I can’t stand unfinished stuff. I want to print out all this stuff because who knows when there’ll be the next revolution in computers and all the old discs will be useless? Or, worse, when some cosmic ray will delete all the magnetic storage from hard drives and thumb drives.

 

The Halloween firms have been at a low point invention-wise for the past few years—All about zombies and stuff that doesn’t excite me. I wish they’d get more creative. I may not add anything this year.

 

I had a weird dream the other night that we’d found some skullcaps (calvaria) eroding out of a mound on Avery Island. I was told by someone they looked human but someone else said they were too thick and were Australopithecine.  I wasn’t supposed to let out news of this, but I decided to consult old Dr. Haag, anyway. But then I couldn’t find the skull cap I’d taken to show him until I realized it was in a manila envelope I was carrying. I showed it to him and he was impressed. I realized this would be quite a revolution in paleoarchaeology, to have australopithecines from Avery Island, Louisiana!

 

Well, the administration has made a mess of things in Syria. I’m almost with your friend, the Syrian on this—Assad is a brute but so are all the others. It’s a complete mess. I’m surprised she was able to go back there.

 

Take care.

Love,

M