Overheard at the Counter: How to Train Your Dragon

John Steppenwolf says, "Last night we saw How to Train Your Dragon."

"Ah, so that's what the kids're calling it these days!" says Niall Carter.



"Don't be a sicko," says Verble. "It's a beautiful movie."












"I was really surprised," says Steppenwolf, "because I wasn't expecting much of anything, I thought 'Oh yeah, here'll be another kinda cool kid flick', but this turned out to be MOST excellent!"


"So, you're recommending it then?" asks Niall.








"I'm not just recommending it, I'm gonna give it out as Christmas presents!"









"Then I can wait another month, right?" Niall says.









"Well," Verble says, "that all depends on whether you're on his Christmas list."









Niall looks over at his friend, who takes a sip of his cappucino and says, "I've got a list, my friend . . . and I'm checking it twice."

http://www.leftinalabama.com/diary/7242/im-not-voting-republican

Overheard at Booth 4

Proposal: Of course elections are a battle between the forces of good and evil - why do you think they always have it on the first Tuesday in November? Right after Halloween, when demons try to crawl out Hell to fight the saints on the next morning, which is All Saints' Day?
























Response: I thought they did it because everyone is still loaded up on candy and making plans for Thanksgiving, so that they could get us to vote while we're on a sugar high and otherwise disengaged.

Found on a parchment on Table 5

John Steppenwolf picks it up and says, "Looks a little Byzantine to me."

"I like it," says Niall Carter. "Looks like it might make a good henna."

"You can be slightly weird at times."

"Not for me, dude! I meant my wife!"

Overheard at Table 1

"You know, it freak'incredible that the Republicans could have allowed this money grab for eight years, ballooning this bubble with the banks ripping us off of OUR money, and then when the tsunami came rushing in all our jobs just got swept out with the crashing waves - and then the same guys who allowed this to happen than reFUSE to pay a few pennies out to the same unemployed masses that they, by their own actions, creATEd! SHEEZ on a double stick! Talk about kicking people when they're down!"

"What I hate is that all the people are out of work because these businesses, the first thing they do to keep their CEO and CFOs in jets is to lay off their workforce. Then the Republicans turn around and call them lazy. It's like running a guy down with your car and then screaming at him for wanting to go to the hospital."

"It's insane. They're insane. We're all insane!"

Overheard at Table 3: The Human Centipede

and there's this movie, called the human centipede, and i swear it's so stupid, if i tell people about it, they'll probably wanna go see it, just because i told em not to

what's it about

it's about just that, the human centipede, there's this guy and he takes three people and he
well he
well he kinda
sews em together

sews em together?

yeah, and all the time I'm thinkin this girl's mother must be real proud of her, when she got a call from her daughter saying hey mom, i'm gonna be in this movie, and the mom said prob'ly that's great honey, what kind of movie, well mom it's a movie where my head gets sewn into another girl's butt!

Overread at Table 5: These Days

a journal, with "364" scratched on the cover and at the top of every page, lying open to this entry, simply titled

298.

These days are not for lovers, these
days are not for passion, romance, flowers, scented
poetry, rhyme, a soft glance a touch a look,
nothing like that any more, no,
nothing like that for these days:
these days are for listening to radio talk shows
in the mornings, hearing the torrent of
women, confessing to their affairs, "I'm a nurse, I
make good money, I've cheated on my husband
so many times in our five years of marriage I
just can't count them all,"Why don't you leave him
then?"Why would I wanna do that? I mean I love him
and all that, he just doesn't give me

what these other men give me."

These days, these days are not for sanity,
no longer any easy discourse, no longer any
passionate speeches in public houses about honor
and fraternity and justice and peace, and
representation and noble change, forward advancement
in government and thought and public morale, no
these are the days for vitriol, a christian pastor
from Dallas calling for violent revolution
if the tea party doesn't win back Congress next week,

no, these days are long past intelligence,
long past knowledge or wisdom or rational thought:
these days are for vitriol and black poison words
and blood and
the pestilence of ignorance
that eats against our
collective soul

like a cancer.

And this night, my wife tells me
not to worry about these days:
These days must pass
for what must/will happen
to pass,
these days are part of the will
of the must of
what must
be
/being, and
will have been, and then

is.

And then she goes to brush her teeth,
get herself ready for bed,

ready for me to tuck her in.



This night.


Good night.