I'd like to inaugurate a new category here at Before Nine. And, an explanation is in order as to how it came about.
There are few phrases I've generated in my life that are wholly original, and that's probably true for most people. I'm not being paid, currently, to invent aphorisms or the telling bon mot that punctuates or underlines some expression of acerbic wit. I'd like to be; but, I'm not.
As brilliant as it gets for me is sitting around my tiny living room in my underwear, drinking coffee, and listening to Steve Roach's Immersion:Four at 9 o'clock in the morning. Your mind tends to drift with Roach's music, and I found myself considering that this week marked the thirtieth anniversary of my moving to The City By The Bay (it was actually on Thursday, the 28th).
In thinking about that, I had to shake my head (long, strange trip so far, man), and when I tried remembering what it felt like to be the Me who showed up here to take a new job, I shook my head again; Jesus; I felt like a balloon full of rats.
Rat Balloon, Used By Unions To Protest Hiring Practices
At Various Businesses In New York City (Photo: Gawker.com)
When I stopped laughing, I decided to apply this phrase to a new Blog category, wherein you can find the really really wacky stuff. We already have Tubby The Nutter Presents Whack Jobs On Parade, and When Buffoons Walked The Earth -- but, that's for stories involving people in the news, for the most part.
We all know individuals in our own lives, or see things going on in the day-to-day world, of manifest weirdness. Crazy, in fact. As crazy as... a balloon full of rats.
Bingo.
