THE NEW DREAM #41:

secret room in the back

splashes of blood across the walls

not real blood

not yet

it just looks like a murder scene

all about the look

you normally can’t get back there

at this point

it’s totally inaccessible through mainline play

you’d have to seriously malfunction the mainline to get it to pop up out of the shadows

but you could probably get that to happen

if you prefer things to go awry

the possibility exists

to make it all go flibbertigibbet

in a nuclear way

and let's not kid ourselves

this has its appeal

NOTIONAL HEADLINE #161:

FIST FIGHT BREAKS OUT AT BOOT BARN.

MANDATORY RULE #14:

All ads for AI must be created by AI. 

Show me what you got, Hal-babe, strut your stuff for me.

We’ll see if you’ve any skill!

YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #61:

A munitions plant staffed entirely by your exes.

SIMPLE PLEASURES #10:

Playing tic-tac-toe against myself, achieving stalemate round after round thereby proving that not even I am capable of defeating myself . . . but when I tell people about it, you know, I don’t say it was tic-tac-toe. I tell ‘em it was chess.

GHOSTS COMPLAIN . . . (#1)

. . . when you ignore how they’ve rearranged the furniture in your house; and then they complain when you put the furniture back the way it’s supposed to be.

Ghosts complain.

LOADING SCREEN WISDOM #37:

EAT MADELEINES TO BULK UP THE PROUST MODULES INSIDE YOUR BRAIN.

BURNING QUESTIONS IN A UNIVERSE OF MYSTERY #86:

. . . I’m still processing the fact that the girl with the guitar in the DoorDash ads hasn’t become a superstar, yet.

Give me a minute.

58 seconds pass.

Okay, I’m good to go.

Here’s my new question:

If the Best and the Brightest got us-America-into tragic quagmires in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. . . . then what do we call this self-destructive Trump Bullshit? 

The obvious answer is the Worst and the Dimmest-people online have already jumped on that one, a gimme, when you think about it.

I guess I’ll just stick with calling it the Trump Bullshit. It works.

Hmmm . . .

Let me put it like this:

The Best and the Brightest focused America on bombing people overseas, on channeling our appetite for destruction outwards . . .

By contrast, the Trump Bullshit is directing our hatred and stupidity inwards . . . kinda like a samurai plunging his blade into his own abdomen . . . burning down our own government, flushing the Constitution down the toilet, crashing the economy, persecuting dissenters . . . because . . . ?

Because . . . ?

Uhhh . . .

Because . . . we haven’t won any wars overseas in decades, so we’re declaring war on ourselves to see what shakes out . . . out of boredom, stupidity, extreme masochism, curiosity, a perverse sense of novelty?

If anyone wants to hook me up with the answer key from the Teacher’s Edition give me a holler . . .

DON'T BLAME ME . . . (#2)

. . . for the toilet paper shortage. I only ever wipe after odd numbered bowel movements.

THE NEW DREAM #40:

map of the place without cares couldn’t last even if what they did with it made it suck just standing empty across a half dozen global wars and presidencies and fashion cycles and now it’s gone full nostalgia bait gone full backlash gone full backlash to the backlash only to end up proven a hoax no detectable effect upon the true believers ‘til they forget bookmark fell out had no page grip just start a new book less demanding book a burning book 

in a place of vacation

in place of a vacation

i ended up fielding a bunch of damn questions

ended up fielding

a bunch of damn armies

people did all of the quitting

i didn’t have enough ammo to manage the deserters

it’s just me, now, fighting the war from all sides

it’s just mean, now, in place of a vacation

in a place of vacation

a burning book spit me out asked me to leave yelling and yelling in my face the fuck is wrong with me i can’t get out of there fast enough a burning book keeps writing me back into it just so it can spit me back out just to keep me on the hook even as it denies me any credit but it got slightly fascinating right there at the end how long could i stand it would there be a prize at the end

vacation vacated

the prize of my burning

no (discernible) gap in my grind chronicle

but I have to live with the lie

which doesn’t show on my face

which is not a bad deal at all

as far as bad deals go

NOTIONAL HEADLINE #160:

DESPITE ROWDY INCIDENTS INVOLVING UNSUPERVISED YOUTHS, CHICKEN JOCKEY FAD OFFERS AN EFFECTIVE DISTRACTION FROM THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY.

YOUR DRAWING PROMPT #60:

A unanimous verdict of Big Shrug.

NOTIONAL HEADLINE #159:

MYSTERY PERSISTS AS ANTI AGING GURU VISIBLY AGES, DIES IN HOSPICE, AND IS BURIED IN GROUND.

F.A.Q. #13:

Q: Who is your favorite stand-up comedian? What is your favorite joke or routine by that comedian?

A: George Carlin, “Coast-to-Coast Emergency.”

NOTIONAL HEADLINE #158:

MARINE GUARDING HELICOPTER THINKS ABOUT WHAT HE WANTS TO WATCH ON NETFLIX TONIGHT AS LOW-ENERGY TRUMP MUMBLES LIES AND EVASIONS TO PRESS.