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Liberal VS Conservative
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Conversations
- Hits: 2281
M--- has decided to talk to me. Finally, we've been out socially a few times, I know him through extended acquaintances, he's a larger built guy, mid 30's, dresses in a bad but expensive khaki linen blazer, hankie in the pocket, he's solvent, rumour has it it's from his brother who pays him a million dollars per year not to show any interest in the family business. He honours his word, takes his money, plays the big wheel himself, plays at real estate developer, financier, drives an expensive car and always seems to have a ready supply of party favours. I know this of him without speaking to him, merely listening, and I wonder what he knows of me. At the bar, a good natured ribbing about his resemblance to Don Johnson (give or take 80 pounds) and he decides to honour me with his conversation.
-"Your a journalist, I hear from my brother..."
I'm so-so, was, didn't work out, not at the moment...
"Tell me what you're working on now.."
I hum and haw, I don't like to discuss current projects, it dooms them...
"Tell me and I'll tell you. I write as well. I'm studying neuroscience..."
This is interesting. Tell me more...
"Well, there's lots to say, but I'm going to sum it up in 5 words..."
He doesn't. 200 words later and he's no closer. The conversation changes...
"So I'm guessing you're a liberal...?"
Yep. That's me.
"Define Liberal for me versus Conservative...."
I'm on the spot, an intuitive understanding doesn't seem to lend itself well to the 5 word limit. I think quick and badly..."It seems to me that a liberal is someone that accepts the way things are, where as a conservative wants things to be the way they used to..."
He's quick to pounce, so quick that I have to wonder if he didn't prepare this in advance..."2000 years ago the Romans used to sit at the table and eat on toilets so they could shit at the same time, and every man used to jack off his neighbor and then they had sex with a slave girl...It was conservatives that decided this had to stop!"
In the end I'm not sure if he's telling me he's liberal or conservative, but the conversation is allowed to drop, the bar is closing and the hunt for the party is on...
A Sexy Dream Interrupted by Work
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Dreams
- Hits: 2212
It's the first time we've met, and she's a little plumper than I expected. In a good way, not a bad way, merely on the outer edge of my type...
She's changing into an outfit, large skirt, explaining that that's what she does for a living, she gets paid by fashion designers to wear their brands out in public, promoting their lines, I wait while she tries various outfits on, we're hitting it off...
...And now we're in a plush apartment, she's undressed to reveal that she's appropriately attired underneath, stockings, corset, and covered head to toe in some sort of body paint that keeps changing colors, psychedelic, and we're in a brightly lit large bathroom, door open, deep pile carpet underneath, trying to complete the deed, I'm trying to pull aside her knickers and she keeps changing color - blue, red, yellow, bright neon colors, fumbling and trying to hurry, I have to get to work, I have to get to work ...
(And I wake up from my nap. Time for work. I have to get to work. Another, rare sexy dream thwarted by the mundane pragmatism of day to day life...)
Rotary Mechanical Phones
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 2365
I don't have an Iphone, but if I did I'd definitely want one of these:
The Insolence of Privilege
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 2639
I've met up with the boys from the old job, "Everyone is coming...Party!" they said, and as I am too frequent with my unavailability I made the trip down to meet them.
The worst pub in Kensington, they find the lowest of dives and make it their regular haunt, less chance of being thrown out, behaviors that have them barred from a number of other restaurants and bars are somehow a little more discreetly ignored here.
Beers, greetings, catch-up with the old crew, introductions to the new faces, assurances that "IF I want my job back...he speaks highly of you", but I've been there, done that, and if ever there was a bridge to be burned this is it..."D---- is back", and they're now talking of the bosses daughter, in contact whenever she needs money or a new car, apparently she's getting divorced, living back with her father, 40 years old, the Nephew is complaining as she's taken on the 'ownership' role and has started leaving him chore-lists around the restaurant...I've mentioned his children before, everyone of them a complete fuck-up, one in an institution, the other in jail, this one seems to have found the fine balance between both...
Late, the bar approaches closing, we've met up with a gang of Russians, East Indians, Dutch, Mafias of every nationality, other recent immigrants or travellers, the Bosses Nephew, he knows everyone, if you drink at all you must have once had a drink once with him...they're on their cellphones, everybody's got a buddy and they're all making the call, money changing hands, then there's the house party...
An unfamiliar address, downtown, high-rise, penthouse...maybe 2000 square feet, and I'm trying to figure out who's place it is...what must the rent be? But they're not rentals, and the condo fees alone would be more than I could pay in rent...
"Mikey".
-"Who's Mikey" I ask the Nephew, and he tells me ... John's ------- son, and I know John from the restaurant, best friends with the owner, regular client, 5 years I've known him, met his daughter, his nephew, the heir-apparent to the business, I never knew he had a son ... this is why ... thirty-odd years old, no visible means of support, living in a million dollar penthouse downtown, oddly unfurnished apart from a curved screen HDTV, hardwood floors looking out over the city and Mikey's having a fit, he doesn't know me, thinks I'm an undercover cop, G--- and the Nephew are vouching for me but it's time for me to leave now anyways, these parties, they're out of my league ...
I think of the phrase "To those to whom much is given, much is expected", I can find no examples from the restaurant that justify this, a more apt phrase would be "Much will be given without expectation", the bosses' children, Cinderella, Matt, others, in Calgary the examples are too numerous to list, children squandering the wealth of their parents, Calgary's ruling class, the underachieving insolent children of privilege.
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