...that and $.50

While heading to work this morning I noticed a Shell station that was offering a “free cup of coffee with every fill-up.” Words escape me. I filled up the Merc Galactica today for a mere $69.

A guy I work with was rolling his wedding band around in his hand yesterday and talking with another co-worker (they being the only two I speak with at work) about how much he could get for it (in a whisper: divorce). Having pawned a plain gold wedding band in my day, I had a general idea of what it might go for. The problem they have, being naval officers, is that they’re running numbers based on karat gold, the weight (measured on a postal scale), and the price of gold. What he’s come to is something like $120; this is what I hear as I walk in the office. I don’t even really need the back story but I ask anyway. I decide to play bookie/pawn broker and tell him that I’ll put the over/under betting line at $75.50. I know that’s way too high but I like to bait the hook. I tell him that if he’s seriously going to a pawn shop then I’ll set the number down around $25. He takes the over and I make some money - $5. In the hall this morning he tells me he went to a jeweler that buys gold for processing and they offered ----- $35. I smile in recognition of how little your old marriage means in the world of capitalism. Maybe he should have given them a story. As we laugh, as divorced men do, he tells me he still has his ex-wife’s wedding gown. Now we’re talking eBay…

The hair has been cut by my usual suspects. What I realized today while sitting in the chair is that even in Arabic the talk in any barber shop is the same. I bet if you do some research into shops in Saudi Arabia, Korea, Russia, or Greece, you’ll find the latest copies of Maxim, Swank, Esquire, Boater’s World, and Field & Stream. Haircutting is the language of the World – that whole music thing is a sham.

Today you get the amazing Todd Snider doing Nashville at the Americana Music Awards. If you look closely, and you should, you’ll see Buddy Miller over on the left of the screen leading the house band. Todd Snider is the most endearing live performer you’ll ever see.



love to all.

t.

P.S. Cubs win! Cubs win!

P.P.S. I'll get X to relay via her blog the joke told by her Bar Review lecturer. She told the boys in the car yesterday and I've never heard kids laugh so hard.