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ON_THE_ISLAND
February 14-15, 2007
VILLON
Back at the old Brenner homestead, my
brother, Villon, and his wife (and two They're raising a crop of
kids, now in their mid-twenties) are some truly enormous cats,
living the life they're accustomed to. half-way to being leopards.
My brother returns home from One of them -- when feeling
work every day, and begins strumming ignored -- does death-defying
the guitar, watching the computer's ten foot leaps from shelf to
screensaver do a random slide-show cabinet to refrigerators
of a large stash of family photos.
Nora and her brother
I mention that the Nick like to hang out
random display seems to up near the ceiling, on
be becoming mostly cat top of the highest
photos. They look cabinets.
guilty about it.
His wife's sister
comes over for
"band" practice:
two harmonicas with
his guitar... they
work on Xmas carrols,
until they accuse each
other of making too
many mistakes and
split up "forever"
in a huff.
(I gather that's the
way they end every
practice session.)
There's not a lot to like
about "Huntington Station"
(near the middle of the MAULED
island, as opposed to
the downtown "Huntington"
on the north shore), and
certainly I complain about
it enough... but a pretty
excellent thrift shop has Where Dangerbaby once
opened up over on the scored a reflective silver
corner jacket, and I found
a really good shakuhachi
We were desperate for record.
for food at one point,
and I was suggesting
we take a chance on
a random little chinese
place across the street.
As we get closer to it,
Dangerbaby notices the
hand-written signs of
an even smaller Jamaican
place next to it, named
"Dudley's".
We poke our heads in the door
and glance at the tiny scribbled
menu on a white board.
Dangerbaby gets excited, points,
jumps up and down...
And the guy in the back
behind the counter breaks Excellent curried
out into a big smile -- he's goat. Enough for
"Dudley" (actually, more two with leftovers
like "duhhd-le, mahn"), to pass on to my
which explains the name of nephew.
the place. He and Dangerbaby
talk about Jamaica. We mention Dudley back at
home. My brother's wife,
despite being a hard core
vegetarian, knows the guy
well: they often talk at the
laundromat next door.
Also in Huntington, we
once again touch base
with Walter Big, one BIG_WALTER
of my old high school
gang who never really
left the old neighborhood.
We go to the Other Greek
restaurant in Downtown
Huntington -- I always favored
the original, the Mediterranean,
which kicked off a small Greek We talk of many and
craze in that area -- but this various things, global
"newcomer" is not at all a bad warming evidence,
place, and I guess I'm willing Richard Dawkings and
to cut them some slack for so on, finishing up
directly competing with my old with me ranting about
fave on their home turf, probability and the
considering that this crime is Gambler's Fallacy,
three decades old by now. with some side trips
into a defense of
illegal immigrants.
On our way out of town, we
lug the luggage down to the
corner bus stop... and the
bus we needed blew by just
a moment before we got there.
Hanging around at the bus
stop, debating the next
move... I looked over in
the window of the service
station -- this was bought
by a friend of mine soon
after he got out of high
school and I wondered if --
Someone inside waved
in the gloom,
and the man himself came I mention a mutal friend,
running out to say hello... who had come out to
for the first time in a California to do the hike
few decades. up Half Dome --
He was impressed to hear
the guy was still hiking --
I recommend Half Dome to
Before running back him highly and he comments
in he comments: "When am I going to get there? And *that*
I'm serving a life sentence is Long
"So what are you here." Island,
building out there?" for you.
SUCKING_VORTEX
"Websites,
I guess." One of my
nieces mentioned
when she was
We flag down a cab, in high school
and take the train she would
into the city. sometimes wear
a pentagram.
They would
say: "I didn't
know you were
Jewish."
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