Postcards from The Pug Bus

Lifting a satirical leg on popular culture

Persons in the Ether

Question of the Week

Salad dressing on the side or on the top?

MB

Marlowe Brint, artisnal jewelry designer

Reportedly outside Santa Fe, NM

On the side, obviously. A salad should retain the illusion of free will until the very last moment. Once dressed, it has chosen a direction and can never go back.

EV

Evelyn Voss, lobster fisher person

May once have lived in Bangor, ME

I prefer it on top, but only in a thin ceremonial line, as priests once applied oils to objects they feared and respected. A salad without dressing is just yard work in a bowl.

CK

Clyde Ketter, attack dog trainer

Unverified, but emphatically from Akron, OH

Neither. The correct approach is to keep the dressing nearby in a separate vessel and let the salad absorb its presence psychologically. That is how my father did it, and his lettuce feared him.

Adverse Effects

The following lines may induce brief clarity, misplaced certainty, and the sense that something has already been decided without your approval ...

There is a moment, just before sleep,
when the mind loosens its tie
and admits what it spent all day denying.

Read It All

There is a moment, just before sleep,
when the mind loosens its tie
and admits what it spent all day denying.

You remember the thing you said—
not the words,
but the angle of them,
how they leaned slightly wrong
and stayed there.

A life is not ruined in grand gestures.
It goes soft at the edges first.
Corners round off. Standards blur.
You start calling things “fine”
that would have once kept you awake.

Which is the problem.

Because now you do sleep.

Beautifully. Efficiently.
Like someone who has made a series of
very small, very reasonable surrenders
and arranged them into a pillow.

Tiger Woods Admits to Tryptophan Addiction

16 years philmaggitti

an image

JUPITER ISLAND, Fla. – Tiger Woods revealed on his website this morning that he has decided to seek treatment for his tryptophan addiction. Mr. Woods also revealed that he was “high as a kite” the morning he shanked his SUV into the rough on his front lawn.

“For several years now I have been tryptophan-dependent,” said Mr. Woods, who added that he had begun taking a
tryptophan supplement derived from turkey gonads to control seasonal affective disorder.

According to Mr. Woods, some of the symptoms of tryptophan abuse mirror the “so-called effects of my accident.” These symptoms include spontaneous scratches on the lips, poor night vision, blood pooling in the mouth, and difficulty operating a motor vehicle when someone is bashing it with a golf club.

Citing research done by the American Medical Association and the United States Golf Association, Mr. Woods said that tryptophan abuse can also lead to uncontrollable sexual urges—and “an embarrassing tendency” to crow like a rooster during orgasm.

Mr.Woods did not reveal why he had taken so long to acknowledge his tryptophan addiction, but a source reasonably close to the golfer told Postcards from the Pug Bus that Mr. Woods may have kept silent because he had “just about aced a deal” to be the National Turkey Foundation’s spokesman for 2011.

“I don’t see that happening now,” said the friend, “especially when the folks at the turkey foundation learn that Tiger has an aversion to dark meat.”

The preceding is satire. Straight up, Skippy. No warranties are expressed or implied. For life advice, try a professional. For investment tips, try a dart board. For salvation, the gentleman in the robe has been handling that portfolio for 2,000 years.

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⚡ The FDA has approved the first prescription-strength silence, available in 30-day supplies for patients whose doctors have determined they are talking too much. Side effects include clarity, improved listening, and a brief period of being liked.

⚡ A bipartisan congressional caucus has formed to study the feasibility of doing nothing faster. Early results suggest the group is ahead of schedule.

⚡ Netflix has announced a new content category called Shows You Will Start But Not Finish, to be featured prominently alongside Things You Have Already Seen Twice and Movies You Forgot You Watched. Subscribers describe the experience as having a lot of options.