Watering Hole, Friday, October 21st: O-C-C-U-P-Y W-A-L-L S-T-R-E-E-T

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As I believe I’ve mentioned before, the one redeeming feature in “The New York Post” is the puzzle page, particularly the word game in which you’re given a particular word and have to make as many five-letter words as possible out of that word.  The rules are simple:  no proper nouns, no plurals ending in ‘s’, no foreign words.  For my own amusement, I often play this game with a word or phrase of my own choosing.

The other day I sat down and started playing around with the phrase “OCCUPY WALL STREET.”  As I started jotting down five-letter words, I noticed that many of the words were pertinent to the actual OCCUPY WALL STREET movement.  Obviously, many were not, but there seemed to be a striking number which were applicable to the protests.  I’ve listed all of the words that I came up with, in vaguely alphabetical order, below the fold.  If anyone comes up with a word that I missed, please let me know and I’ll add it.

APTLY ACTOR ALERT ALLOT ALTER ASTER ASCOT ALLOW ACUTE ATOLL CAPER CATER CEASE CLEAR CLEAT COAST COPSE CORPS COWER CRATE CREST CRAWL CREEL CREEP CRUEL CRUET CRUST CRYPT CASTE CREPE CURSE CROUP CLOSE CURLY EASEL ELECT ELATE ELOPE ERASE ERUPT LOYAL LATTE LATER LEAPT LEASE LEAST LOCAL LOCUS LOTUS LOWER LOUSE OCCUR ORATE OUTER OTTER OCTET PARTY PARSE POLAR PURSE PROWL PLACE PASTE PULSE POWER PEACE PETER PETAL PUTTY PASTY PEARL PURSE RALLY ROAST REACT ROUSE ROYAL ROUTE RUSTY SWELL SPREE SLEPT SPOUT STOUT STOAT STOLE STALE STEAL STEEL STRUT STEER SWALE SWEAR SWEAT SCREW SWEEP STALL SPATE SURLY SPORT SCORE SCOUT SCOUR SLOPE SALTY SALLY SLATE SPRAY SLEEP SCARE SCALE SCOWL SCREE STORE STARE START SWORL STROP STRAP SPURT SWEET STRAW SPORE SLEET TREAT TWEET TRAWL TRUST TRYST TRUCE TASTE TRACE TRACT TEASE TAPER TOWER TOTAL TROLL TOWEL UTTER WORST WORSE WREST WASTE WATER YEAST

So, I propose a sort of contest:  How many of the five-letter words found in O-C-C-U-P-Y W-A-L-L  S-T-R-E-E-T can you use in a comment about the OCCUPY WALL STREET movement?   You can write just a sentence, or a paragraph, whatever you wish.

Have fun!

 

This is our Open Thread. Take the five-word challenge, or say what’s on your mind!

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200 thoughts on “Watering Hole, Friday, October 21st: O-C-C-U-P-Y W-A-L-L S-T-R-E-E-T”

  1. Let’s see – it’s 21 October, actually 22 Oct. in the Southern Hemisphere –
    friends are still here on earth!

    Frugal – appears you and Zxbe will be able to celebrate your birthdays on the 22nd, after all!

    • I decided I could sleep in this morning since Jesus wouldn’t be looking for me anyway. From what I can tell I didn’t miss anything. If the Republican candidates (with the exception of cultist Romney, of course) are still here in person and are not simply a bunch of empty suits, then …… um, wait. They started as empty suits. Were they already gone?

      Life is so confusing.

  2. Morning folks, we’re all still here in VA.
    So I guess ol’ Hermann Cain turned out to be a sort of upscale Palin-like grifter. At least he buys his own clothes.

  3. So will Pastor Dumfuk now please shut the fuck up for the rest of his miserable life?

    Prolly not.
    He’s the worst waste of water that ever leapt into the local locus.

    Oh, and Jane, …wayyyy too much time on your hands!!! ;)

  4. Jobs was kind of a iHole:

    “Our lawsuit is saying, ‘Google you fucking ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off,’” Jobs said, according to Isaacson. “I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product.”

    • Jobs was a business man with an eye for the aesthetics of a product. The iPod, iPhone and iPad were not giant leaps of technology that would not have appeared without Jobs being Jobs. Music on the go came before the iPod. Mobil phones came before the iPhone. Touch screens came before the iPad. Jobs set the path for Apple to be unique and I am sad he died so young. But he was no Einstein.

  5. Got up this morning and looked outside. I could barely see the school across the street. I immediately wondered if this was it. We were still here, I think. As the morning light drew brighter I could plainly see that the reason I could barely see the school was because we have a very thick fog! Not as thick as the fog in some people’s minds though.

    So does the Pastor Dumfuk feel slighted by his god or does he think maybe he pissed god off or does he realize that god is not real. Naw. He probably thinks he just got the day wrong again.

  6. Quote of the Day:

    “I was totally embarrassed – completely embarrassed by the lack of seriousness, the lack of focus on the issues that really matter to the American people – issues about reviving our economy and addressing joblessness were given short shrift. Our role in the world and securing our position of pre-eminence were given short-shrift. It was more game-show-like than anything else,” – Jon Huntsman, asked about this week’s GOP debate, which he foolishly boycotted to pander to New Hampshire.

    • Sounds to me like some big gummint shit no conservative in their right mind would want…Oh. Right, we’re talking thems that needs them some authoritarianism for breakfast.

      • Maybe this is the first step to issuing their own currency. I saw some Bank of Louisiana bills on display in New Orleans and they were right purty.

    • I thought that this was Herman Cain’s solution to the poor’s plight… buying second hand goods so that you don’t have to pay taxes the second time around?

  12. I think this is beginning to resonate. Sucks to be GOPiggies.

    “For the second time in two weeks, every single Republican in the United States Senate has chosen to obstruct a bill that would create jobs and get our economy going again. That’s unacceptable,” he said. “We must do what’s right for the country and pass the common-sense proposals in the American Jobs Act.”

  14. JUDGE RULES THAT PROPOSITION 8 PROPONENTS MUST DISCLOSE CAMPAIGN FINANCE RECORDS

    Protectmarriage.com and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the groups that supported the passage of Proposition 8, have lost their suit for exemption from California’s campaign finance disclosure laws. U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. ruled the groups had to comply with all disclosure laws, including listing any donor who gives $100 or more in any future campaigns. This is the second loss this week for anti-gay groups — equality opponents in Washington also lost their attempt to thwart campaign disclosure laws, but in that case they were trying to hide the names of petitioners.

    This is getting interesting…

    • Watch out LDSers – your name will be displayed! (along with many others)

      What ever happened to standing by ones convictions? If you are a hater of a certain group; give money to help de-humanize/take away Rights of that group why wouldn’t you want the world to know?
      Oh, yes, the answer: you are a coward!

    • We cut and run.
      Democrats wouldn’t let us win.
      Anything else they said after Vietnam.

    • Ummm, oh goodie another country handed over to the Muslim Brotherhood by Barry Soetoro! When can they have the USA?

      Something like that? It’s coming….

    • What the hell science-fiction writer is he reading to get these, hack ‘em up hairball ideas?

      What happens should he lose all his money – join us in the living purgatory he’s attempting to create?

      • Frankly, I’d lock Cain out of our ghetto. If he loses all his money, he should only blame himself, and should be willing to work extra hard in the free market to survive.

    • What’s his codeword for Extermination Camps, I wonder. Certainly they’re on his agenda. How else to quickly get rid of lazy college kids looking for Pell grants, lazy Mexicans who don’t spik Inglich, the lazy unemployed, dirty lazy hippies, lazyveterans who vote for Obama and Dems and expect benefits for their service, free treatment for their wounds, etc.

      I’m beginning to think KochCain makes Michele Bachmann look to be the fundamentally sane Republican candidate.

    • The term police state describes a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.

      The inhabitants of a police state experience restrictions on their mobility, and on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement.

  23. While driving about today on business, keeping a sharp eye out for vehicles nicer than mine that may find themselves abandoned, it occurred to me that all those Raptured, leaving everything behind, would find themselves waiting in line before the Pearly Gates…butt nekkid. The visual of all those fundies standing nuts to butts waiting on ole St. Pete, kinda like the checkout lines at WalMart the day after Thanksgiving sans clothing.

  24. I’ll take this one Zooey. I just heard this on Thom.
    Cantor Speech Abruptly Canceled

    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor canceled a speech on income inequality at the University of Pennsylvania Friday morning, after his office was told that the school opened the speech to the public and it was targeted by protesters – including Occupy Philadelphia.

  25. Words fail….

    They died holding hands:

    “At 3:38 pm last Wednesday, Gordon’s breathing stopped. Though he was no longer alive, his heart monitor continued to register a beat. The nurse told Gordon and Norma’s son, Dennis Yeager, that the monitor was beeping “because they’re holding hands, and [Norma's heart beat] is going through them,” Dennis recalled in an interview with Des Moines’ KCCI news station. “Her heart was beating through him.” Norma died at 4:38 pm, exactly one hour later.

    They had been married for 72 years.”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/19/long-married-couple_n_1020085.html?ref=mostpopular

  26. This just in …

    “All paid New Hampshire staff for Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign have quit over deep frustration with the campaign’s lack of commitment to New Hampshire. …”

    Newt & Michele, peas in a bubble.

      • I tried to steal your comment and post it at the Minneapolis Star Tribune but the censors blocked it. They really don’t like it when I try to make fun of Shelly.

        Damned “librul media”!

    • And the Batchit’s campaign replied:

      Good. We only want volunteers who know in their heart that God wants Michele to be anointed Empress of Xianica, er, Presidentess of America…

  29. Quote of the Day II:

    “We can go over there and help them build their infrastructure up … One of the problems I have from leading from behind is when a day like this comes we don’t have the infrastructure in place that we could have,” - Lindsey Graham, who supports infrastructure spending in Libya but not the US.

    Epistemic closure is pervasive in today’s GOP.

    • Dude’s talking about *military* infrastructure. He is arguing that the US military should have a presence in Libya.

      OK asswipe, here’s your M-16 and helmet – we’ll drop you into Sirte and let you set up shop. let us know how it goes.

      Arrogant prick.

  30. Romney Questions U.S. Withdrawal From Iraq

    “President Obama’s astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women,“ Romney said in a statement. “The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government. The American people deserve to hear the recommendations that were made by our military commanders in Iraq.”

    Yeah, you go with that, Mittens. How about we just let your five sons take the place of those troops? I’m sure they will whip things right into shape…

    • Er let’s recount –

      Bush – Iraq – 3 trillion $s, 5000 US soldiers (and a few other largely forgotten countries ignored by the US) killed

      Obama – Libya – 1 billion $s – 0 US soldiers killed.

      • Clearly Obama is the failure. The Military-Industrial complex didn’t profit enough from the Libya operation. So therefore it’s a failure.

    • Fuck you Mitt. What victories? All we accomplished was to depose one evil old dictator, any other fights we had there would never have happened if we hadn’t gone there. It seems an awful big price to get rid of Saddam, something the Libyan people were able to do on their own with just a little judicious help from their friends.

    • Well, Mittens, President Obama is honoring an agreement made by his predecessor. So? If there was “naked political calculation” it was made by said predecessor. There is actually some logic in that. Bushco may have made the agreement in the hopes that the inevitable Democratic successor wouldn’t be able to stick to the deal.

      • +1 for pete – the trouble is everything is done with political calculation in mind – the world gets f***ed over with American domestic political calculation – incomprehensible shit is done so that…,. say Florida votes the right way next time.

        Exhibit A: The whole US Middle East foriegn policy for the last 40 years.

    • Somebody really ought to remind all the chicken hawks that we don’t own Iraq. We invaded their country and now they have told us to leave. What our military commanders think really has no bearing on the decision.

    • If RomilitaryIndustrialComplexney had his way, we’d tell Iraq that we’re going to be there until hell freezes over or the nuclear fallout from the bunkerbusting nukes we drop in Iran make it just too dangerous to remain.

  32. Ed Schultz:
    ‘What do I have to do to be number one in cable news?’

    How about getting the channel changed in all the rest homes, before O’Reilly comes on?

  33. Can you guys imagine the next debate when the subject of Iraq comes up?

    Paul: We never should have been there in the first place.”
    Mittens: “We’re giving up our victory.”
    Prayerry: “God told me we should stay until all the heathens are converted.”
    KochCain: “That was my secret plan all along but I didn’t tell anyone until after they had read it, somewhere.”
    Newt: “Another victory for Ronald Reagan and the GOP Congress of 1995.”
    Santorum: “Abortion! Family!! Abortion!!! Family!!!!”
    Batscat: “The cake is baked. God has delivered our troops from the Hell of Italy.”

  35. Everyone, including wingnuts, can relax on Iraq because all is well.

    Obama Says US Not Deserting Iraq: ‘We Will Continue to Follow You on Twitter’

    Promises Strong Social Networking Ties with Iraqi People

    WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) Announcing that it would completely withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of the year, President Barack Obama today maintained that the United States was not deserting Iraq, promising the Iraqi people, “We will continue to follow you on Twitter.”

    Mr. Obama indicated that the United States’ relationship with Iraq would soon transition from a military one to a social networking one, with the United States promising to “Like” Iraq’s Facebook page and share contact information on LinkedIn.

    He added, however, that the United States would not have a presence on Google+ “because no one else does.”

    In summing up the United States’ eight-year military mission in Iraq, Mr. Obama said, “We have done everything we set out to do in this mission, except figure out what the mission was.”

    Turning to Libya, Mr. Obama expressed pride in the successful NATO effort to topple dictator Muammar Gaddafi: “It is my hope that Libya will soon have a functioning democracy, and that someday the United States will, too.”

    Former Vice-President Dick Cheney also congratulated the Libyan people, releasing the following official statement: “With Gaddafi gone, Libya’s right to determine its future is now safely in the hands of multinational oil companies.”

  36. Whew, just got back from the rapture. The most boring morning of my life. Couldn’t find anybody with a brain. If that’s heaven it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. I choose hell with all the sinners any day.

    • I got a rapture invite on my Google mail, but labeled it as spam and deleted it.

      Then I put that pesky ‘God’ person on my junk mail sender list.

      • Oakland ministry off again on Doomsday prediction

        …Though two moderate quakes did jolt the San Francisco Bay area on Thursday and floods still threaten to swamp Bangkok, the planet remained intact.

        The ministry and its 90-year-old leader, Harold Camping, are avoiding the media this time around and perhaps a repeat of the international mockery that followed the previous prediction.

        Calls to the ministry went to voicemail and were unreturned.

  37. I went for a mammogram yesterday and the very big reception room was playing Fox News on a big screen television. I almost threw a fit but then I knew I’d have to leave and my records are there etc, etc, etc. I need to send a letter.

    • I’ve asked places to change the channel. They usually comply and switch to CNN (not much better, I know, but it is what it is). I have also left establishments that won’t change the channel. I’m surprised that an imaging center would put on a station that is so derogatory towards women, though. Male owners?

  38. Re: Iraq withdrawal:
    Denis McDonough, the White House’s deputy national security adviser, said that in addition to the standard Marine security detail, the U.S. will also have 4,000 to 5,000 contractors Blackwater/Xe mercenaries to provide security for U.S. diplomats, including at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and U.S. consulates in Basra and Erbil.

    • Keeping that many – well then the administration best be looking for that $3 Trillion missing under Rummys ‘watch’ to pay for them.

  39. Throughout the discussions, Iraqi leaders refused to give U.S. troops immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts, and the Americans refused to stay without that guarantee.

    Well hoodathunk it – the Iraqis actually want to enforce the laws that they have written equally….. well I’ll go to the foot of our stairs. I don’t know why this is not regarded as success – after all this is what soveriegn countries do – they enforce their laws, equally on anyone who happens to be there.

    “You are viewed as a soverign entity ….” what’s the question here?

    • Darn those Iraqis for thinking they could run their own country.

      Also interesting is the idea of leaving Blackwater/XE contractors to protect diplomats and such. Considering how much the locals lerv dem fellas it is sort of like using a porkchop to protect the chickens from foxes.

      • I have been saying for a long time that the safest thing to do is to leave the mercs there and let the Iraqis deal with them as they must. If nothing else we must be certain that they are disarmed before they come back. Private armies have probably ended up killing as many innocent people as smallpox. We can’t allow them to exist in our country.

        • If even half of the back stories are true once the regular troops are gone the contractors will probably get introduced to IEDs as IUDs and not a uterus among them. Paybacks are hell.

  40. Speaking of the Rapture today, could it be possible it actually did happen but no one was eligible?

    • Or, it could be that they came back to earth after they learned what it really means to spend eternity “kneeling at the feet of the Lord”.

      • Sore knees – that’d do it for me – the pub I intend to see in the Rapture has stools… and beer….

      • There ya go. Nothing like spending eternity groveling but considering what most of them are used to down here it does make sense. In a very twisted way.

  42. I have been raptured. Honestly. I spent a little over a week in Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria just across the brewery, well not really across it, but in the brewery’s pub more than across from it. Do I make any sense here? Well THAT’S rapture. Doris’ 90th Birthday Ale. Heaven. Founder’s Ale. Bliss.

    I would have loved to share with you, but he WiFi in the place worked well, had I only thought to bring the charger :oops:

    Well, I hated to come back. To Zurich. I love to be back. At the Zoo.

    • LOL!

      Arrived prior to concert to a parking lot full of people already well into their weekend. Tailgate parties abounded with people sporting a strange array of flowered shirts, grass skirts, parrots adorning straw hats and lots and lots and lots of free-flowing alcohol: Kegs and bottles of beer were everywhere and the requisite tequila shots in anything from a board afixed with multiple shot glasses to Snorkle mouthpieces. Everyone was in a very good mood and mostly very inebriated.

      The venue was an outdoor amphitheater in West Phoenix combined seating: regular assigned seating and a grassy area where one could bring lawn chairs and blankets. Alcohol was expensive inside the gates… $14 for a margarita (served in a tall plastic guitar with a long straw) and beer was $8 for a 32 oz plastic cup.

      Jimmy Buffet, himself, came out and introduced a local band that played 4 songs. He was dressed in a turquoise blue shirt and pink shorts (with palm trees, on it, I think) and barefoot. The stage had giant umbrellas and looked like it was covered in sand. A giant screen covered the back wall of the stage and 2 giant screens were on either side of the stage. After the opening group, Buffet took the stage and got to work. From where we sat, Jimmy himself was about an inch tall, but the screen shots were good and you could see that this balding, slightly paunchy white-haired man with crinkly eyes and a ready smile was happy to be playing music. His second song was a personalized (and funny) version of Brown-eyed-girl.

      He came out playing all the songs that people wanted to hear (Fins, Come Monday, Son of a Son of a Sailor, Margaritaville, Volcano, Why don’t we get drunk?, Changes in Attitude, Cheeseburger, 5 o’clock somewhere, Pencil Thin Mustache, etc.) and played for 2 hours. He joked about playing the Celebrity Theatre in 1974 and being able to navigate the rotating stage extremely drunk better than his recent fall off an Australian stage completely sober.

      Throughout the evening, you could tell that he was very happy to be doing what he was doing and he thanked everyone for allowing him to have a great “summer job for forty years.” Acknowledging that he felt that most of the audience didn’t want to grow up either.

      He finished his last encore with a tribute to his father “He went to Paris” that he
      played solo on guitar. All and all, it was just all out fun.

      • It would have been a good way to end life on earth if I had actually been raptured. But I don’t think too many at the concert last night would have qualified to ascend to heaven. :-)

  44. KochCain’s head must be spinning like a top. I wonder if he even realizes that he said, in essence, that he would give families permission to break the law if they think it’s best for said family. Would he recommend that families should make their own choice to finance the new car by armed robbery? Should families make their own decision to burn down the house on the corner because the owner doesn’t mow the lawn every other day? Should they be able to decide to shoot the “crazy cat lady”?

    KochCain: “Abortion should not be legal, that is clear. But if that family made a decision to break the law, that’s that family’s decision, that’s all I’m trying to say,” he said.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/21/herman-cain-999-plan-abortion_n_1024562.html

    • He’s against abortion for any reason.
      Yet
      Wouldn’t, as president, think of interfering with a family decision on the matter.

      A total, total dumbass.

      • I’m starting to think that he’s the stupidest of the whole bunch. Batscat and Prayerry might be crazier but even they can’t quite tie themselves into such a knot.

        (NOTE: Stumbling over words, like Prayerry’s “after, before, during, against” deal may be more a sign of nervousness than stupidity.)

        • When he was describing his flat tax “plan” he was reading from an obviously prepared script and when he got to the word ‘scrapped’ he pronounced it ‘scraped.’ My guess is he either had/has a reading disability of some sort or his IQ is below even Dubya’s. Actually, it could be that maybe both those possibilities are a good fit.

          • It’s tough to feel sorry for anyone wealthy enough to even pretend to run for president but I almost feel sorry for him. He might be running based on his own delusions but I suspect that he was tricked into it by the Kochs and their ilk. To the best of my knowledge he hasn’t really done anything to deserve being exposed as such a colossal fool.

  45. Whoa, Jon Huntsman with a one-on-one with Matthews. What other GOP candidate would dare do that?

    • How many times did the phrase: “When I was Governor of Utah everything ran smoothly and was perfect.” ?

    • Huntsman is the only one of the bunch with the intellect and integrity to handle Tweety or most anyone else. Crazy Shelly tried it once and raised over $500,000 for her opponent. What I would really like to see, at this point, is KochCain sitting down with Rachel Maddow. She would have the poor guy tied into knots with grace and decorum.

  46. Ol’ Flippy McSpin is not happy about the end of the occupation of Iraq. No, precious, not happy at all.

    “I respectfully disagree with the President,” McCain said. “This decision will be viewed as a strategic victory for our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime, which has worked relentlessly to ensure a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It is a consequential failure of both the Obama Administration — which has been more focused on withdrawing from Iraq than succeeding in Iraq since it came into office — as well as the Iraqi government.”

    http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20123990-503544/gop-slams-dems-praise-obama-over-iraq-withdrawal/

    • I thought Gramps said success was going andbuying a carpet or two in the bazaar?

      Mission accomplished.

      Although success to him is building and maintaining a military base in Iraq to threaten Iran?

      And the Iraqis are simply enforcing the 2008 agreement his pal Dubya negotiated.

      Senile, dishonest, venal – could have been SPOTUS….. wow.

      • I would have voted for him, had he won the nomination and not chosen a running mate like Palin, in 2000. But? That was before I was on line and had the vast information resources I now have. In the lead up to the 2008 election, even before Palin, I realized that Flippy McSpin was a lifelong fraud.

        He built his reputation as a “maverick” and a “moderate willing to work across the aisle” by talking one way and voting another. He has even voted, many times, against legislation that he sponsored in addition to all the legislation to which he paid lip service. Whatever he would say leading to a vote; he has always been a dependable right-wing tool on anything major. Plus, his career should have ended with his role in the S&L scandal.

      • It’s beginning to sound like that particular bit of information has disappeared down the memory hole. Even the “librul media” seems to be neglecting to mention that fact while FAUX”News” will almost certainly make it sound like Obama overstepped his bounds. Of course, every good Reichwhiner is hoping and praying that Iraq devolves into another civil war.

    • oh, many thousand apologies for not seeing it.
      Read the one you posted on this thread — sounds like a grand time!

  49. Former Governor Mark (Hiking the Appalachian trail) Sanford just joined Fox News…

    • Will Mark “Spiking the Argentinian Tail” Sanford soon be changing his middle name to “Spiking the Alaskan Tail”? Be a good be, I’m thinking. Poor ol’ First Dude … he might finally be handed his fishing papers, or whatever they call them up there.

  51. OK. Jane… I started your challenge, but then got busy doing other things…

    Here is part one of my story:

    The curly-haired actor crawled out of his blue-tarped crypt just as another Occupy Wall Street protestor began to aptly orate about the caste system that now existed in the United States. He had been roused from his sleep by an octet of bongo playing mooks looking for an empty place to set up their gear. They looked as if they were here for the long haul.

    Peter Royal had prowled the outer edges of Zucotti Park with his girlfriend, Sally, in observance of the public rally only the night before. Peter took a swig of his stale Starbucks Latte and spit it out on the ground. How he longed for a toothbrush! Time had altered the taste of the coffee into some vile combination of salty, sweet and caffeine. Peter hadn’t slept very well on his cement bed under the copse of elms in the public park. The Marine Corps vet next to him in a sleeping bag sounded as if he had the croup and every once in a while, the vet would curse in his sleep. Peter was grateful that he had the tarp when it began to sleet in the middle of the night.

    Peter didn’t remember how or when he and Sally decided to spend the night. And what was worse, it was clear to Peter that Sally didn’t seem to be anywhere around now. Peter folded the tarp and set it next to the lady meditating in a lotus on a crate. Peter surveyed the crowd holding signs. Some signs decried the power of money in politics. Other signs pleaded for Peace, still others listed a spate of Republican party offenses against the poor and criticized their catering to the rich.

    “We are the 99%” chanted the octet with bongos. The crowd cheered in response. There was a group of protesters sweeping the sidewalk and scouring the granite planters and spraying cleaners on the benches and wiping everything down with rags. Another group was gathering stacks of empty pizza boxes and empty cups and other trash. It looked like the morning after a million other frat parties that Peter had gone to in college except the partiers never went home…

    To be continued…

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