Year of the Jackass

I’m Art Kumbalek and man oh manischewitz what a world, ain’a? So listen, no hard-provoking, thought-throbbing essay on the schmutz of our times this week, no sir. I am otherwise occupied if not consumed by the great philosophical question du jour here in the Upper Midwest: What is the difference between a Cheesehead and a Dickhead? Got to be the state line just south of Kenosha, you betcha. Same as it ever was. Ba-ding!

Anyways, I got to go meet up with the fellas over by the Uptowner tavern/charm school situated at the corner of Hysteric Center Street and Humboldtwhere today is always at least a day before tomorrow, and yesterday may gosh darn well be todayso’s to decide where we want to watch the big game together come Sunday. Rumor has it that my buddy Little Jimmy Iodine has even purchased one of those new H-STD TVs, so infected with Packer fever he be.

So, come along if you’d like, but you buy the first round. Let’s get going.

Emil: So the wife says to me that ’cause we only live about 15 miles from the Mayfair Mall, we got to do something about the home security. She wants to get a dog, but I’m thinking maybe we ought to go buy a gun for the what-they-call deterrence.

Herbie: Go for the gun, Emil. Low maintenance. Plus, you’re white and a focking idiot. I’m thinking the Republicans might even pay guys like you to have a gun.

Little Jimmy Iodine: And with a dog, when a stranger comes to the house, you don’t know if Fido might bark or perform a quick crotch-sniff and go straight to the leg-hump.

Ernie: I’d sure like to know who was the first knucklehead who had the focking stupid bright idea of taking an otherwise productive animal from out there in the wild and, instead, keep it in his hovel or yurt and call it a pet, where its job would be to do abso-focking-lutely nothing.

Herbie: Anthropologistically, I’d say it would be some kind of king or liege lord suffering from the effects of too many generations of royal inbreeding and too much time on his hands.

Julius: Animals belong either in the woods or on a menu, but not in my living room going nuts trying to get at something that rolled or crawled under the sofa. Until the free enterprise system can put a house-pet on the market that can operate a microwave, flush a toilet and clean a handgun, you can forget about me having something with four legs in my apartment besides a coffee table or, god willing, twin 18-year-old blonde pole dancers, what the fock.

Ray: And speaking of focking idiot…

Little Jimmy Iodine: Hey, Artie! Over here. Put a load on your keister.

Art: Hey, gents. What do you hear, what do you know.

Ernie: I know the wife’s all upset since the astronomers discovered the other day that the stars have shifted alignment, and so everything you thought you knew about the science of astrology is bullshit.

Julius: You got to be jerking my beefaroni. Astrology is bullshit?

Ernie: All I know is that she thought she was a Virgo and now she’s Leo.

Herbie: It happens. Do we really know who we are? I knew a guy married to a nice gal named Lenore, cooked and cleaned to beat the band. She got a little bored with the domestic life, took a night course at a women’s college. Next thing you know, she cleaned out the bank account, took a trip to Sweden, and when she returned Lenore was now Leo.

Ray: So he’s married to a guy now?

Herbie: Yeah, but he says it’s no big deal. She likes football a lot more than she used to. And because they’re still married, sex remains a non-issue and there’s never, ever a domestic dispute about whether the goddamn toilet seat is up or down. They seem happy.

Little Jimmy: Cripes, our astronomers must be working overtime these days ’cause the other week I heard they discovered another new planet out there in space somewhere, and that this one might actually be able to have some life on it, maybe even like ours.

Julius: It’s about time. We all know that someday our sun is going to go kaput and we’re going to have to move somewhere else on another planet. So far we’ve only been to the moona place that looks just like Nevada minus the gambling and legalized prostitution. Who in their focking right mind would want to live there?

Herbie: OK. OK. OK. Let’s keep cool heads about moving to a new planet. Obviously, us Americans need to get their first and get things organized, especially if this new planet is just like Earth. Like, what are we going to do about these people in North Korea who try to survive on one bowl of porridge per year? If you don’t think they’re going to want to live in the new Las Vegas and get in on those daily all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets for $4.95think again.

(Hey, it’s getting late but thanks for letting us bend your ear. So Go Pack Go, ’cause I’m Art Kumbalek, and I told you so.)