Reading: Maus by Art Spiegelman
Music: Uchuu wa Taihen Da
TV/Movie: Urusei Yatsura
Link o' the Day: The Three Stooges Official Website



Today's awkward mail sent to me, but not for me, comes first in a plain brown business envelope of the sort one doesn't see much these days. Within on engraved business stationery is thus:

Dear Ms. Malin,

As you know, we pride ourselves on our ability to track down missing persons even on the most slim of clues and information. We believe in thinking outside the box, and always getting results. We admit, however, that your case has forced us to think so far outside the box that we are questioning some of our results and we request some further input from you in regards to your case.
You hired us to locate the father of you and your siblings--a man who disappeared without warning some twenty years ago. You also refused to provide us with any biographical or biological data, and insisted we search for your missing father on a philosophical basis alone. This is way outside the box. Still, we agreed to give it a go.

We hesitate to consider the following a "narrowing down" of the list of possibilities--but more the top ten in our list of potential targets. If you would be so kind as to look over this list and offer some insights, we would appreciate it and feel more confident that we could bring this case to a successful conclusion.

Our investigators have turned up the following possibilities:

• A Cape Verdean short order cook in Tulsa, Oklahoma who owns a complete set of the works of Albert Camus.


• A professor of secular humanism at Hofstra University.


• A chorus girl at an all-drag revue in Flint, Michigan.


• The Dalai Lama.


• A diabetic Marist missionary in Burma.


• A retired cartoonist currently living in Cleveland, Ohio.


• An independent film actor and playwright from New York currently supplementing his income with TV commercials and animation voiceovers.


• One of three Jewish comedians from Brownsville, New York.


• A keyboard player in a German 80s-nostalgia techno band.


• The "missing" Lindbergh baby.

The list may seem a bit all over the map, but I think you'll agree that they share certain aspects from the philosophical profile you provided us.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Bernard and Vivian Jaffe
Interconnective Investigations

Next up is the ever-familiar folded note written with crimson ink upon a rag paper. It reads:

To Whom It May Concern:

Have you noticed the increasing number of bank robberies of late?

We have.

We're just saying.

We await your signal.

(signed)
Unsigned

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-




Today's link goes to The Three Stooges Official Website. I mean, come on! Does it get much better than that? Okay, I'm a Marx Bros. kind of guy, but easy fun entertainment is pretty much any Three Stooges short you could ever run across. And I'm a huge fan of the Stooge double-slap sound effect. If I thought it wouldn't be socially awkward, I'd make it my ringtone.

Cheers!