Tom Robbins by Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

Author:Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas [Pajamas, Half Asleep in Frog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Literary, Body; Mind & Spirit, Humorous, Stockbrokers, Humorous fiction, Tarot, Divination
ISBN: 9780553377873
Google: QN3KrXbVqwkC
Amazon: 0553377876
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 1994-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

NINE OH-FOUR P.M.

Ill have the vegetable stir-fry. But without asparagus. Repeat: no asparagus.

I get the picture, says Brian, a bit too snippishly for an underling. And what will Mr. D. be having this evening?

Uh, Mr. D. will have … I think Mr. D. would like… . This is wicked but you cant help yourself. Bring Mr. D. the frog legs.

NINE OH-FIVE P.M.

There is an exaltation about the Bull&Bear that is due not only to its decor-darkly warm, weighty, polished, aged-and its clientele-well-groomed, smartly tailored, educated, savvy-but also to its function as a refuge from chaos: the controlled chaos of the financial markets and, increasingly, the far less predictable chaos of the streets. In the outside world, civilization is frequently and perhaps accurately perceived as a thin veneer over the rant and scrabble of an essentially savage species. In the Bull& Bear, conversely, the slosh and bluster seems a thin veneer of atavism over a bedrock of refinement and order. That part of America that remains affluent, that is neither on fire nor on sale, neither shot full of holes nor rusting away, that affluent part appears many places to be tricky and dazed. Here in this citadel, however, no matter how noisy, smoky, or unruly it may at certain hours of the day become, the stability and calm traditionally bestowed by Buddha the Banker somehow has prevailed. Ever since you discovered the establishment while on lunch break from the ski department at Nordstrom a half-dozen years ago, the Bull&Bears mystique has had a powerful hold on you.

Tonight, you feel it slipping away.

You sense an odd, almost poignant, alienation from the knot of brokers across the lounge. They are unusually restrained this evening, their concentration focused on their anesthetic beakers of booze and on the screen of the bar TV. There is a silent communion among them, however, in which you suspect you would not share, even were you to press your taut little belly to the bar. They are watching the financial channel, no doubt, and you wonder if you might be missing something of import. All you can see from your table is a dancing miasma of red and green, like an atomized Christmas wreath. You simply must get your eyes examined. Stock quotations, like the Scriptures, are a common source of optic erosion. Those tiny names and numbers: So difficult to read, so fraught with secret salvation’s, if only the eye muscles could pry them loose!

Some portion of the poignancy that is seizing you may be attributed to the fact that your bladder is brimming. You hadn’t wished to go to the bathroom at the same time as Larry Diamond, lest he perceive-and celebrate-a repulsive intimacy in the synchronized discharge of wastes. But you can delay no longer. Passing the bar as unobtrusively as possible, you steal a look at the TV screen. What your colleagues are watching, it turns out, is a Latino horror movie about a vampire mariachi band. No wonder there is an excess of green and red.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.