When I moved back to Parker I went to The Unemployment, to check out the job situation.
There were two jobs on the computer: oyster shucker and poultry eviscerator.
Both jobs give you carpal tunnel syndrome.
Of the brain.
The same two jobs
were on the microfiche machine when I first moved to
And when I moved
back to
I’m too old for either of those jobs now.
I don’t have to worry about carpal tunnel syndrome. I have arthritis in my hands from working as a manual laborer for 25 years.
Maybe I can get a pencil-pusher job.
A knowledge-worker job.
I worked as a knowledge-worker for 25 years.
I wore grooves in my brain. Ruts and furrows. Tracks.
Licks. I played licks.
I’m not repeating myself. Those are signature licks.
That’s my signature. My hand. My fist.
A writer has a fist, like a telegrapher.
A voice.
Hunter S. Thompson’s gonzo fist had two thumbs.
Hunter S.
Thompson wrote wrestling promotion for the Playground
Daily News when he was stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in
That’s where he developed his hyperbolic style. Writing wrestling promotion.
That’s where he recognized that Muhammad Ali was Gorgeous George.
It’s all pro wrestling. Show business.
Roxanne Pulitzer. A Dog Took My Place.
The
Polo is my
life. The Kentucky Derby is decadent and
depraved. I’m just the backstage manager
of the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theater in
So there are parallels. Antecedents.
