Yep. It's loud. It's The Cone Of Silence. Van Halen and Van Morrison, Rip The Van Winkles Off The Wall Paper.
Humpback whales can hear it.
We were working in this bar in Seattle. (Honest.) Installing oak wainscoting. As we drove up, I noticed that the outdoor trellis enclosing the patio deck had unusual rafter-end details. This is a place most people never get very adventurous, and I always admire invention here. Very unusual. I said, "They look like....rabbit ears."
They had told me it was "a gay bar", and there was one group of elongated Nouveau curves on this side and a bilaterally symmetric opposite. I then realized, omigosh, they might be phalluses, phalli, or something like that; spread out like peacocks, but they didn't quite fit right.
Looked like a rabbit nose and ears, in profile, to me. Very clever. Then I remembered the name of the place: "Thumpers."
"They're RABBITS!!!" I was all happy and excited. "They're RABBITS!"
"Yah. They're rabbits" says a sleepy someone from the front.
"I'm THUMPER!!!" I whap my foot on the rear axle hump.
I didn't even get a "whatever".
There's a big vertical sign on the front facet of the building's corner: "T H U M P E R S"
I get inside and Cecil's starting to wake up. I grab him. "It's Thumper. You know, the rabbit, he stands on the log and flaps it with his foot, and says 'I'm Thumper!!!'"
"Oh yah! My Dad was telling me about that! It's from a cartoon (this having been somewhat of a mystery the preceding days) ~ A Warner Brothers or something."
"I think it's Disney!"
"Winnie The Pooh!"
"Yah! Yah! Winnie The Pooh!"
We sure look professional, unpacking our saws and nailguns and boards. At least we're excited!
Later I'm cutting some mitres at 20 degrees for baseboard. Cecil comes up, sharpening his pencil. He says, "Did you see that big Thumpers sign out front?"
"Yah."
"Every time we come up here, Bernie asks me when we get back, 'Did they steal the T? They're always stealing the T...'"
"Huh?"
"They're always stealing the T. You know ~ H U M P E R S." |
