Saturday, February 19, 2005
Get a clue
Earlier today, I was walking back to my apartment after dropping off some proofs at my freelance job, and I decided to stop in the park and swing for a while, which was one of my favorite things to do last summer when I was unemployed and walked to drop off my proofs all the time. Anyway, no sooner did I sit down on the swing than I noticed several people running down the hill into the park. As they scattered to different corners of the park, I wondered if they were setting up for a game of kickball or something. This didn't seem to be the case, as they didn't have any equipment and kept scattering well past the parameters of a makeshift kickball field.
As I mused further, the one girl in the group came up to me and asked, "Do you have a clue?" I sensed that she meant this in the literal rather than figurative sense, so I told her no. (Not that I had much of a figurative clue, either, at least not to the impetus for her inquiry.) She eyed me warily and then asked, "Are you a clue?" As much as I really, really wanted to be able to answer yes to that question, I reluctantly told her no again and added for good measure, "I have no idea what you're talking about." She seemed to find this answer satisfactory and ran off to check behind trees and under trash cans. A few more people came running into the park, including a guy in a green sports jacket and a neon-green clown wig, also presumably looking for this "clue." They seemed so intent on finding it that I decided not to interrupt their concentration by asking exactly what it was they were doing. Were they contestants on The Amazing Race? (Highly doubtful, as they lacked both the Amazing Fanny Packs and the requisite cameramen.) Were they part of the Urban Challenge, or something like it? Or was it perhaps that one of their magazine-editor friends had convinced them to race across the state so she could make a cover story out of it? We shall never know. I like to think it's the last one, though.
Earlier today, I was walking back to my apartment after dropping off some proofs at my freelance job, and I decided to stop in the park and swing for a while, which was one of my favorite things to do last summer when I was unemployed and walked to drop off my proofs all the time. Anyway, no sooner did I sit down on the swing than I noticed several people running down the hill into the park. As they scattered to different corners of the park, I wondered if they were setting up for a game of kickball or something. This didn't seem to be the case, as they didn't have any equipment and kept scattering well past the parameters of a makeshift kickball field.
As I mused further, the one girl in the group came up to me and asked, "Do you have a clue?" I sensed that she meant this in the literal rather than figurative sense, so I told her no. (Not that I had much of a figurative clue, either, at least not to the impetus for her inquiry.) She eyed me warily and then asked, "Are you a clue?" As much as I really, really wanted to be able to answer yes to that question, I reluctantly told her no again and added for good measure, "I have no idea what you're talking about." She seemed to find this answer satisfactory and ran off to check behind trees and under trash cans. A few more people came running into the park, including a guy in a green sports jacket and a neon-green clown wig, also presumably looking for this "clue." They seemed so intent on finding it that I decided not to interrupt their concentration by asking exactly what it was they were doing. Were they contestants on The Amazing Race? (Highly doubtful, as they lacked both the Amazing Fanny Packs and the requisite cameramen.) Were they part of the Urban Challenge, or something like it? Or was it perhaps that one of their magazine-editor friends had convinced them to race across the state so she could make a cover story out of it? We shall never know. I like to think it's the last one, though.
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