One of my favorites....
Was out with an older gentleman named Jim who was, not quite "all there". Not seriously impaired, mind you, just lacking in social graces and just kind of, well, loopy.
The Awake for that time featured an article on drug abuse in general, and on "crack" in particular. Crack addiction was the latest existential crisis dominating the news cycles at the time.
So Jim goes shambling up to a householder who is standing on the sidewalk leading up to his front door.
What is Jim's greeting? "Hello", you might think. "Good morning" would be fine. "How are you, my name is Jim" would work. All reasonable salutations.
But not for Jim. Got to get get right to the point.
So, he shambles on up to the guy, me tagging along, and the first words out of his mouth are...
"So, what are we going to do about this crack?"
The householder, bewildered, can't figure out what he is on about. He starts looking down at the sidewalk, thinking old Jim is maybe some sort of county inspector who is about to fine him for a dangerous flaw in the pavement.
Finally, ol' Jim pulls out the magazine and proceeds to do whatever presentation he had in mind.
Don't recall whether the guy took the mag or not.
But I still get a kick thinking back, to this poor guy searching desperately for the dangerous crack in his sidewalk.
