Bad Machinery by John Allison for November 29, 2024

Nothing like a few all seeing eye artworks on the wall to keep the chamber of commerce buzzing along busily.

Nothing says serene demise like a boneheaded self-stabbing.

Reminds me of a chapter in Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” on a death of a leading citizen in a Nevada mining town – “On the inquest it was shown that Buck Fanshaw, in the delirium of a wasting typhoid fever, had taken arsenic, shot himself through the body, cut his throat and jumped out of a four-story window and broken his neck – and after due deliberation, the jury, sad and tearful, but with intelligence unblinded by its sorrow, brought in a verdict of death ‘by the visitation of God.’ What could the world do without juries?”

“He stumbled, his pocket knife (which was apparently open and in his jacket pocket over his left breast) shifted awkwardly, and he stabbed himself through the heart. Happens all the time.”

I like that Mildred’s “notes” she was taking during their “meeting” appears to be just “farts” repeated several times. :P

Give us the juicy, morbid details, Hugh.

Hmm… A sinister plot begins to coalesce.

Like it said on the statue: He gave everything to this town.