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—Governor Cates is one of the men who opened the frontiers of America as we know it today, Davidoff leaned knuckled under on the expanse of walnut stretched before him, pad, pencils, ashtray, pad, pencils, ashtray,—he . . .
—Him? He was this frontiersman?
—Not like Daniel Boone if that’s what you’re thinking of, no. He opened America’s industrial frontiers, her natural resources that make us the wealthiest country in the world. He’s a man presidents come to for advice, and you can be proud . . .
—Is he rich?
—Well after all, a man who has contributed so greatly to his country’s wealth and power would deserve . . .
—That’s the, must be our last proxy statement Boss a little kit we put together for them on the, boys and girls? We can’t get into too many details now, we just wanted you to meet the topflight managerial talent your directors have working here for you, we’re all here to keep your profits rolling in and even if you just have one share right now any time you think we’ve stepped out of line don’t forget that one share means you can haul us right up on the carpet and . . .
—Don’t need to press that point Dave let’s just get the . . .
A conductor with a wisp mustache stood tapping his punch.—Ticket?
—Ja? He looked up from the paper with a great smile.
—Your ticket?
—Ahh, Sie wollen meine, meine . . . He rummaged in pockets, to come up with a cardboard square and offer it with a beaming smile.
—This is a half fare ticket, Mister.
—Bitte?
—I said this ticket, this is half fare ticket.
—Ja ja . . . he beamed, nodding, his eyes beginning to cross.
—Half fare, half. Kiddie. Child.
—Ja, wissen Sie . . .
—Look. You, man. Ticket, child ticket. Get it?
—In dem Bahnhof, ja, he commenced still beaming, eyes now firmly crossed,—in dem Bahnhof habe ich die . . .
—For Christ sake look. Where you buy ticket?
—Herr Teets, verstehen Sie? In dem Bahnhof, Herr Bahnhofmeister Teets, Gott-trunkener Mensch, verstehen Sie? Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens, he beamed, eyes abruptly straightened,—nicht?
—Oh for Christ sake.
—Bitte? The smile gone, his mouth hung open.
—Forget it. The conductor punched the ticket emphatically and turned up the aisle, abruptly snagged by a hand on his arm.
lmao
—I just finished telling you what I mean Whiteback, it has nothing to do with curricular anything. The function of this school is custodial. It’s here to keep these kids off the streets until the girls are big enough to get pregnant and the boys are old enough to go out and hold up a gas station, it’s strictly custodial and the rest is plumbing. If these teachers of yours strike just sit still and keep the doors open, by the time these kids have been lying around the house for a week their parents will march the teachers back in at gunpoint.
giggled
—You know what I stop and remember Tom? She’d turned abruptly, resting elbows back on the sink’s edge, facing him.—I remember Doctor Brill telling us David needed his operation for double hernia when you first went to work there and you put it off, and put it off. There was that baby and we didn’t know what was going to happen but you kept putting it off till your company medical benefits took effect, so you wouldn’t have to . . .
—Marian you . . . you have a real instinct don’t you Marian, a real God damn instinct . . .
—And you didn’t want him. Did you, you didn’t want him in the first place.
—What, Marian what the hell do you think you’re saying?
—David. You didn’t want him in the first place.
—Marian you, you’ve said some rotten things but you, that’s the rottenest thing you could say isn’t it, so completely . . . dishonest and rotten.
—Well it’s . . .
—I wanted to wait to have children, didn’t I, I wanted to wait till we got ori our feet, that wasn’t David I didn’t want, there was no David and if you ever dare to, you know God damn well that when he was born when he was David you know God damn well he’s everything I . . . he stopped and got breath.—You’ve got a real instinct for the jugular haven’t you Marian.
men love to talk like this when they're confronted with the Truth
—Coen God damn it can’t you see what I mean? Can’t you see this is what’s going to happen right here, after all it took to put all this together? Can’t you see you go public and all these people owning you want is dividends and running their stock up, you don’t give them that and they sell you out, you do and some bunch of vice presidents some place you never heard of like the ones that turned this out, this wood product they call it, they spot you and launch an offer and all of a sudden you’re working for them trimming and cutting and finally bringing in people to turn something out they don’t care what the hell it is, there’s no pride in their work because what you’ve got them turning out nobody could be proud of in the first place . . . He broke the piece over his knee and stood up with the bottle,—if they’d just understand I’m not just trying to grab this whole show for myself but to keep it doing something that’s, that’s worth doing . . .
—I mean like what’s all this in the oven.
—Oh that’s mail yes, I put Mister . . .
—Well like take it out so we can make this pizza okay?
—Yes but, no but the oven doesn’t work, they turned off the . . .
—Like what do you mean it doesn’t work, I mean when I went out you said you use the oven to . . .
—No I was going to say the gas is turned off so I just use it to keep Mister Grynszpan’s mail separate I, I didn’t know you meant a frozen pizza why did you . . .
—Look man I get a frozen pizza so I can slip a couple of records in, okay? So like now what are we going to . . .
—I don’t know I, I mean there’s no place here to play them but if you . . .
lol
—Come off it man, I mean like you’re this telephone man okay? Like how am I supposed to know where you install a telephone, I mean just install it like they taught you how to install a telephone in telephone man school okay? And she got a foot up on the side of the tub to dry a knee as he turned to hurry a box through the door and knelt beside the film cans opposite her to tear it open.—Man like wait a minute, she paused on a dry knee,—I mean like that’s supposed to be a telephone?
—Just opening the mail, Mister Bast here got us a . . .
—Stop, stop it look it’s slicing most of it in half . . .
—Must be some God damned little adjustment here . . .
—Bast pull the plug will you? before he loses a finger? Damn it Jack look at this mess, what do you . . .
—Just have to match them up God damn it what do you think technology is for, have to open them all by hand? Just match bottoms to tops, here, anybody got a top half from the Internal Revenue Service? Tell you one thing from the bottom half here somebody’s in one hell of a mess . . .
—Oh, then would, would you like to buy some greeting cards then?
—Tom got a boy here selling greeting cards, what grade are you in.
—Six M, Mrs Manzinel . . .
—Tom boy out here working his way through six N selling greeting cards. What’s the greetings.
—Well see these are all occasion cards, like for all different occasions they’re all . . .
—All occasion cards Tom, got them for all different occasions.
—Like birthday, anniversary, you know all these different occasions like . . .
—Got a friend jumped out a window, got a card for that?
—Well gee I, maybe get well . . .
—Can’t get well, went home and hung himself got a card for that?
—Well gee I, I don’t think so but maybe you could . . .
—Got a woman on alimony sleeping with a book salesman hell of an occasion, got a card for that?
—Well gee I, like here’s sympathy maybe you could . . .
—Jack God damn it what are you, hello Chris what is it.
—Oh hi Mister Eigen I, I was just selling these greeting cards . . .
—Says they’re for all occasions Tom but every God damned occasion I can think of is . . .