I have mentioned before that we have become a Cut-and-Paste Nation. And the City Employee With The Weird Grin is a prime example.

The City Employee With The Weird Grin is happy lately. Above the Weird Grin there is now a noticeable twinkle to his eye. It probably isn't the particular eye twinkle of a child molester, but then it could be: I don't know.

He likes politics that go his way, and he believes politics now are starting to go his way. Or at least the people who's politics go the other way are being hurt: either / or. As I have said before, this is not an uncommon template for many to view the world. He is an example, not a particularly interesting one, but he is one of those who fit that template. And he is at the bar. So: proximity.

He sits at his usual table, with his usual friends -- I'll probably catalog them later, I assume. Anyway, he is showing the latest political memes on his iPhone. You can tell the ones he really likes: he reads those aloud. After two or three some of his friends say "Yeah, I saw that one," or stare off at the TV. The TV sound is off, but you don't really need sound to follow ESPN, the scroll on the bottom is enough. Like a Twitter feed with muted talking heads above it, the talking heads making jabby hand gestures for emphasis, and they indeed seem pretty emphatic by the constant hand gestures, but I digress.

The friends no doubt share most of his politics: it is Seattle. But they don't really share his passion for politics: it doesn't consume them. One is obsessed with video games, another is obsessed with women's feet. For examples. Again: I'll probably catalog them later, I assume.

I have mentioned before that we have become a Cut-and-Paste Nation. And the City Employee With The Weird Grin is a prime example. He will recite what his preferred websites say, he will repeat his favorite Tweets. You know what he thinks by what he quotes.

Usually one of the friends will change the subject. To anything that isn't politics, basically. This causes the rest of his table to become more animated, but he inevitably goes quiet and sulks for a few minutes. The others not sharing his passion is a little martyrdom he suffers for his --well --passion.

Sometimes I put the same word twice in a sentence because I like the recall of repetition. This time I just can't think of another word that I like better. I probably could cut-and-paste from a thesaurus, but: no.


- james james

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