Archive for July, 2009

Jersey Towns to self-Govern

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Wellington Leg: Following the arrest of several of New Jersey’s mayors experts are suggesting that many cities in the Garden State adopt open source governance. Under this method of leadership bribes can reach more people more quickly creating more economic stimulus by increasing the velocity of laundered money.

According to the Tuffington Post laundered money often moves more slowly than unlaundered money in part because the great unwashed have sticky fingers. “A single laundered dollar will often drift around in the trunk of someone’s car for weeks on end,” noted Atlantic City resident Eddie. At one point the money supply, the M!, dropped to zero in Hoboken as all the cash went to the sidelines. “This is incredibly inefficient,” Eddie says.

Tuffpo Contributor Little Mahmoud can relate: after naming a Jersey City resident as First Vice President, LM was shocked to discover his choice was overruled. “Recycling politicians is even messier than laundering money,” noted Mahmoud. Caught in the spin cycle he had no choice but move on.

Jersey Beaches are Open: the sudden shortage of mayors and public officials won’t effect the shore. Bundles of cash may be visible at high tide and schools of jellyfish, sometimes used to launder money, have floated north toward Long Island. The sighting off a shark off Cape May turned out to be a loan shark. “The water’s fine,” said a local mayor who has yet to be taken into custody. Loan sharks are not considered a threat to swimmers.

Tuffy Tuffington reporting.

Diffusion Index Turns Positive

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Wellington Leg: Economists say that the diffusion index has turned positive sources close to the palace say. The closely watched metric measures the amount of energy expended by a consumer during sporting events. The test subject in this case is a man from Hatterborough who made eleven roundtrips between his couch and refrigerator during the Yankees-Tigers game. Except for a sharp single to left the unidentified fan missed none of the action on the field but did miss several tire commercials.

The recession is over: The diffusion index is a combination of two other indices, the Confusion Index and the Difficulty Multiplier. Any reading above the value of 50 tells policymakers that recovery has begun. “I’ll race you to the mall,” said one forecaster.

Jobless Recovery? While the index is higher the labor market continues to struggle leading to what pundits refer to a jobless recovery. “Things are good but no one has a job,” explained one economist. “Hey, I just got fired.”

There is more difficulty than confusion in the diffusion reading at this time; once this ratio turns around everyone will have jobs again but the economy will collapse.

T. Rex Love-Handles reporting.

Lancelot Made Redundant

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Wellington Leg: I thought it was time to reach into the mailbag for questions from readers. Unfortunately most of the mail is Cyrillic spam, or I guess it’s spam because with all due respect to St. Cyril, i have no idea what any of it means. Mysterious spam falls into the same category as a speech by Sarah Palin; sort of scary but garbled, troubling with hints of nascent demagoguery searching for a home. Perhaps pearls of wisdom lurk unnoticed in the spam collector bin lost to the inadequate language skills of your reporter.

His Literary Career: Most writers wonder when their literary careers officially begin. It’s tempting to say that the publication date of the first book would mark the beginning or the first poem or short story, but by the time something is published the author has spent years laboring away at their craft. I signed with a literary agent a few months ago after she read a crime novel of mine. Stacia is marketing the manuscript as we speak, so my literary career hasn’t begun yet. I wonder if she and I went in another direction and built a nuclear submarine together, people would ask us at the launch party “What gave you the idea to build a nuclear submarine?”

This speculation is a byproduct of anxiety. School teaches us how to prepare for pop quiz moments such as “name the knights of the roundtable,” which I got terribly wrong with Dopey and Sneezy as my first gut instinct response to a nun brandishing a ruler. However after time spent in the cooler I suddenly remembered Sir Lancelot but that ship had sailed, propelled by a nuclear reactor.

It is entirely possible that my literary career has already begun, and equally possible that it’s already over. That’s the tension writers live with as opposed to other jobs which have entirely different dynamics such as monitoring the parking lot at Dunkin Donuts for drive through bottlenecks. Some people freeze when asked to converse with a mechanical mouth. Others seem to enjoy it.

Here is one question from the mailbag: Can you name the new governor of Alaska?

The July Effect

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Wellington Leg: As regular readers can attest this is a satirical blog full of imaginary characters in a mythical towne whose Triple A baseball team, the Fighting Gastropods, have dropped 345 games in a row. Even worse than baseball futility, however, is the encroachment of reality, actual events that are far more absurd than any satire this reporter can manufacture. In fact, this intrusion of incredible nonsense has created what is known as the “July Effect” a locking down of the creative brain due to sensory overload.

The shame of it is we were all set to introduce guest writer Little Mahmoud who recently opened a Myface Account here in the Leg. Little Mahmoud is new in towne, but no stranger to the spotlight as he once presided over an ancient and powerful land as its beloved President. And he’s a heckuva public speaker: quoting from his own page: “I am mesmerizing with turns of phrase so elegant as to induce tears.”

He’s a cocky little fellow who wanted only to be pals with the new kid, Barack, but it was not meant to be. Other kids called him names and soon little Mahmoud was not even allowed to go to Libya where former BFF Gadaffi lives. His pet duck died and it was time to move on.

Sadly, though, he missed his first assignment the resignation of Alaska governor Tsar Alexander. Why would the Tsar step down and sell the entire state? “I am thinking maybe his fingers are crossed behind his back,” Little Mahmoud said. “Perhaps the terms of sale exclude the fish,” he speculated.

Still, he is wistful. “Who will protect the powerful from the weak?” he wonders.