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BREAKING: Area Girls Getting All Up in Everybody’s Shit

October 29, 2014 Leave a comment
By Brock Belvedere Senior Staff Writer

By Brock Belvedere Senior Staff Writer

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!

A group of area girls are getting all up in everybody’s shit, sources are now confirming.

The area girls that are getting all up into everybody's shit.

The area girls that are getting all up into everybody’s shit.

“We’re not sure what they want,” noted Life Lessons Funeral Home High School social studies teacher Gail Nailsmith, who fell victim to the group. “They formed a real fifth column, marching their way through the school with a singularity of purpose normally unseen in the girls of our area and really just getting right up into everybody’s shit.”

“If you get in their way, they get all up in your shit,” noted a fellow student who requested anonymity.

After briefly getting all up in everybody’s shit at the school, the group left the premises and began traveling around their Eastern Lankville hamlet of DeVries, where they got all up into the shit of a local man attempting to change a flat tire, a local woman chasing a tennis ball down the street and two local elderly men who were waiting for a buffet to open.

“It seems that the group really got all up into the [shit] of the two elderly men,” noted Detective Gee-Temple, who arrived at the buffet after the clique had already moved on. “The two men were quite rattled and some of their small personal effects were scattered about the parking lot. It’s something we’ll certainly have to look into once time permits.”

None of the girls had been identified at press time.

“We’ll be putting out some orange cones in strategic areas,” noted Gee-Temple. “Then, we’ll pull some school records. We’ll get to the bottom of this before long.”

Chastain, Creator of “Fuzzy Ponies”, Dead at 73

October 28, 2014 1 comment
By Lloyd Byas-Kirk

By Lloyd Byas-Kirk

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!

Betty Chastain, the beloved creator of the “Fuzzy Ponies” series has died. The author was 73.

Detail of Chastain illustration from 1982 title "When the Fuzzy Ponies Dropped the Hammer"

Detail of Chastain illustration from 1982 title “When the Fuzzy Ponies Dropped the Hammer”

“We responded to a call to the Chastain home early this morning,” said Detective Gee-Temple of the Lankville Bureau of Probes. “We discovered a great chasm beneath the Chastain home that led to an unspeakable, interdimensional demonic arena and it is here, unfortunately, that Mrs. Chastain met her end.”

Chastain published 47 titles in the “Fuzzy Ponies” series.

“She was best at identifying with the child reader,” noted area librarian Jean Folger (rated about a 7 out of 10 by this writer). “Although the Fuzzy Ponies often embark on many sudden, extraordinary adventures, they also go through many of the same things as the average Lankville child– things like brushing their teeth, going to the playground or riding in a car. That’s what makes Chastain so versatile– on one page a Fuzzy Pony is watching his surroundings decay and turn to dust and then, suddenly, with little or no explanation, is having a fun day at the park, prancing through the fields on the next page.”

Chastain made few public appearances in the last ten years of her life and published only one title– 2007’s The Regeneration of the Fuzzy Ponies. The book was not well-received.

“We are happy that Betty was able to bring so much joy and confusion to children,” noted the Chastain family in a prepared statement.

A small, restrained funeral has been planned.

SUNDAY FEATURE: Letters We Get From Old People

October 26, 2014 Leave a comment
By Fletcher M. Gregory, Jr.

By Fletcher M. Gregory, Jr.

The Lankville Daily News is lusciously delighted beyond measure to present a new Sunday feature– letters we get from old people. Fletcher M. Gregory, Jr. served many years in the Lankville Air Legionnaires. He is now 85 years old and retired.

Mr. Gregory’s letter is to the Eastern Lankville Petroleum Company.

Dear Gentlemen,

My name is Fletcher M. Gregory, Jr. and I am 85 years old. Recently, my man-servant and chaffeur drove me to the local auditorium to attend a revival screening of the film Pardon My Trunk. It is a delightful Island film in which a family receives a clumsy elephant as a gift. But that is not why I am writing gentlemen.

After the film, my man-servant discovered that we were low on petroleum and he pulled into the nearest service station which happened to be an “ELP”. I must say, gentlemen, that both my man-servant and I were vastly disappointed. Firstly, an indigent lower-class person continually pestered my man-servant as he attempted to refuel the auto. The man kept saying, “I’m enjoying twenty-seven hours of wonderful sobriety, sir,” despite the fact that he was disturbingly inebriated. Then, without warning, he suddenly lurched forward and regurgitated what appeared to be a combination of malt liquor and some sort of orange, tubular-shaped snack food onto the rear window of my car.

Typical ELP service station.

Typical ELP service station.

I say, gentlemen, if you cannot keep your stations free of such human detritus, then your business shall surely suffer for it.

I am not finished, however. After my man-servant was able to free himself of this absurd individual, he went about the business of attempting to remove the vomitus expulsion from the rear window of the auto. Despite an exhaustive search, my man-servant could not locate a “squeegee” anywhere on the lot. He decided then to probe the attendant as to the reason for the lack of “squeegee’s”. He was (curtly) told by the lower-class attendant that we don’t got no squeegee’s. So now, gentlemen, I must ask– WHY? WHY ARE YOU UNABLE TO PROVDE THE CONSUMER WITH A SQUEEGEE?

Unless furnished with an appropriate answer, I will be unable to patronize your establishment in the future.

Limp regards,
Fletcher M. Gregory, Jr.

The Eastern Lankville Petroleum Company had not responded to Mr. Gregory’s letter at press time.

Correspondent: Royer Digs Many Pointless Holes; Collapses on Box of Irregular Jeans

October 26, 2014 Leave a comment
By Don W. Coneman

By Don W. Coneman

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!

From our Pyramid Area Correspondent Don W. Coneman in the Valley of the Small Kings, Outer Lankville:

Lankville business magnate Ric Royer, temporarily released from an area hospital, has been seen in the Valley of the Small Kings this past week, digging many large, pointless holes, sources are confirming. Yesterday, at a local market, the executive was found collapsed on a box of irregular jeans. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Locals have been mystified all week by the strange figure of Royer who is evidently wearing a large fake beard, rouge, eye-shadow and lipstick in an attempt to mask his identity.

Archaeologist Lee “Boom-Boom” Goldblatt has equally been flummoxed by Royer’s strange methods. “Well, all he had all week was a tiny little garden shovel, a lawnmower, and some tomato cages. He generally got tired after an hour or two of fruitless searching and had a handler drive him back to his room at the Magnanimous Boys’ Horn of Comfy Hotel.”

Royer: Pyramid Problems

Royer: Pyramid Problems

Earlier in the week, Royer maintained he was “making great progress.”

“I feel great,” noted Royer, who paused to dump a child’s bucket of sand into a wagon. “It doesn’t matter that there are a surfeit of feckless corncobbers that surround these pyramids– the Creator has seen fit to put them here.” The enigmatic owner looked on disapprovingly as a native family crossed the desert on the back of a camel. “Imagine the moment when I open up the tombs and discover every mystery of civilization,” he added.  “As it says in the ancient texts, the rocks of the earth will fold inward and we will crawl onto an axial plane,” the executive added after a moment’s reflection.

One of Royer’s handlers, who refused to be identified, gave a short statement as to the circumstances of the market incident yesterday.

“[Mr. Royer] disappeared from his room at the Horn of Comfy Hotel early in the morning while some of his wait-staff were asleep or otherwise distracted cleaning up a terrible mess at the foot of his bed.  [Mr. Royer] was sleeping with several large pumpkins which is his custom around this time of the year and they had fallen onto the floor.  At some point, he must have snuck away and wandered into the marketplace where he then collapsed onto the box of irregular jeans.”

“Nearby there was a vendor that had some regular jeans,” the handler noted.  “Unfortunately, [Mr. Royer] was not in a state where he would have been able to shop selectively.”

A press conference is expected later today.

Precocious Madison to Release Second Video Game Tomorrow

October 24, 2014 Leave a comment
By Grady Kitchens

By Grady Kitchens

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!

Video game wunderkind Danny Madison has wasted no time in following up his smash hit puzzle platform “The Video Cube”. It was announced today that the precocious 12-year old will release his second video game tomorrow sources are now confirming.

Danny Madison, age 12.

Danny Madison, age 12.

“Fire Quasars” will go on sale at select retail outlets at noon. Long lines are expected.

“Fire Quasars represents the latest in experimental laser saucer technology,” stated Madison. “Unlike some earlier laser saucer efforts, Fire Quasars provides up to 846 different gameplay challenges, the electronically digitized voices of several famous actors and razor sharp digital graphics. I’m very proud of this one and we think it will be a big hit.”

Madison paused to program a series of calculators which were directly wired into a pizza. No explanation was offered.

Detail from "Fire Quasars"

Detail from “Fire Quasars”

“It’s another brilliant game from Madison,” noted video game critic and Electronics Cranny contributor Fritz Tennis. “The gameplay is set against a brilliant astronomical landscape. The spaceships, secret quasar targets and helicopters exhibit extraordinary realism. It is the most sophisticated game I’ve seen all year.”

Fire Quasars will be sold in versions for the Bubonos 2000 system and for “individual computer systems”. Retail prices are $59.99 and $69.99 respectively.

Royer’s Madcap Experiences: The Deceit That Will Deprive You of Your Harvest

October 24, 2014 Leave a comment
By Ric Royer

By Ric Royer

As a younger man, I used to hang about with a guy named Howie.  That was his last name– I never knew his first.  He came from a poor section of Lankville Falls, littered with rusted aluminum trailers and trash-choked creeks.  I recall that Howie’s Pappy had tried to paint the trailer but the effect was a bit like attaching shiny chrome to a barrel of shit.  “You’ll not rise in social status,” I told Howie, as we stared at the freshly-applied silver finish, the rust still obviously apparent underneath.  He put his head down and I put my arm around him and then pushed him ever so gently into a pile of mud.

People who live in trailers often have fireworks.

People who live in trailers often have fireworks.

He sat in that pile of mud for quite awhile.  Then: “I’ll cultivate here.  We’ll have a bounty”.  I laughed and shot off some fireworks.  “You don’t know nothing about land.  You’re trailer.  Be easier if you just admit to it.”  But he demurred and when I next saw him, he had a magnificent farm.

“Cheesus, look at them onions,” I said.  “You doubted me,” he responded.  “But look at those rows of corn.”  Indeed, several of the trailers were now buried deep in the cornfield.  “I’m trying to blot out this park with produce,” he said.  “Lush, growing, flowering produce.”  He looked far off at something unseen and then returned to his hoeing.  I shot off more fireworks but nobody cared anymore.

I went off to college and Howie stayed behind.  I visited him that first summer.  His fields were completely dead.  The mud was back.  It rained incessantly.

“What happened?” I asked as we lazily watched wrestling on a black and white TV.  “Wild Boy” Ric Tipps, my namesake, was fighting.

“It was my deceit,” he said.  He drank some soda out of a Christmas-themed gravy boat.  “I lied to the earth, essentially.”

I considered asking if he had any more fireworks but thought better of it.

“I had the promise of a great harvest,” he added.  “But you were right.  I’m trailer.”

He died in September.  I did not attend the funeral but mailed along some chocolates.  That’s what you do.

Creator of “Video Cube” is Local 12-Year Old

October 23, 2014 Leave a comment
By Grady Kitchens

By Grady Kitchens

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!

The creator of the enormously-popular new “Video Cube” is none other than 12-year old local resident Danny Madison.

Danny Madison, age 12.

Danny Madison, age 12.

Madison, who attends Lowinger Brothers Utility Sheds Middle School, took the first step towards translating classic puzzles into computer games last year.

“I realized that by allowing players to move the puzzle pieces around on their computer screens, you instantly eliminated the tiresome, wearisome, centuries-old problem of losing said pieces,” noted the amiable whiz kid. “There is nothing worse in the entire world than losing a puzzle piece and being left with what is simply an abominable box of disappointment,” Madison added.

After working closely with programmers over the summer, Madison introduced the Video Cube to Lankville in September. Sales have been astounding.

Detail of Madison's "Video Cube".

Detail of Madison’s “Video Cube”.

“[Madison’s] idea was revolutionary,” said programmer Lurv Sprayberry, who was part of the team that worked with the boy wonder. “He was able to take the features of a video game to create animation and the illusion of three-dimensionality and invent puzzles which could not exist in the real world.”

Critics have lauded the Video Cube’s ability to appeal to all different skill levels.

“Many who take a stab at the Video Cube will be able to master some element of it,” said Madison, who paused to utilize several calculators to activate a nearby oscillating fan. “The question is– will you be able to do it if the Video Cube is invisible?”  Madison paused briefly for effect.  “Imagine how hard it would be to locate an invisible puzzle in the real world, let alone in the video game world where we can suddenly shroud you in complete and total darkness.”  Madison paused again, again for effect.  “It will present a unique challenge to those convinced of their puzzle powers.”

The Video Cube retails for $499.99 and can be plugged into any standard Lankville-issue television set. It is available at most electronics retailers.

Crushed Chips Make Local Bagels Glow with Pride

October 23, 2014 Leave a comment
By Larry "God" Peters

By Larry “God” Peters

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!

 

A foreign neighbor child was recently hanging out in the Bread Lodge Co-Operative Small Bakery the other day while its workers (also its owners) were making bagels.

“She was cute, little funny foreign kid, kind of supervising, asking questions and eating this bag of artificially-flavored chips, the kind of thing they probably don’t have in her backward, simple-minded birth-nation,” said Bread Lodge co-owner Lorang Ewing. “And then she said, you should put these on a bagel…”

Crushed Chip Bagels: ARE THEY ANY GOOD?

Crushed Chip Bagels: ARE THEY ANY GOOD?

One perk to owning your own business is the ability to do whatever you want. That can be a downside at times but not last week. Not at all. Because that’s when Bread Lodge made the first “Crushed Chips Bagel.”

They pulverized three different bags of the brightest colored chips they could find and dipped the ready-to bake bagels into the mixture, instead of using garlic sauce or one of the usual toppings. “We found that the crumbs stay crispy for a good many hours,” noted Ewing (who was judged to be selling it in the backside but a little weak up front). “They crisp up again if you toast the bagel,” Ewing added. “We have the freedom to try these things instantly. We made them, put pictures of them up on the Internet and on fliers stapled to telephone poles and trees in the woods and the next thing we knew, we had sold, like, a hundred of them. It was a lot of fun.”

The bagelmakers make sure to use local ingredients in their concoctions, like flour made from Lankville wheat. Since the chips came from a nearby corner store, do they count as local?

Today, Bread Lodge will make a few hundred more Crushed Chip Bagels. They’ll make more on Friday. And then, they’ll make more again on Saturday and Sunday. The process will continue provided that the days continue to advance in their normal progression.

“We have a takeout window,” said Ewing. “So if you’re unsure of the idea of having chips crushed on a bagel, you at least won’t have to get out of your car. It won’t take a lot of exertion to give it a try.”

Each crushed chip bagel is $1.25.

The foreign child could not be located to be interviewed for this story.

Area Grocery Store to Dispense Utensils One at a Time

October 22, 2014 Leave a comment
By Brock Belvedere

By Brock Belvedere

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!

Barlow Foods is changing the way it offers plastic eating utensils in its cafe, and the new system is getting mixed reviews.

Instead of setting out forks, spoons, little shovels, and knives that are individually wrapped in plastic, the store is unveiling machines that dispense unwrapped utensils one at a time.

The new system was the brainchild of Barlow Foods CEO John Barlow. In an attempt to reduce food packaging waste, Barlow created a contest for employees to submit suggestions for sustainable packaging solutions.

“I shut down the contest almost immediately, however,” noted the enigmatic Barlow. “I had an epiphany about the unwrapped utensils and I knew that that would be the best idea. There was no point in going through the charade of entertaining other ideas.”

Barlow Foods CEO John Barlow

Barlow Foods CEO John Barlow

Barlow has also instituted “Single-Pull Napkin Allocators(TM)” with digital display faces that alert customers to the number of napkins they have taken.

“The numbers begin to turn scarier colors after five napkins,” noted Barlow. “We are not messing around here.”

Some folks, however want to return to the traditional method of plastic-wrapped cutlery, citing sanitary reasons. Others have voiced concern over the fact that a utensil can sit out in the open air for considerable periods of time before it is taken and used, since utensils are discharged immediately after the first is removed.

“I don’t care for it,” said Barlow Foods regular Cindy Hopkins (rated about a 7 of 10 by this writer). “I’m suspicious of the intent and I find the way that the utensils pop out at you to be a little insinuating.”

Nevertheless, the machines have accomplished what Barlow hoped they would do- cut waste. The stores have seen a 35 percent reduction in the number of utensils and napkins being used.

“Are you going to argue with those digits?” Barlow asked, as he rose to his feet. When no comment was forthcoming, Barlow smiled self-assuredly and noted, “Well, I think we know who’s in charge here.”

OPINION: I Can Still Get Through the Mural and Have Sex With a Lot of Guys

October 21, 2014 1 comment
By "An Arrival"

By “An Arrival”

For awhile, my Father in the Timeless Realm of the Gods prevented me from getting through the mural at Vitiello Decorative Hams Arena. Then, suddenly, one day it was open again.  I just walked through and once again it became my point of entry to earth.

At first, I went through only occasionally– when Father was visiting other Realms, for example.  Then I got careless and just started throwing myself at about any swinging dick that came along. I even went back with this guy that was incarcerated in a mental institution. For some reason they were letting him drive a van around.  I was roller-skating by the river and he pulled up alongside me.

“Check out this van,” he said.

And that was it.

It went like that for awhile. Lot of waking up at noon, putting on tight green shorts with three stripes up the side, blow-drying my hair, skating around all afternoon by the beach, having sex with a lot of guys. And then one day, there was my Father in the Timeless Realm of the Gods, standing before me with the two servants of the Sphere behind him. They had just appeared all of the sudden out of this guy’s closet.

“Who is this creature?” he said in his typically booming voice.
“Kenny, I think,” I answered. I wasn’t even sure.
My Father in the Timeless Realm of the Gods nodded to the servants of the Sphere. They lifted Kenny up off the bed and took him out into the kitchen. I never saw him after that.
“The mural has been closed permanently,” My Father noted. He would not look at me but was staring at a magazine that was flung open over an office chair.

“You have had enough.” It was a statement, not a question but I decided to answer it anyway.
“Never. I could go on doing this forever.”

He picked up my skates then. Before my eyes, a chasm opened up in the carpet. And the skates were cast into them. The chasm closed.

And now I am back in the Timeless Realm. The portal is thick with briers and guarded daily.

Bumpkins Carried Off By Wind; Schropp Unsure of Future with News

October 20, 2014 Leave a comment
By Lloyd Byas-Kirk

By Lloyd Byas-Kirk

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS, YES!

Some bumpkins were carried off by the wind last night in an Eastern Lankville trailer park, sources are confirming.

The bumpkins didn't have anything nice, says Detective Gee-Temple.

The bumpkins didn’t have anything nice, says Detective Gee-Temple.

“There were seven rubes inside the…little…camper thing,” noted Detective Gee-Temple, who was the first to respond to the scene and held a brief press conference in which no food whatsoever was served.  “A supernal wind is believed to have come along and carried them off.  We have no further information.  The bumpkins didn’t really have anything nice inside the camper.”

The names of the bumpkins have not been released.

Other bumpkins who live in nearby trailers briefly spoke about the incident.

“One of them delivered for Pizza Monkeys.  I used to see him in their uniform occasionally,” noted Wilt Spatz, 73, retired.  “I think maybe they come from the North.”

Nothing happened after that and the interview was ended prematurely.

SCHROPP UNSURE OF FUTURE

Noted breakfast sandwich expert Brian Schropp says he is unsure of his future as a columnist with The Lankville Daily News.  He consented to an interview.

Schropp: Having Second Thoughts

Schropp: Having Second Thoughts

LBK: Why are you having feelings of uncertainty?
BS: Well, Lloyd, I’m just beginning to think that Lankville isn’t as ready [to embrace the breakfast sandwich] as I had previously thought.
LBK: Your articles have been well-received.
BS: They have. But only by a specific strata of the population. Those bumpkins you were writing about earlier– they were probably still having donuts or, God forbid, cereal in the shape of marshmallows for breakfast.
LBK: Don’t you think you need to build up…
BS: Lloyd…I…I can’t work under these conditions…for example, why is my article appearing second after the article about the bumpkins?
LBK: OK…calm down for a minute
BS(storming out): Lankville is NOT READY!

Schropp left the room and the interview was terminated.

Oral Histories of Some Former Lankville Pugilists

October 18, 2014 Leave a comment
Rudy Ferguson

Rudy Ferguson

(1952-1959, 15W 9L 4KO)

I was East Lankville Amateur Junior Abundantweight Champion from 1950-1952 and I worked days at the Buntz Mallows factory. Knew Ferdinand Buntz a little bit. He was a friendly guy. Always had a big open box of mallows on his desk. Funny, they were mallows made by some other company. He preferred ’em.

Anyways, Mr. Buntz, he sponsored me for awhile, that’s when I was amateur champion. I did some radio ads for him. It was Mr. Buntz that encouraged me to go professional. It was a shame when they murdered him.

My first pro fight was at the South Lankville Tent Park. They’d take a dirt lot, see, and they’d set up about ten different tents and one of ’em would have a fight in it. I fought Cocoa Peebles to a draw. 15 rounds that was. Later, some of the Tent people, they said, “We can’t have no draw. Throw those baboons back in there.” So, we fought another 3 rounds and I knocked Cocoa out. Right through the ropes and into a rolling cart that had some salads on it. What a mess.”

Next up, it was Billy “The Doll” McGee. They called him “The Doll” cause he made little dolls. He had a business and everything. He did well with them little dolls. Had a catalogue. Oh, he ran that little doll thing for years.

I tore Billy up. Knocked him out in the third round, right through the ropes and into a rolling cart with some salads on it. I dunno why they kept having them at my fights but honest to Christ, that’s what happened.

Well, after that, they started pairing me with some tough guys. I got beat four straight at one point. I remember I tried to make the weight, move up a class to Unwieldyweight and I just got killed. I fought at the Lankville Round Garden against Rocky Peat [Unwieldyweight Champion, 1955-1959] and the Rock knocked me out in the first round. I ended up in the hospital. For about two weeks all I could do was piss in the air. I’d just piss straight in the air and fall back asleep. Nobody could figure it out. I fell outta bed once into a rolling cart of salads and it was like I suddenly woke up. I was alright after that.

I fought just a little after that but mostly concentrated on my work pulling levers at the mallow factory. I didn’t take it serious none after that. I knew I’d never be Unwieldyweight champ and that was the rage then. Anything less was nothing.

My last fight was in ’59 back at the Tent Park. I thought, “Damn, I’m back at the Tent Park, I ain’t moved up none at all.” I fought a 4-round no decision against some foreign guy whose gloves kept falling off. It was ridiculous.

I retired from Buntz in ’79. Built up a little patio in the yard. It’s been nice.

Musings of a Decorative Ham Man

October 17, 2014 Leave a comment
Chris Vitiello of Vitiello Decorative Hams, Inc.

Chris Vitiello of Vitiello Decorative Hams, Inc.

In the great white room, I found a series of tables. Many were sans chairs. There were booths along one wall, the far wall, and some banners commemorating challenges bested in sport. The carpet was black with red diamonds.

I found a lone purveyor around the corner. She had a series of meat patties lying in filth behind a display case. The menu above was lit but only faintly. At first, I decided against eating but then thought better of it and purchased a factory-wrapped sack containing snacks and a fountain beverage. I consumed these things while leaning against a bare wall.

After that, I wandered up some confusing staircases and in and out of derelict elevators. There was a small machine that dispensed printed cards yet it was unclear for what purpose. There were newspaper boxes left unfilled. There was one other guy.

And that is what my college experience was like.

Royer Hospitalized After Zoo Incident

October 1, 2014 Leave a comment
By Linwood Probert

By Linwood Probert

LANKVILLE ACTION NEWS: YES!

 

Lankville business magnate Ric Royer is in stable condition after an early-morning zoo incident in Eastern Lankville.

Royer was granted a "zoo-release" day from the Foontz-Flonnaise Home of Abundant Senselessness.

Royer was granted a “zoo-release” day from the Foontz-Flonnaise Home of Abundant Senselessness.

The incident occurred at Buntz Mallows Discount Zoo and involved a trash receptacle shaped like a lion’s head.

“It’s a lion’s head with a circular shaped mouth, operating on heavy suction if you can imagine,” said Zookeeper Fergie Pounder. “Kiddies take their trash, hold it near the mouth and the lion sucks it straight in. All the kids just love it.”

Pounder admitted that the device is more popular than the animals. “Our animals are really boring,” he noted.

Pounder went on to describe the incident.

“Well, this fellow [Royer] was just staring at this thing. It went on for about seven hours [the zoo opens at 2AM]. He never put any trash in, just stared at it, drawing slowly closer and closer with each passing hour. A certain darkness seemed to descend directly over that area, it became particularly windy, there was a mysterious howl. Then, after all that time, he stuck his whole arm in the device. The suction drew him into the machine and he banged his head against the cement lion part and was rendered unconscious.”

“The head will be removed immediately,” noted Detective Gee-Temple, who had been observing Royer for several hours before the incident. “It’s very dangerous when you stick your whole arm into it.”

Royer was treated for a concussion and is expected to be released this afternoon.  He had been granted a “zoo-release” day from the Foontz-Flonnaise Home of Abundant Senselessness, where he is expected to be returned.

Today in Breakfast Sandwiches by Brian Schropp

October 1, 2014 Leave a comment
By Brian Schropp Breakfast Sandwich Aficionado

By Brian Schropp
Breakfast Sandwich Aficionado

The Lankville Daily News is pleased to present a new feature by noted aficionado Brian Schropp.

A lot of people come up to me on a daily basis. They say, “Brian, when are you ever going to share your voluminous knowledge of breakfast sandwiches with the world? For a great span, I felt strongly that the moment was not upon us. We were still passing through a strange cycle of fear, of suspicion of the breakfast sandwich. Lankville had not fully embraced the phenomenon. No knowledge could yet be imparted.

In the last few years, however, I have noticed a change. I have heard the rich man say, “I had a breakfast sandwich this morning.” I have heard the erudite man say, “I had a breakfast sandwich this morning.” And I have even heard the frightening, mountain dirt cave hillbilly say, “I had a breakfast sandwich this morning.” I have been moved by this sense of justice and federation. And so I have agreed to undertake this new feature. I am proud to present to you, Lankville, Today in Breakfast Sandwiches.

Today, we’ll be looking at two of Lankville’s more notable creations.

PAPPY’S CHICKEN AND BISCUITS

Breakfast sandwich designer H.X. Approval .

Breakfast sandwich designer H.X. Approval .

Pappy’s Chicken and Biscuits is one of Lankville’s more notable purveyor of “hastily-concocted viands”. In 1997, they introduced their first breakfast sandwich, a biscuit with a slice of thick ham topped with ranch sauce which was an enormous failure. “Customers were pretty vocal in regards to its poor taste and texture,” noted former Pappy’s CEO Ivan Calderon. “The ham was sliced in a sort of layered way, making it look like a tiny step-stool. It was hard to eat,” admitted Calderon, who spearheaded an initiative to include egg and sausage on Pappy’s second venture into the field of breakfast hoagies.

Pappy’s turned to H.X. Approval, who had designed successful breakfast sandwiches for several island chains in the 1990’s. “I knew right away what I wanted to do with Pappy’s,” said Approval. “Breakfast sandwiches are man’s great equalizer. They bring people of all races and some colors together. If you’ve experienced great creeping horrors, the breakfast sandwich is a healer,” Approval added.

In 2001, Pappy’s introduced the “Copious Bulker”– an instant hit in all Lankville markets. “It’s two eggs with two types of sausages shoved in between,” Approval explained. “You’ve got links on either side of a patty. The links cradle the paddle in there, keeping it safe the warm and, at the same time, kind of caressing it erotically.” Approval briefly excused himself but shortly returned. “On top of the sausages, you have a round, perfectly compressed slice of ham. We were able to concisely summarize taste in that thin slice. That’s really the only way to describe it.”

Lankville agrees. The Copious Bulker has sold over five hundred billion sandwiches since 2001.

THE VITIELLO DECORATIVE BREAKFAST SANDWICH

Chris Vitiello of Vitiello Decorative Hams, Inc.

Chris Vitiello of Vitiello Decorative Hams, Inc.

Vitiello Decorative Hams, Inc. introduced their decorative breakfast sandwich in 2004.  Although initially met with skepticism, it has since garnered a loyal following.  “What makes my sandwich work is that it is both edible and decorative,” noted founder and CEO Chris Vitiello.  “The edible component slides out easily and may be consumed by the rapacious sort of philistine that feels the need to shove a breakfast sandwich down his greed-lined gullet and then the decorative component, which is the true aesthetic component– the true work of art– will hopefully be appreciated by the same sort of vulgarian that would feel the need to purchase such a heinous object in the first place.”  Vitiello removed a whip from a desk drawer and placed it between us.

I carefully admitted that this was one of my main objections to the Vitiello Decorative Breakfast Sandwich.  “It is nearly ten times the cost of the Pappy’s sandwich,” I pointed out.  There was a long silence.

“Is that so, Mr. Schropp?” Vitiello finally answered.

“Yes,” I conceded.

Vitiello ran his finger slowly along the whip.

“You know where this is going to end, don’t you, Schropp?” he finally asked.

I very slowly got out of my chair and backed away towards the door.  Vitiello’s steely eyes followed me.  I crept down the ill-lit hallway.  The elevator was out, so I had to take a service lift.  I felt that, somehow, I could hear the crack of a whip somewhere.  I made it to the street.

When I looked back up towards Vitiello’s office, I saw him standing in the window, holding the whip.  He was pointing at me, then pointing at the whip.  His eyes were like great shards of menace.

Next week, we’ll be taking a look at two more Lankville breakfast sandwiches.  Until then!