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Getting to Know Fingers Rolly (Part Three)
By Bernie Keebler
Senior Staff Writer

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The low moan continues to dusk. When the desert disappears in darkness, the face of Fingers takes on another stunning transformation.
“There’s them cake hunks in the icebox,” he says aloud.
Indeed, I find a creased and rumpled bakery container filled with asymmetrical hunks of cake. I push them gently onto filthy plates. Fingers begins eating almost before the dessert is even before him.
“They had this guy come out and he bought up the earth beneath us,” he comments. Indeed, an enormous plot of desert land had recently been purchased by the heirs of Ferdinand Buntz, mallows king of Lankville. Rumors, none verified, were flying around the region. “What do you think he wants with that land?” I ask. “The land is an asshole. What would you do with an asshole?” He pushes his plate away and then onto the floor. It lands in a pile of garbage.
“Tell me about your wife?” I ask. It’s a dicey question; Fingers’ bride had died decades before.
“She was in the stenographers pool at the high school,” he responds in an even, quiet voice. “They gave her a little cubicle and I used to go in the cubicle and talk to her. Lovely girl. Very fat. But lovely. She looked like a gibbous moon.”
“And then you moved here, to the desert?”
Fingers slowly shakes his head. The sweat is pouring off him. I bear witness to the rising vitriol.
MOTHERFUCKKKKKKKKKKERRRRRRRR. He gets up and grabs the shotgun again. I stop him.
“Rest. Rest in the chair,” I command. He does as told though I notice that his face has changed again. I decide to press.
“Why? Why do you hate the desert?”
But he will not answer. He is gone now.
For want of something to look at, I find a small stack of old gas station road maps in a heap of floor garbage. Many are of the desert region. Opening them, I find a thick series of crude markings in various inks with arrows leading to the margins and annotated with a mysterious combination of letters and numbers. These markings are virtually impossible to explain so I pocket one of the maps so that it may be photographed later. It is reproduced here for the first time.
Hours pass. My curiosity is insatiable. I quietly move to the living room and, with the faint illumination of a cellphone, look through the signs again. Moving to the coffee table, I begin sifting through the mass of papers and letters (many never opened). Yet, there seems to be no key that I can stick in a keyhole, turn, and, by the rotation of moving cylinders, pin tumblers and so forth, unlock the mystery.
Then, I am surprised by the distant sound of a motor vehicle. Lights flash across the windows. It seems to be coming surprisingly fast– the crunch of boots on the gravel outside causes me to freeze where I stand. Then I drop to the carpet and attempt to construct a hiding fort out of blankets and pillows. They are outside the door now.
“Flatten them,” someone says. Boots crunching again, then the sound of my tires being slashed by a knife.
“You jus’ let me know when you’re ready,” the same man says. It is in monotone; a brutal voice without mercy.
I throw off the blankets and pillows and make a beeline for the backdoor. I pause only for a moment as a deadly shotgun blast bursts through the wood frame. It seems to have come from nowhere; almost silent, faintly sibilant.
Then, I am running across pitch black scrubland, away from the house. A booming roar of an engine starts up and I am now being chased by a raging pickup burying everything in its path.
This may be my end.
The story of Fingers Rolly and Bernie Keebler’s possible murder will be continued in future issues.
Every Town Should Have a Hill with a Cannon
By Fingers Rolly
Man on the Street

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I’m not fucking around here. Put a cannon on a hill in every god damn town. Stop shitting us.
If you don’t have a hill, build one. What the fuck are all these yellow fancypants asshole machines sitting around for? Put ’em to work.
When that sonuvabitch is in place at the top of your new grassless hill, you let me know. Don’t come out to the house though. That asshole of a desert. Best leave it alone. And don’t send no mother-of-shit letter either. Those fuckheads.
But I want to feel that aged cast iron. And then I want to scream at that fuckhead desert.
You let me know.
Screaming at the Desert: A Primer
By Fingers Rolly
Man on the Street

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You set up your chair and put the blinds up. Needs to be before dawn. Make yourself a pot of shitbird coffee– that asshole kind of coffee that comes in a god damn big can. You peel off the metal top and you get hit with that blast of fucking air. People think that means freshness– I’ll tell you what that means. It means LIES.
The sun’s going to come up over the butte. You’ll notice the shadows first. That’s when you start.
You don’t want to blow your voice out early. Start with a low, doleful moan. You need to sell that shit though. Don’t go half-assed. Go half-assed and, god as my witness, I’ll take you out back myself and kick your dick in.
Build slowly to a crescendo. By lunchtime, you should be at full blast. They should be able to hear you for miles. Make that asshole of a desert cringe– shake a cactus to its mother of a whore core. Don’t let anybody get away with anything. Show that pisspit of a desert what it means to have to account for itself.
Slow down by evening. Rest.
Then repeat the next day.
To Hell with These God Damn Little Asshole Hills
By Fingers Rolly
Man on the Street

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Everywhere you go now, it’s these little god damn asshole hills. Just staring at you, the little whores; they know they got you by the balls. Some of them have these rocks– what in the name of all that is decent is that supposed to mean?
Sometimes you gotta walk all the way around before you find a staircase leading up to the food kiosk. I oughta’ stop going to that bullshit place. You can’t put your kiosk on flat ground then fuck you, I’ll take my business elsewhere.
The Pondicherry Association News would like to apologize for the preceding article.
Getting to Know Fingers Rolly (Part Two)
By Bernie Keebler
Senior Staff Writer

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Fingers gnarls at his dinner; he has a strange habit of putting food into his mouth sideways and hunching over his plate protectively. Suddenly, he will bolt upwards in his seat and, remaining completely still, will gaze for an interminable period at something far off and distant out the window. Then, he will slowly return to his meal. For Fingers, eating seems a completely pleasureless experience.
I ask him about his last job. “Physical education,” he blurts out. “God damn desert high school. No fields to speak of, just that cracked brown whore dirt.” He spits on the floor. “For a time, I enjoyed it.” “How so?” I probe. He stares at me. Then: “It was fun to torture the unathletic children. But then I’d have to go into my office to fill out grades or something and even with the blinds shut, I knew that god damn desert was out there, mocking me.”
He takes a long, steadying drink of coffee. This is a rare, lucid moment. I know it will not last long.
“Then, I took to sleeping under the gym bleachers at night. I could no longer use facilities because, standing there, I could see that asshole desert out the window. So, I started defecating under the bleachers. The principal called me in after a few weeks.
“What did he say?”
“He said, Fingers– he said, we like some of the work you’re doing. You’re making important strides in teaching the fatter, unathletic kids how to wear their gym shorts. But we can’t have this moaning and screaming at the desert. And now that we’ve learned of this expelling of waste beneath the gym bleachers, well, I’m afraid that’s the last straw. So, he kicked me out on my ass.”
“What did you do?”
“I went home and made up two signs– I still have ’em, in there in the living room. Then, I took up a post here in this very chair and started screaming at that sonuvabitch. That cracked, god damn sonuvabitch…”
He gets up from the table (his rugged gait now marred by age) and starts towards the back door with a shotgun. I stop him.
“There’s nothing you can do, Fingers,” I plead.
He breathes rapidly but stops at the counter. He removes his hat and looks at the floor for several moments, blinking. He seems near tears.
Then, suddenly, his face changes completely. The transformation is stunning. FFFFFFUUUUUUCCCCKKKK OFFFFFFFF he moans slowly. He tries to strike me but I duck out of the way. He moves to his chair and begins the deeply unsettling desert moan broken by occasional moments of vile profanity. I keep out of his way as best I can. “At this point, he’ll start tearing the kitchen up,” warned a journalist friend.
I dig in and prepare for the worst.
The story of Fingers Rolly will continue in future issues.
Just Try to Find a God Damn Adapter to Fit a Sonuvabitch Three-Prong Plug Into a Mother of a Whore Two-Prong Outlet
By Fingers Rolly
Man on the Street

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I’d challenge you to find a god damn adapter to fit one of those sonuvabitch three-prong plugs into a mother of a whore two-prong outlet. You’ll wander around staring at that blue piece of shit carpet for hours before you finally bump into some Johnny Fuckhead with a little name badge who don’t know his ass from a bunch of balloons and just wants to sell you some tapes. And you’ll just go back home still not being able to plug in that new asshole meat slicer and so you’ll just scream at that desert, that cracked and brown shitcan and then you’ll just fall asleep at your own table.
Then I called up some company and got the scream down to a low moan. I could talk in between. But the guy on the other end was from out in the islands and I damn near couldn’t understand a word he said. I think by the end of the whole god damn snowjob, I sent a check for something and then I caught that motherfucking desert out of the corner of my eye and I just couldn’t help but to scream loud and strong hoping that would be the final time with that big ol’ bitch.
I think it came the other day in a little yellow box. God damn assholes.
The Pondicherry Association News would like to apologize for the preceding article. Fingers Rolly is no longer being given assignments.
Give No More Than $15 for a Tiger Painting
I’m telling you straight– don’t let these godforsaken pissants cheat you. Give no more than $15 and you’ll get yourself a perfectly good god damn tiger painting.
You can hang it over a chair. Maybe the chair where you sit and scream at that asshole of a desert– all cracked and fucking brown and just mocking you. But give no more than $15.
I’d go $20 for sofa-sized.
Musings of a Decorative Ham Man by Chris Vitiello
By Chris Vitiello

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There is so much to a Vitiello Decorative Ham. When it arrives at your door, you will receive a little card, inserted into a delicate golden envelope. Removing the card, which is printed on only the finest papers, you will find that each ham has been named. At the bottom of the card, you will discover a “seal” which forever binds you legally to the ham. There needs to be accountability.
I was once asked to host an award show for decorative meats. But then it was decided that I could not host, as I would likely be the winner. Coffee was served and fragile, graceful women moved about the tables which were covered in finespun gauze. There was no place for me to hide my whip– I wrapped it around my neck as a challenge to the men. And the men backed down.
I was awarded a prize and as I was leaving the ceremony, one of the fragile, graceful women called my name in a coquettish fashion. I whipped her mercilessly. I would not allow the tyranny of her sex to crush me.
Later, I went home and wrapped myself in overly hot towels, head to toe. I collapsed out of sheer exhaustion into bed. I thought of my award as a sort of bad dream.
The next morning I took one of my decorative hams and cracked it open. Stale air was released.
That was the last time I hurt them.
“Profiteroles Are Not Haunted”, Says Inner Hammer
By Enceladus Sheets
Senior Staff Writer

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Reacting to the latest “Royer Experience” published yesterday, Early Peoples GM “Inner Hammer” stated categorically and loudly that, “profiteroles are not haunted.” The executive then produced a number of profiteroles piled into a red wagon and invited reporters to observe the seemingly placid pastries.
“You see any ghosts? You see any god damn phantasms?” he questioned in an agitated manner. Receiving only a slight murmur in response, “Inner Hammer” then turned over the profiteroles and stomped them into the carpet which, for some reason, was sodden and fetid. He then left the room.
The press conference was ended early.
Shortly after submission of this article, several of the reporters began “fooling around” with the pile of spilled profiteroles. In the ensuing melee, Enceladus Sheets was accidentally drowned in the pastries.
Royer’s Madcap Experiences: The Haunted Profiterole
By Ric Royer

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I decided to order a profiterole for dessert. The waiter brought me a copy of Profiterole Digest. The cover showed a gigantic pile of profiteroles photographed in a red wagon. “We have everything in there except for custard, chocolates, and the one that has the hose attached so you can suck out the cream.” He pressed his crotch as he said that last part but I decided to ignore it.
I went with the “Special Occasion Profiterole”. The waiter disappeared. Ten minutes later, another waiter appeared with the pastry. He went away wordlessly.
I stared at the profiterole. They had presented it well– there were little lines of chocolate all along the plate edge and a series of minced strawberries along one side. They had also placed a little off-white card and the words “pastry ball” had been written there in fine calligraphy. There was also an emergency number printed on the back.
I picked up the profiterole and ate half in one bite. It was then that I became aware of an eldritch phantasm from the borders of this world.
I dropped the profiterole. It had turned green and was covered in blood. I could taste the gore in my mouth but could not expel it. Two waiters, watching from behind a ledge and a series of hydrangea bushes, suddenly expired.
“It was a hell beast, unleashed by your indulgence,” said a voice that sounded not unlike a kindly grandfather. I fell over backwards in my chair. Next, I was being dragged by something unseen, deeply into the purlieu. There seemed to be a lot of vomit there.
The next thing I remember is the cargo train. I was packed roughly into a boxcar full of sacks of grains. There was another man there who had had a series of pastries slammed against his face. He nodded slowly.
It was then that I could finally scream.
On the Decorative Ham by Chris Vitiello: AN OPINION PIECE
By Chris Vitiello

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It need not be a holiday or even a special occasion to place a decorative ham. Nor is the placement of a decorative ham limited to one room of your home. I even stress the outdoors during my professional placements. I have placed decorative hams on porch gliders, in hammocks, in trees and on fences. The possibilities are limitless.
Imagine, if you will, a home without a decorative ham. You can’t, can you? That is because my decorative hams have become so ubiquitous that they are mere second nature to even the most casual observer. Even the blind are aware of the decorative ham. I often encourage the blind to take both their hands and grope the decorative ham. I also do the same in schools.
It is fashionable at this time of year to place decorative hams in windows, particularly windows with high visibility to the street. Depending on your home decor, I will sometimes place a laurel wreath or a series of ribbons around the decorative ham. At other times, we elect to go with candor– the decorative ham is placed naked in the window– perhaps not even set properly. It can be quite startling.
My consultations are free. I will come to your home.
The opinions of Mr. Vitiello are not necessarily the opinions of the Lankville Post-Dispatch Intelligencer News of Some of the Nations.










































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