Monday, June 05, 2006

[JONNY-5 WROTE]

It's Tough to be Mr. Puffy's Polyp.


Mr. Puffy returned to the scene. But this time, he immediately commanded our attention. His thunderous snort followed by three sharp, but abreviated, chirps informed us that he was ready to tell us the answer. He began in a near whisper...

"How could I say no? After all, I certainly am no specimen of outlandish magnitudes. Really, could this ever happen again?" Clearly the children's eager lauding had elevated Puffy's trounced self-worth. "She's so pretty." His eyes drifted upoward. There, attached to a sequence of iron hoops, hung a curled photograph of a woman's face. Her lips flittered as her jaw ground mechanically to the pulse Puffy tapped with his walking stick. (Of course this was the same magic stick Jbird had jettisoned earlier). The woman's torso soon appeared as the chorus of beats grew louder. At last her full figure managed the iron loops. It was obvious she and Puffy had rehearsed this lesson before.

But something unusual was happening. She spun a circle weaving her legs in and out of several rings. Dramatically, she drew a gleaming instrument from her nearby satchel. Her brow carved a rich and solemn crescent across her forehead. A scant grim came over her face while she witnessed poor Puffy's obese faculties attempting to evaluate the unexpected options. At last, he shouted at us "If I don't hurry, she'll know... "

"QUIET. Oh god, I nearly shouted at her." Puffy oscillated between barking orders at us and mumbling to himself. "She has such a bad temperament. This is becoming too dangerous. If she knows what I have... but how could she? I've never disrobed in anyone's (let alone hers) plain sight before." Puffy's obvious concern had swept over the room. We prepared ourselves for any unexpected intrusion, and according to his instructions, smeared marshmallow paste on the back of our hands.

Puffy reached for the jar, but it was too late. She had his full attention. He stood erect, gazing at her fiendish body. Puffy could not shake those placid eyes. Those dire green constellations. He later explained that her eyes could see through his cunning. They spoke to him. They would verify for her the utter bowel stricken angst he dreaded most.

"It's time." She said with a lilac trimmed voice. The sounds rumbled through his chamber, bouncing off the jagged frames holding previous years' conquests. "No!" His voice was desperate. We all screamed back. But Puffy was motionless. Again she chided him. This time her voice was apparent. All subtlety and discretion cast itself to the dark matter. She wanted it. She needed it. But what if it goes wrong? We wondered. She'll blame us forever. Another gaping breath and Puffy charged her with all of his might.

"Ole!" The crowd cheered. J-bird squealed with delight. Thurston jumped up, nearly dropping his precious mommy-cup. Chelsea howled and thumped her bronzen cleavage. And I? Well I watched with fearful eyes. I knew Puffy intended to teach us a valuable nutrition lesson, but at what cost? She was going to win. "Fuck." I screamed in agony. It's exactly wrong. No, it's exactly what she wanted. The crimson stream burst from Puffy's abdomen. "You Devil!!!" Puffy screamed and then wilted to the floor, writhing forwards and backwards alternating between bliss and pain. Her arm reached past the curdling at the incision, past Puffy's exposed intestinal tract, deep down into his swollen colon. Her stained arm retracted with a baseball of purple veined tissue. "Ahhhhh." Puffy mouthed a theatrical "Thank you Susan!" And fell into a deep slumber.

Charles Winslow Puffington regained his lost esteem. The room ogled over him as a mother would would her newborn baby. Unwittingly the answer had dawned on all of us simultaneously. It was something we had thought all along. Puffy had spent years eating processed foods. It was only recently that he had expounded upon the virtues of proper dieting. Susan soon vanished. But there in the fruit bowl on the counter. Next to the bananas, sat Puffy's colon polyp. A reminder.

2 comments:

Pedro said...

Good Christ that was wonderful. A sublime vision of the bizarre.

priyahowell said...

The thing about popcorn is it doesn't make any sense. The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia: As with all cereal grains, each kernel of popcorn contains a certain amount of moisture in its starchy endosperm. Unlike most other grains, the outer hull, or pericarp, of the popcorn kernel is thick and impervious to moisture.

As the kernel is heated past the boiling point, water in the kernel begins to turn to steam, generating an internal pressure of about 9 atm. In kernels of other grains (and in damaged kernels of popcorn), this steam escapes as fast as it forms, but in the tightly sealed popcorn kernel, the steam is held tight by the pericarp and the pressure starts to build until the pericarp suddenly ruptures, causing a small explosion. The force of the explosion turns the kernel inside out. More importantly, because the moisture is evenly distributed throughout the starchy endosperm, the sudden expansion turns the endosperm into an airy foam which gives popcorn its unique texture.

Two explanations exist for kernels which do not pop, known in the popcorn industry as "old maids," after being exposed to high temperatures. The first is that unpopped kernels do not have enough moisture to create enough steam for an explosion. The second explanation, according to research led by Dr. Bruce Hamaker of Purdue University, is that the unpopped kernel may have a leaky hull.

But what I want to know is what role does popcorn have in the universe? What set of environmental circumstances made it develop so? Why hasn’t anyone developed a way to eat it without getting it stuck in your teeth? Can you believe in Darwin and popcorn at the same time?