Wednesday, February 18, 2015

WHEN THE WORLD ENDS.



When the world ends, I think the thermometer will read 45 degrees. I don’t imagine lava eddying with 7-11 debris aflame, the sun any closer. No, I imagine a panel of bewildered American Idol judges, then television fizzling forever. Only, we’ll have to trudge around in gray daytime and gray-black nights that will, for many weeks, offer quiet impenetrable as gray-black. The temperature: 45. Which fits, since it’s the opposite of the opposite, it’s the lower end of the opposite of the opposite, to be technical. The skies will stall. The oceans will stall, if “stall” equates with concentric decline. To be technical, “stall” equates with concentric decline. If the thermometer read “40” I’d question the finality of the catastrophe and if the thermometer read “50” I’d question the finality of the catastrophe. What do you think? When the world ends, I think the temperature will be 45 degrees. At first, we’ll be standing in circles, in the parking lot, as for a fire drill. We, shivering in coats, will be looking back toward a structure we can no longer inhabit.


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4 comments:

mark wallace said...

Time to find a 40 and a sidewalk stoop!

DAN / DANIEL GUTSTEIN said...

's hard to judge the numerical significance(s) of these figures. one can drink a 40 on the back stoop, and it could be colt 45, or could be labatt 50 ale. but if the abiding temperature isn't 45 degrees (f) then i really would doubt the hype. i suppose we could just sit there, many days in a row, on the back stoop, drinking 40s, 45s, or 50s, until we could say either "the world has ended" or "the world hasn't ended." this seems like a good map -- for life -- in general.

b.a.g.

mark wallace said...

And consider the Stone Enjoy By 3-14-15. What if the world ends before that day? One would then have to enjoy it before 3-14-15, and not by. This is confusing to me. It's like those bars that require a two-drink minimum: they really don't want you to drink there. What's up with that?

DAN / DANIEL GUTSTEIN said...

everybody was crediting that mayan calendar as predicting the doom of the earth but clearly we have to worry about freshness dates -- beer, food, etc. clearly, brewers and food companies aren't betting on the longevity of the planet. as for bars, they want to make their money, too. if you sit there, you must purchase two drinks ("whattya tawkin'?") because you might very well not be sitting there tomorrow night!

-b.a.g.