Today’s soundtrack: You can’t resist her, she’s in your bones.
Today at 8:02pm: We ordered takout from Pepe Rosso. The cook there has got such a temper but the chow is decent for the sub-ten-dollar range.


My roommate Shady is leaving for Ohio this Wednesday to visit his girlfriend. He went down to Mike’s to borrow a carry-on bag.

“Thanks man,” said Shady, hoisting the bag up. Then he got suspicious (Mike’s a bit of a prankster) and started going through the pockets, thoroughly. “Heyyyy...the fuck is this?”

Mike and I both began cracking up. Deep in one of the compartments Mike had planted a pistol. A toy, obviously, but it was metal and would have showed up bright and clear in the x-ray machine, meaning Shady would get strip-searched or at least detained and miss his flight, which was the whole point. Shady’s famous for being a light traveler so it’s conceiveable he might never have looked in that particular pocket.

“You motherfucker!” said Shady, pulling it out in disgust. “The fuck are you, crazy?” We couldn’t stop laughing. At one point it was funny to make your friend trip, or accidentally trick them into touching a loose pubic hair (“dude, check this wire out”) but at our advanced age the stakes are higher. Oh to get an angry phone call from your friend at the detention center.

“I can’t believe you man,” said Shady, thoroughly checking the rest of the bag--and finding armature wire and a knife. “The fuck is the matter with you!”

Speaking of pranks I got an interesting prank call the other day. This person called me and didn’t say anything, just played a song into the phone. It was “Just a Gigolo” (a/k/a “I Ain’t Got Nobody,”) and it was the Louis Prima version, not the David Lee Roth.

I actually kind of like that song so I just sat down and listened to it for about thirty seconds. Whoever it was didn’t laugh or say anything, I pictured him or her calmly holding the phone up to a speaker. After half a minute I hung up, then felt that was premature and pulled the MP3 up on iTunes to finish it.

As me and Shady left Mike’s place Annie walked in.

“Hey Annie, what are you up to,” said Shady, towing the carry-on behind him.

“Going to the NBA game with Seiji,” she said. “What are you guys up to?”

With Shady distracted, Mike slipped the pistol into his bag again.