A.G.E's Joint

Devil's Quill Headquarters, Arlington VA  Riiiinggg.  Rinnnggg Good Day. Thank you for calling Devils Quill Consulting. The premier source for all things sinful. I'm Betty Bowers. How may I help you? Oh, Mr. Draper. I haven't heard from you in a while. How are things in the depths?  Hot and bothered? Isn't that always true? But it's better than being an ash. So, what's up? Ms. Jezebel is in conference right now. May I take a message? You need some data for a new project called "Live for today". Her plate is pretty full at the moment with this Epstein deal Mr. Nixon came up with. Oh, this is related? OK. Let me see if she can take you... ...Mr. Draper, she can't break free right now, but she did send the database extract this morning under the name "When Eagles Fly".  You got it? Good. Anything else? Have I heard from Sandy Skinner from Wrath? The last I heard, Mr. Beezelbub has him working a beta script test involving the Esau kids, Epic ...

In the DQ training room.. . "Alright, everyone. Take your seats and let's get started." A screen comes down from the ceiling. On it is an old timey streetlight.  "Welcome to Adventures in Gaslighting - An Advanced Course in Mind Games. I'm Don Draper and this," nodding to the blond on his right, "is Rachel Jezebel. You may remember us from your Deadly Sins training." Draper shuffles his notes. What is Gaslighting? It is a mind game where the subject is convinced truth is a lie and lie is truth. It is the basis of most modern marketing and has significant uses in politics and crowd control. "When I was topside, the subject was one of my specialties. I spent much of my time manipulating the public to buy things they did not need with money they did not have. And if the folks needed to go into debt to buy this stuff, the more money I and my client made. A good example was premium liquor. Often it is the regular stuff in a fancy bottle and people...

  In the call center outside Dallas TX... Rrring! Good Day to you and thank you for calling Devil's Quill, Gluttony Central. My name is Big Bertha. How may I help you? You want to gift your skinny sister a new body? Are you sure you don't want the Petty Jealousy division? You say she force fed you stuffing and cranberry sauce and kept all the pumpkin pie for herself? Let me patch in a couple of people. Hold, Please. Rring... "Wrath Division, Sandy speaking." "I've got a suc...er... client on the phone where we can get a two-fer. You have time to sit in? "Sure." "Hello. Thank you for holding. I have Sandy from our Wrath division and he's going be able to help your issue.  "Bertha tells me you were stuffed with stuffing and cranberry sauce and you want revenge how? To stuff her? Hmmm... Let me pull the records....Oh, my. Lot's of lust and envy there. It looks like she did  this to snag your husband. Oh, you say they have been having ...

Dancing slowly around the counter Sinatra on the oldies station What music they make. Apron swaying To a Parisian dream. Teaspoon off the rack Spices sprinkled in flour.     Beads as liquid joins.   Dough ball forms slowly.   Familiar thrill begins   Love rises, falls.      Hands quickly knead Searching the dragon’s face When love is not madness, It is not love. Spirit attracted To the scent. To her   She is the bread   Intertwined loaves in the oven Only in the next life, She knows.    Topic- Kim Herndon Pic- Christine Wichman Pic Guesses-Dragon (in blog), Sauron, Godzilla, Long Journey, Middle Earth, Knights of old, Tequila dreams, 4 and 20 years ago,

Hey, Heidy and Howdy. I'm back for another round of randy dandy DJ's silliness here on WOFT, Old Fart's Radio. My name is Harry Handy (as if you didn't know that), twisting tongues and pleasing girls...at least until my ex-wife found out. This is sort of how I became a rambling man . Yes, ladies and gents, I was that guy Harry Chapin talked about in his song, trolling the clubs after hours, trying to play kickball with the girls. (And there are no ugly girls) I'd wouldn't let them kick my balls, though. Well, the ex found out and kicked them anyway. During all this, I found out I was quite illiterate. But I read a lot of legal mumbo jumbo. Things about child support and cost of the court. Oh, I'll admit Ol' Harry deserved his spanking, but he wished it was in any room but a courtroom. I would have been such a good boy....(A walk!. I wanna go for a walk!) When it was all over, I needed extra bread to cover her place AND mine. A friend of...

    Thick steam rose from the pebbled pavement in front of Tom’s Tiki. Random rainbows scattered here and there in the slanting afternoon sun. It was another typical Orlando summer day, but the afternoon Turkish baths still amazed him. Beginning as thin wisps, the clouds would expand out of invisible extruders, growing larger and darker as the morning rolled on. Gestation was completed right after lunch and nature’s tears would blind all that could see. He had always heard your watch could be set by them, but it wasn’t until he had spent a full summer that he realized it was true. Paradise? It had been for a while.    The bar was almost empty. Disappearing diamonds adorned the few cars in the lot. Cars played red light chicken on OBT just beyond the curb. The rain had chased the tourists into an early siesta and the chained drones hadn’t been let out of their cages yet. A bored barmaid lazily dried glasses in preparation for the evening, her tattooed arm...

In a conference room outside of Dallas, TX     OK, every one. Settle down and let’s get started. My name is Marty Mammon, Senior Demon Director of Sales and Compliance here at Devil’s Quill Communications. On behalf of our Chairman, Mr. Lucifer Beezlebub, we welcome you to your new adventure here at Devil’s Quill, or as we lovingly call it, DQ.   What’s that? No, you can’t have a Brazier Burger and a Mister Misty. Did this building look like a cow barn to you?    [With a bang and a puff of smoke, the questioner is transferred to another department]   Any more smart remarks? Thank you.    Anyway, you were specially selected to spend eternity with us in the compliance department. DQ has been a leader in soul marketing and testing for more than 5700 years. We take pride in our ability to get people to waste their wishes on wishing . Each of you has been selected for our program based on your ability to convince others to sell o...

      The bandstand was deserted hours ago and almost everyone else had gone home. A red, white and blue neon sign screamed BBQ, Babes and Beer! The screens above the bar were silently running the day’s latest tragedies. But Jack wasn’t having any of that. That all smacked of celebration. This was a vodka and depression kind of night. A wave brought the bottle and the glass was emptied and slammed back as soon as it filled.    “Damn, man. You hardly let me pull up.”   With a sigh, the glass was filled again.   “But this is your last one. Got it?”   “Sssurre.” Came the slurred reply. Using the edge of the bar for balance, Jack slowly stood up. Picking up the glass, he stumbled over to the jukebox. A dollar in the slot brought solace.   The bars are all closed…It’s four in the morning and I must have shut them all down…   He had enough. Or could he really get enough? Damn woman took off out a word, change...

It all started when I met Charlie Balczak at Mess. Who’s he? An E4 grunt I’d bunked with. A short, wiry guy from Ohio, he could drink guys twice his size under the table and then hold his own in the fights that followed. Oh, he was alright for a Marine. Not quite as crazy as most of them, but he did have his moments. And this was one of those moments. We were assigned to a demolition unit at Ft. Bliss and had just gotten our deployment orders. Yippee. We get to do our jobs for real and get out of this Godforsaken desert. Still a desert, just not this one. This was my first deployment and Charlie’s third. He had warned me that fun was not allowed over there, so we drew overnight passes to get our kicks out before we left.  A good thing was there were no girl friends or wives to answer to. And for what we were planning, that was a very good thing. Butterbar told us Juarez was off limits again, but we’d been 86’d out of every bar in El Paso and Las Cruces was a dump. We h...