TOILET STALLS

"There's just no space right now in the mainstream media for any kind of intelligence. If you want to say anything remotely meaningful you are relegated to the sidelines. It breaks my heart to say this but intelligent reflection has been marginalized. And that is the main reason why I'm doing this interview from here."

He listens carefully to her next question that comes from the tiny earpiece in his left ear.

"Absolutely, the dialogue that's going on in here is about as engaging as anything in the American media. I mean listen to this: For a good conversation meet me here at 5:00 PM April 12th. I'll be outside in a black van."

His high pitched laughter fills the five-stalled restroom.

"Hilarious. There's humour here but then there's also a couple minutes alone, to yourself. You sit here in silence and you also think about the world."

The main door of the restroom opens and a man in a purple tie walks in.

"For example, how does your sense of time change as you get older. In my early thirties I found myself constantly giving wrong estimates of the passage of time. Oh I saw that movie two years ago, I'd say when in fact it was four years ago. There's this inner clock that has to be adjusted as you get older and time speeds up."

In spite of the fact that there's no one else around to look at him, the man in the purple tie stands at the urinal trying not to look like he's listening.

"Now how is it that I'd lived in this world for over thirty years without knowing this basic fact of existence ?!! And I wouldn't say it's trivial as time is one of the most precious modalities of our existence. However this very basic piece of what should be common sense isn't something you'd ever hear on t.v. or the radio."

Again he strains to listen. (If anyone were watching the scene from a hidden camera they might suspect a crazy man of talking to himself and filling his pants while sitting on a closed toilet lid.)
"That's exactly what I mean."

And the man with a purple tie flushes the urinal with a brand new thought in his balding head.