A fourth power outage at a restaurant

A fourth power outage at a restaurant. A man and wife sit in a restaurant in Europe. Man: Oh, thank god, we can fly to Iceland this summer without regard for covid restrictions; the old normal is back in Iceland. I vote we go there immediately and spread our money liberally. Woman: I’ll book us …

Overheard on the way to the beach

A Portuguese woman walks to the beach and talks into her phone. Tourist: She’s an American; she wants the enormous kitchen. Yes, it looks like a morgue. So what? She likes it; she wants stainless steel everywhere and the deep drawers that hide dead bodies. And the price! The more the better; no, don’t worry; …

A covid patient reads Plato

Afternoon sunlight shines through a window into a bedroom; a covid patient sits reading in the sunlight on the bed. Patient: Well, I finally have my answer. How many years ago did I write that question on Quora asking about why America’s two party system was creating such anger between the two halves of the …

Socrates interviews Ben Shapiro

Ben Shapiro sits for an interview with Socrates. Socrates: Hey, thanks for joining me today. Ben: Happy to be here. Socrates: I’ve been listening to your social commentary and find it lacking in a good measure of truth. You’ve definitely expressed one of the many facets of reality, but you leave much to be desired. …

The republic

The Republic. Socrates stands before his troupe of Greeks and lectures at length about the perfect society. Socrates: All fiction stories must have a strong moral in which the good is rewarded and evil punished; if not, society will decay and die. Glaucon: Well, that’s perfectly clear, Socrates. Socrates: And, in our state, the color …

A Rufus Wooster narration

If you are like me, you know what it is like to wash up unconscious on the beach with sand in your undergarments and have a beautiful Italian woman resuscitate you vigorously. If you are not like me—and I seriously doubt that you are like me in any way—, then you will have to take …

A conversation about the plague

A sixteenth-century city street. Alabaster Wren walks on the sunny side; Anthony Dull stands in a shadowed doorway. As Wren passes, Dull calls out and the two men have the following dialogue: Dull: Hi, mister Wren! Stop a moment, please! Wren: Mister Dull, how is life? Isn’t this sunshine lovely? Dull: Plague; who can enjoy …

In which a reporter interviews Johnny (incarcerated philosopher 10)

A jail cell. Johnny sits on the cell cot. The philosopher sits upon the toilet. The interviewer stands at the bars of the cell and points a pen at Johnny. Reporter: In a recent interview for GQ you mentioned that you are twenty years ahead of your audience. Johnny: That interview was like twenty years …