Good lord, how this thing glowers menacingly at me. Oh, well, toss another old, bent penny into the well:

SHIT FROM AN OLD NOTEBOOK (3):

Thin mouth turned up in a humorless smile, hooded, squinty eyes that never seem to look straight at anything - he had the look of a skeptic or a lech permanently implanted on his face, which had its uses; it always took him a little longer to make friends, but nobody ever handed him flyers or religious tracts at the train station, the homeless never shook him down for a quarter, and even potential muggers opted not to get involved (nobody likes their workday needlessly complicated, no matter what the job).

(I'm not sure at this point, but I think this might have been intended as something of a self-portrait.)

* * * *

POTENTIAL NAMES FOR INTELLECTUAL STREET GANGS:

The Obliterati
The East Side Pedants
J.D.s with Ph.Ds
The Radical Deconstructionists
The Mangling Participles
The Hardcore Curriculum
A La Recherche du Stomps Perdu
Semioticians With Semiautomatics
Ce n'est pas une troupe de rue