A FISH TALE

At a fisherman's wharf, a fish vendor enjoyed the sign he just put up by the door of his stall: FRESH FISH FOR SALE HERE. Then he begun to think, Of course the fish is sold here, not in the next stall, not out in the sea. So he changed the sign and afterwards admired it as revised: FRESH FISH FOR SALE. He went to think again, Of course the fish is for sale, Why did I have to set up a fish stall if fish were to be given away for free? Thus, the sign went down a second, and up a third, time: FRESH FISH. He went to think once more, Of course the fish is fresh, Why will I sell rotten fish? (paging fish vendors, why, really? - cbs) And so the miserable sign went down and up for, I lost count, the nth time: FISH. The fish vendor found his genius for one moment, only to lose it on the next, Of course it is fish I sell, not flowers, not books, this is a fisherman's wharf, dammit! And so the sign went down, edifyingly, for a final, emotionally draining time, never to be put up again.

There is a lesson to be learned here. More than a few times, an absent message is a complete, consummating message.

Lesson learned.

Here is my entry: