Tick this Cross that

Thought for the day: A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. -- William James

Have you come across people who like to mark everything? Or, are you one of those? If so, I’d like to know what makes you tick, punitively speaking. I saw one of these ‘marker’s during my walk yesterday. This guy was standing at a bus time table signboard( Here, these signboards are about five feet high ,  in white acrylic and have the full day’s schedule for all buses) And, this funny guy was using a pen to mark his bus timing options on it. (Luckily, there were no cops around, or he’d have been jailed for defacing public property). 

However, it reminded me of quite a few such people in the past, who’ve made me wonder why they do what they do and, of course, where they do it. 

For example, at restaurants- now, if the menu is a throwaway kind, like the McDonald’s one which they use as a tray mat, it’s fine-you may mark on it, rub your nose with it, make a paper plane with it or anything your little heart desires. But, a glossy menu, costing a tidy sum which is taken back by the waiter after you make your picks- I’ve seen people using a pen /marker and doing their selections and putting the quantity of each dish required, to boot. Arghh!! No wonder restaurant prices keep shooting up, with such people adding to their overheads. 

Then, there’re people who borrow books and tend to mark up phrases they like, or words they don’t understand- I’ve always been very possessive about my books and comics collection and so, used to get really wild if someone brought back a book/ comic marked up thusly.

 But, the guy who takes the cake,the dough  and the whole bakery award for being a 'marker', was this school friend, maybe in 8^th or 9^th standard. Probably due to an abject lack of adult(Read s*x) education, I found that he’d mark up all the Archie comics he borrowed from me. What would he do? (Makes me LOL to think of it now) Well, to use a metaphor, he used to add fullstops and cucumbers at strategic places to all the (comicbook) pictures of Betty and Veronica and any other females that he found in bikinis and/or curvaceous poses. Unlike all the other nicely preserved Enid Blytons, Tintins, Hardy Boys,etc,I had no choice but to throw away those mutilated comics. But then, again, as I said, he wasn’t really a pervert- just ignorant. In those days, I was someone who was too polite and friendly to say 'No' to friends borrowing books, notes, textbooks, cassettes,etc,so I just began hiding the Archies whenever he was around.(Well, you live and learn, you know). I do wonder, though, how he'd have reacted if he'd gone to one of Rio De Janeiro's free beaches? Incidentally, he was one of those people who get obsessed- like, he once went from Baroda to Mumbai, to the Taj Hotel just for a haircut-but, that's a post for another day. 

Joke for the day:

A man asked his friend, "How's your wife doing?" The friend said, "Not too well. She hasn't been feeling herself lately. But it was a damned dirty habit anyway."

In the days of Queen Elizabeth 'tis said, some of the ladies liked to curl up with a good book, while others preferred simply to curl up with one of the pages.

Till next time, keep smiling!