Article: 288707 of talk.bizarre
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
From: macrae@rikaxp.riken.go.jp (R. M. Macrae)
Subject: rejection slip
Message-ID: <1996Dec2.112407@rikaxp>
Lines: 50
Sender: news@riksun.riken.go.jp
Nntp-Posting-Host: rikaxp
Organization: RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) Wako, Saitama,  351-01, Japan
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 02:24:07 GMT
Lines: 50

He was searching for words. His elbow rested on
the desk, his wrist was limp, and his index finger
traced tiny Lissajous figures in the air. I sensed
in him a great compassion. He did not want to hurt
me. Unduly.

-

"I don't know," he said. "It's all very he she I
you this, it's all very punctuation, it's all very
verbs nouns."

-

"The piece," he said. "Overall. The piece itself. Too
unsustained."

"Unsustained?" I inquired. Meaning "Meaning?"

"Unsustained," he said. "Not ... sufficiently ...
sustained."

"But undiluted," I said.

"Undiluted I admit," he replied. "Albeit. Yet
unsustained."

-

"And the paper," he said, "is the wrong size. Too
small. You cannot convince anyone with this kind of
writing. On this kind of paper."

-

A rustle of suits in the quiet room as we stood and
shook hands.

-

The rejection slip is the size of a business card,
and is extravagantly embellished with rococo curlicues.
It reads simply: No.


---

rod macrae
macrae@rikaxp.riken.go.jp
today's anagram: cracked AOR emir