To my pleasant surprise...although traffic was not what anyone would have called brisk, somebody thought of the ideal Christmas prezzie for anyone who works in a flea market: change! All vendors who sell small, cheap, fast-moving stuff (which is about all anyone can really count on selling, these days) always need more one-dollar bills, so someone brought me a Hallmark card stuffed with a wad of Georges.
Oh, the guilt. My immediate family have been boycotting the whole holiday gift exchange thing for years and, although I've worked in places where co-workers exchanged gifts, I had no idea that anybody would think the Friday Market was one. Actually, because of the festering hostility of an Insane Admirer's offspring, who's not much saner than his father, I've thought of it as a cold and prickly workplace. Actually, I still do.
Anyway, counting the contents of the card, I made $61, which made this slow day the most profitable market day I've had all year...You still need to support this web site, Gentle Readers. I'm not sure what's going on with Patreon--I suspect it's just somebody trying to be very very clever and innovative and load the site down with more bells and whistles, but at the time of writing the site claims they're getting record numbers of complaints. I'm 99% sure Freelancer is a scam; if someone pays US$25 for a writing job done there, we can prove it and possibly help other deserving online workers. Anyway, please use any of the following methods to fund the kind of content you want to see at this web site:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4923804
https://www.freelancer.com/u/PriscillaKing
https://www.guru.com/freelancers/priscilla-king
https://www.fiverr.com/priscillaking
https://www.iwriter.com/priscillaking
https://www.seoclerk.com/user/PriscillaKing
If you prefer safety to convenience (good for you), send a U.S. postal money order to Boxholder, P.O. Box 322, Gate City, Virginia, 24251-0322.
And of course, slow market days being what they are, I wrote another topical song for you. This one fits a tune I was taught in primary school...in case other older folks remember it, the words the fourth grade used to sing with this tune were as follows:
Near a house in the wood, (something-something) was good,
A poor young farmer smiled as he stood,
And he sang as he worked, and he smiled as he sang,
And the woods and the welkin rang (as he sang, singing)
"Hi, ho, my little buttercup!
We'll dance until the sun comes up!"
And he sang as he worked, and he smiled as he sang,
And the woods and the welkin rang.
I don't imagine anyone else has found much use for those words, since grade four, either. The jolly little tune deserves better ones. Whether you think I've written some, or not, is up to you. This one is meant to come after the current tax bill, and refer to next year's budget:
There was once a wise and a righteous man,
When told profit can't be honest, said, "Yes it can,
With a fair price on whatever people may lack,"
And his motto was "Roll back."
(refrain)
Roll back, until we're out of debt!
Don't spend until the costs are met!
Always think of worth rather than of need!
Pay for work instead of greed!
No more handouts for those who can stand on their feet!
If they don't want to work, they don't need to eat.
For help let them appeal to their next of kin,
Because avarice is a sin.
The world's full of junk mass-produced by machine;
All we need now is handmade and mindful and Green,
Paid for by the job, rather than by the hour,
And designed for staying power.
A two-party system is not enough
When each party's squealing for different stuff.
Neither guns nor butter's what tax money's for.
Just stay out of debt and war!
What to do with wealth and prestige and clout?
Whack the Gimmee Monster across the snout.
Leave the fads and extravagances alone
And take care of our own.
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