h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Paulh was exhausted and needed to unwind. He had just survived a duel by pie fight against Anna Karenina's husband and her lover. Cheering pie fight aficionados by the hundreds lined the streets of a typical western town as Paulh walked down Main Street toward the town's only saloon.

Inside, he found Italian decor reminiscent of Naples. The bar maid was a gypsy girl, who efficiently supplied him with a Shirley Temple, a Grasshopper, and a hard cider, in that order. Thinking that he needed to follow these with something harder, he said, "I'd like a gin and tonic. Shaken, not stirred."

The gypsy girl said nothing, but winked at an enormous man who was sitting in the shadows to the right. The man rose from his seat -- he was a sumo wrestler. Grabbing Paulh by the arm, he said "You, James Bond. Come with me!" in a thick Hungarian accent. The next thing Paulh knew, he was being dragged into a room in the back where there was an
Olympic-sized swimming pool that had a cover draped over it. Peeling back the cover at one end, the sumo wrestler threw Paulh in and then sealed the cover again.

Oh, great, Paulh thought to himself. In my moment of triumph I am now going to drown. Peering toward the other end of the pool, he saw an even greater hazard: an immense shark which was swimming toward him. Just as the shark was about to sink its huge teeth into him, Paulh saw that the cover was being peeled away. A perfectly manicured hand reached into the water and pulled him to the surface. The next thing he knew, he was sitting by the edge of the pool and looking at the 3-dimensional version of Betty Boop. Beside her was Grampy, who was shaking my hand and telling him what an honor it was to finally meet him.

So Betty Boop -- the real Betty Boop, not Fluffy Pink Rabbit's delusional version of her -- was on Paulh's side after all! He didn't have time to dwell on this happy turn of events, however,
because The Blob started oozing through the doorway that the sumo wrestler had used to bting him into the pool room....

[In the last sentence of the next to last paragraph, "my hand" should have been "his hand". ]

More Betty Boop.

Well, you made me feel ashamed of myself for casting her in a villainous light. I *adore* Betty Boop. I have two Betty Boop teapots and numerous Betty Boop cups and saucers. I don't know how Betty and Grampy will save Paulh from The Blob, but I have until tomorrow to come up with a way.

I revisited Betty today, too. Big fan, here, though I own no tchotchkes.

getting away from The Blob.

Frosty the Snowman could be a useful ally....

As long as it stays cold enough.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dPnGFdMrW4

you need foreign aid

[Amy P]