The Mis-Spelt Snowball.

on my desktop waiting/too long

What’s this then?

It’s a journey.

Where did it start?

Right here at this desk.

Where did it finish?

Right here at this desk.

Did you go far?

A long, long way.

But never left the desk?

Exactly!

So, where did you set off to first of all?

It’s not clear from the notes but I think it was off to the Garden Path Proverb.

Just like that? There must have been a reason.

It might have been Snowball.

Snowball?

Or The Guardian; yes, I was reading The Guardian and it took me into anti-proverbs.

Anti-proverbs? What are they?

An example would be –‘If at first you don’t succeed, then sky-diving is probably not for you.’

The Guardian was talking about this?

Not that exactly, they were talking about proverbs for the digital age, I think.

Got an example?

Yes, but you could read the article yourself.

I’m lazy.

Ok, how about – ‘You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.’

I like the one about the micro-waved fish more.

You’ve read the article!

I have.

Then did you follow the link to anti-proverbs, that was the next step on the journey?

I did, but then I wasn’t sure where you went next, and the notes really aren’t clear.

Well, I took a detour literally up the garden path into The Garden Path Sentence.

Let me guess, this has something to do with being lead up the garden path, so taken somewhere else, distracted. Something like that?

Deceived.

By a sentence?

‘The old man the boat.”

Ok.

So that took me off a little further, first to Parsing then Wellerisms.

Wellerisms, like in Dickens?

Yes.

How did you get there from The Garden Path?

I went a long way down the Garden Path.

But it was a detour?

Yep, because then I jumped forward to Oulipo.

I’ve been there.

You have?

No, I was being ironic; where is it?

Not so much “where” but “who”.

Ok, who is it?

A group of people, but it included Raymond Queneau.

Ah! Does that explain last year?

In part, but from Oulipo I travelled to Constrained Writing. That was really exciting; I visited reverse Lipograms, Quadrivial Quandary and Bilingual Homophonic Poetry.

Homophonous.

Yes, sorry. There were a lot of signposts in Oulipo and so many roads to travel. I got , get, confused. But really I wanted to get to Outrapo.

Ah! Outrapo! So surely you passed through The Collège of Pataphysique?

I wanted to join.

Which branch?

Maybe the London branch, it’s my home-town.

The London Branch has six departments and an orchestra, which one grabbed your imagination?

Either the Museum or The Orchestra.

You can be part of my Museum if you like.

Can i?

Certainly, we need a development officer.

Oooh, do I get a desk?

You can use this one.

Thank you.

You’re welcome. By the way, on your travels did you visit the Musée Patamécanique?

Of course!

Did you see the Bumble Bee Dream Capturer?

Wouldn’t you love one?

Tell me!

I took the optional excursion into Metaphysics but really I spent more time in the field of Inutilious Research.

One can never do enough. Did you meet the curator, Dr Faustroll?

He was out, but I met his assistant – Bosse-de-Nage.

A fine woman.

Woman?

Possibly.

I liked the idea of the Pataphysical calendar.

Thirteen months/29 days each/the 29th day being imaginary/except two?

That's the one.

Could be interesting.

I thought The Knights Tour was too so i went there.

It certainly says Snowball on the map, did you get there?

I did, but i'm not sure the map is a map, more of a guide, i had to hop back to Oulipo to get to Snowball.

Did you write one?

I did.

Can we see it?

Certainly -

I

(Me)

Two..

Days

Later.

Wonder?

Fearful.

Plunging

Recklesly.

You had to spell recklessly incorrectly to make that work.

I think that's ok.