brother’s favor

Zeus is called away from trying to fix the office copier to deal with a whale which, frightened by seeing a goblin shark with its jaws protruded, had fled into the harbor of Troy and blocked the entrance. Why isn’t my Poseidon doing it? Because he’s drunk. Zeus is kind of pissed at King Laomedon for pushing too far on Zeus’ good will in making Poseidon and Apolo server him. Still he has to have this argument with his brother. Wwhat a drag.

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Darla

“Darla, why do you keep a tooth in your shoe?”

“My ex-husband knocked that tooth out of me. I keep it in my shoe to remind myself not to fall for guys like that. And not to put up with that kind of crap.”

banal

Paul is driven mad with rage at the inanity of the conversation at the next booth at the garden show in which he is participating. He somehow makes it through the day, then goes to a bar for a drink. He still cant calm down. He is somehow incensed by the banality of most of life. He decides to pack up his things and go home rather than attend the rest of the trade show. His live-in girlfriend is a little pissed that he didn’t stay to drum up any business – after all they spent money on the business. But he can’t even talk to her, his anger has almost paralyzed him. He snaps out of it finally with some moment of epiphany with a pseudo-ironic appreciation of some mediocire piece of pop culture.

dr. avius

Why did the ornithologist breed birds to deliver drugs through their beaks? He had dreams of unleashing flocks of inoculating birds in thrid world countries. Wound up being a way for his grad student buddies to deiscreetly delver psychotropics to each other. Soon he is being blackmailed by a crime boss to use them for one scheme after another.

Trondur i Gotu

Exploration of the character of Trondur i Gotu from the Faereyinga Saga – his resentment at his forced conversion to Christianity – how his wife and children never looked at him with respect after that. His resentment grew until it became murderous so that he attacked Sigmund. This doesn’t yet completely restore his reputation.

the love and flights of a gallery owner

“The fragile ugliness of the wrought-iron presents a Saturnine, almost pouting face.” The insect art critics debate its currentness. The gallery owner does his best to promote it, but the flluttering of his hind wings seems to betray his lack of confidence. He is extremely distracted – wants nothing more than to leave to sing to his beloved. He is almost panicked that she may be answering the tune of some other male’s legs.

interdendritic countermelody

A young thief discovers that one of a stolen knife causes cancer. His girlfriend has a brother who already has cancer. She believes she has found a way to treat the knife so that it introduces a counter-cancer, a cure – but he wants to test it on someone else before using it on her brother.

denial

The national assembly of horses gather to debate death. One of the older members declares irritably, “I think it’s absurd to continue this discussion it’s only propping up the ridiculous fable that you can be here on day and not be here the next.” After they leave they are chased by a pack of lions and a few of them are killed. They go crazy, mindless with frght. Their eyes roll back in their heads. After it’s over they become calm again and even stand close to the lions as they finish their meal. They return to the debate the next day without remembering that their dead comrades ever existed.

sailing creator’s feathers

He has built a large boat on which he sails from island to island. When arrives on an island he declares that he has created it along with the rest of the world. The people always believe him, and a certain number volunteer to go with him and join his ever-growing libertine crew. after sailing several days they come to an island with no people and they pluck the feathers of the birds to wear. Then after sailing for weeks they reach an island where the people speak a different language, and they try to break the language barrier to convince the foreigners of the creator’s deeds. the foreigners are more interested in the feathers.

letty and axel

Letty had a poltergeist named Axel as her house-servant. He was a stable boy when alive, executed several hundred years before for smothering his school-teacher. He was always upset when she went to bed without wearing a nightcap. She could feel his disapproval in the way his elasticity crimped the darkness. As she slept he would whisper into her ear dreams of horses’ hooves on coffee grounds.

Letty’s parents are disturbed to hear of this, however, and take her to see a psychologist. He pronounces that she is tied up in teen-age neurotics, and prescribes drugs. When she takes these Axel starts to tell her that she could hold the world in her hand if it were on fire. She doesn’t like this and throws the drugs into the coal box.