Shortwave waterfront

I think Richard Brautigan is sending me messages from The Beyond. Here's what was in my inbox this morning:

Erasmus Davila: putrid payphone
Rosemarie: refresh later
Cecilia Magee: embed sanctity
Veronica Martin: unacceptable mugging
Oliver Hilliard: omission
Flossie Workman: shortwave waterfront
Sam Cabrera: unconventional

My favorite? Unacceptable mugging, of course. What would an acceptable mugging be? If someone wrests from your hands the Gap bag filled with sale items that make you look like everyone else? The small cellophane package containing Aqua eyeshadow that is, seriously, a little too young for you now? The cell phone that binds you to the strange biddings of your mother in law? If someone stole my purse today, this is what they'd get:

a blank Memorex tape
$40 Canadian
a blue sleep mask
bubble solution in a green plastic dispenser
three MAC lipsticks in THE SAME COLOR
a three-year-old Preggie Pop, unlicked
six sheets of Kleenex
33 business cards, two of which have lipstick on them
some home-made poetry about the C-Train containing the word "cunning"
a fridge magnet from The Huntington Gardens
one teal toddler sock featuring a grizzly bear and a salmon (from Alaska)

Veronica Martin might be a bit disappointed, but I get the feeling that Flossie Workman would smirk, crack her gum, and offer to take me to a dive bar