Joe Langen  

(Giant Bugs)

JOE: Good afternoon Calliope.
CALLIOPE: A lazy summer day I suppose.
JOE: I can't deny it. Getting started today seemed an effort.
CALLIOPE: What have you done so far?
JOE: My diary is about all the writing I could manage so far.
CALLIOPE: What about yesterday?
JOE: I finished proofreading about half of our book, Conversations with Calliope, and plan to work on it some more today.
CALLIOPE: How are you going about it?
JOE: One chapter at a time so I don't lose my concentration.
CALLIOPE: Have you recovered from your environmental trauma?
JOE: For the most part. I don't think I told you about the article I read on Saturday.
CALLIOPE: Tell me.
JOE: Clunker poison is a chemical poured into the engine of a car traded in with the new government program. It seizes up the engine irretrievably and the car is demolished even if the rest of it is still usable.
CALLIOPE: Leading to more junk on our national trash pile.
JOE: Exactly. After reading about ecology and our responsibility for the earth, it threw me for a loop. Talk with you tomorrow.