There are some people you meet who just seem to own the wisdom of the world. To others, their vision may appear twisted and surreal, but to you they are prophets.

I once had an uncle who no one understood. Uncle Lou was an ice carver by trade. He gave most of his free time to the model appliances in his basement and to the Sony Trinitron enshrined before his couch. He rarely spoke a word, even to me, his favorite nephew. But occasionally, very occasionally, he would Speak. And his words were words to live by, those words he did emit.

So precious were these gems of verbiage that my brother Ed and I made a practice of writing them down on our visits. Perhaps we knew that someday we'd be able to make a buck off our hard work of transcription. But more likely, we felt that Lou's meager utterances were too important to be lost on kin. So here they are - Uncle Lou's advice to the world. Live by them, that one day you too might build model toaster ovens.

© 1992-1995 John Cady and the Lounge Life Press
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