Conversation at Café Nefeli

shaggy boy to jo : "i see you're reading parnell.  is that parnell the irishman?"
jo to shaggy boy : "no... the financial reformer..."

[jo attempts to explain why financial reform was so important to the making of modern political discourse]
[shaggy attempts to look impressed]

jo : "so what's that you're writing?"
shaggy boy : "oh, um,"  [flips pages] "you know, um,"  [looks at pages, distressed]

j : “whatever the muse sends you?”
s : “if only it were the muse... ” [looks disappointed]

j : “that’s the problem, isn’t it?  she has so many ugly sisters.”
s : “yeah... you gotta kiss a lot of frogs”