The Machinery of Night

Gas Attack!

Niles likes to sort out the newspaper ads and look over them, just in case he's falling behind on his consumption quotas. Today he opened one and sprang back in alarm, spitting and sneezing.

"Anthrax?" I asked.

No, it was just the Macy's perfume ads. They came with several samples, little flaps you had to peel back in order to get at the scent. Strangely, they all smelled of glue.

One of the envelopes stinking up the newspaper was a dual-flap number from Kenneth Cole: "The new fragrances for men and women."

One side of the envelope says, "Lift to experience Men."

So I did, but all I got was a whiff of gluey perfume.

Thanks to the example of that rat Lileks, I've begun to collect contemporary ephemera, until I get really sick of it. I "collected" this one, but I had to put it in a baggy.

Niles, by the way, has been knocking things over all morning, starting with a spectacular coffee spill. We suspect a nerve agent.

UPDATE: A double baggy.