A conversation between Joseph and Mark

Originally written 7/17/2010

Mark: Do you see that fuckstick over there? Seriously the dude's got to be 40 and he's drinking a juice box and reading a Where's Waldo book.

Joseph: What is a fuckstick exactly?

Mark: Are you really ciriticizing my vulgarities now? Stop avoiding the topic and focus for a minute. Do you not see the problem the new America is facing these days? Here we are, twenty four year old men, and I say men in the loosest of fashions, sitting in your run of the mill, hipster, Neo-Bohemian coffee shop sipping on lattes and eating donuts discussing the prospect of the new Madden Game. What do we have to look up to? What is there to aspire to? I don't want to be 40, sitting in this same damn coffee shop dirking a juice box reading a Where's Waldo book.

Joseph: What is a prospecti?

Mark: Son of a bitch! Prospecti, the plural of prospectus. Fuckstick, a douche bag male who is doing something utterly inane, pointless and thus - soul killing. Will you pleas drop the philological rebuttals so we can face this looming disaster. Fifty years ago every twenty-four year old was out saving the world from ruthless dictators. We're sitting in a coffee shop. What does that say about us?

Joseph: Did you get soy in your latte? Your girlfriend made me promise that you would get soy or skim.

Mark: I got whole milk like a true, red-blooded human being of the male persuasion. I would have squeezed it out of a cow if I could and bypassed the unwarranted sanitization process altogher. Answer the question.

Joseph: Fine, I thin that we are not saving the world from imperialism because it no longer poses an existential crisis to America.

Mark: Exactly. The existinetial crisis we face is from within. Just from your conotation we can see the problem with every generation since our grandparents'. They fought for freedom from opression and then their hippy scumbag kids got high and reanalyzed and reinterpreted history to show us, their kids, that America fought against imperialism. They told us that imperialism was bad, not just the evil dictators. Imperialism is what made us great and now we have to feel guilty about it and apologize to everyone not born into America. I mean, realistically I'm not saying we need to invade Canada to extend our territory, but we shouldn't have to apologize to the world for being succseful.

Fuckstick: Ha!

Mark: Fuckstick found Waldo. All I'm saying is that the proble is this: High School is the new middle school, college the new high school, grad school the new college. The twenties are the new teens and we can aspire to be 40 with a ridiculous frat tattoo sipping on a juice box looking at the newest Where's Waldo book.

Joseph: My point exactly! This is my greatest fear

(pause)

Mark: You think the game store is open yet?

Joseph: Yeah, it opened twenty minutes ago. I tried to tell you but you went on a sociological rant and criticized my philological angle to the discussion.

Mark: Well, let's get the hell out of here so we can grab the Madden game. Oh, and if Julie asked if it was a decaf, half soy, half skim. It's my new favorite.

Joseph: New favorite drink or lie?

Mark: Is there really a difference?