I wanted to tell you this quick joke that I heard the other day.
Well, when I say the other day, it was probably more than a week ago now, or even two. Anyway, it’s all about this guy who’s doing time in prison for bank robbery, who gets a visit from his wife; although strictly speaking she wasn’t exactly his wife, more of a partner you should say. She’s been married before and was in the process of getting a divorce. When it was all settled, they planned to marry. Anyway, like I said, she visited him in prison. The day she arrived at the front gate she was upset with herself. She had wanted to look her best for him and had dressed herself nicely in her best clothes that morning, but had accidentally caught the sleeve of her blouse as she was getting off the bus. It was now rented.
When I say it was rented, I don’t mean it was rented, you know, rented. Rented, as in hired or something. It was, in fact, her own blouse; although to be strictly accurate, the blouse was still the property of her older sister. She had left for America some years earlier with her sword-swallowing boyfriend. They were planning to start up a street double-act in New Orleans. She had to leave several of her clothes behind. She couldn’t take them all you see. It was understood that her younger sister could use whatever she wanted as long as they were all there in good condition when she returned. That made two reasons the wife was upset about the blouse being rented.
It should be pointed out that the wife’s father had not been too keen on his oldest daughter going off like that. He found the notion of them making any kind of living over there hard to swallow. Well, no, I didn’t mean it in that way; the sister’s boyfriend didn’t find it at all hard to swallow. He was really good at it! He had been taught by a master and knew all the rights and wrongs of it and how to perform. As it happens, something did go horribly wrong for the boyfriend’s master. It had happened not long after he had finished his training; maybe a month, or maybe a bit longer. The incident occurred when he was giving a performance one Christmas eve at the entrance of a shopping centre.