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Song 16 | Aug 18 2003

This has nothing to do with Song 16, “I Am A Scientist” by Guided By Voices, which I must have played a dozen times throughout the day, not consecutively but in moments between things, as a way to get to whatever was on the other side of the song, as I thought of it, or to pass some time until that time arrived, or to simply hear the song again and think again about how I am scientist and an incurable, etc., or to just unlock my mind, yeah, just unlock my mind.

There was once an air conditioner that sat perched on a windowsill, held in place by a heavy window that pushed down on it from above. The air conditioner shared the sill with five former yogurt containers which were used to store loose change (two held pennies; three were for larger coins). The containers were on friendly terms with the air conditioner and would often kid around and tease the air conditioner for being a big energy-guzzling galoot. Then one day a supermarket opened nearby, and this supermarket had a fancy coin counting machine. When the yogurt containers heard about the coin counting machine, they got scared. The air conditioner tried to assure them that nothing bad would happen, but the yogurt containers didn’t believe this for a second—and with good reason! Less than a week after the supermarket opened, the yogurt containers were taken away and never heard from again. After that the air conditioner felt really lonely and missed being teased.