And Then, Along Came the Terrible Monster, Who Was Going to Eat All the Children!

And the monster's name was Roxanna*.  You could always tell when the monster was coming, because the power would suddenly go off, and it would get very, very dark, and all the oxygen would be taken out of the air.  Roxanna was 12 feet tall, weighed 1000 pounds, and she had sharp green teeth.  She was very scary.


Ginny O'Halpin recently sent the following e-mail to the wrong person.  (If I -- I! -- have to describe someone as not tech savvy, they have very serious problems):

"As I said... my choice for attorney is anyone but Herin. The reasons are the same as when they got rid of him last Time. He represents  Rox  I believe Betsy in her letter to kristan said the same thing."

I'm going to set aside the punctuation problems, the failure to capitalize the name of our last permanent manager, and the fact that Ginny appears not to know his name.  I just want to focus here on content.

Ginny is going to be part of the Commission that will choose a new Village attorney.  And Ginny wants anyone except John Herin, who is our current interim attorney, and who, as Ginny recalls (or has been told), was once before our regular Village attorney.

Ginny alludes to John Herin's having previously been "got[ten] rid of," and Ginny doesn't want John as our Village attorney for "the same...reasons" that he was "got[ten] rid of" before.  This is a little bit cryptic, since Ginny doesn't specify what she believes or has been told those reasons were.  (For Ginny's edification, the reason was that he disagreed with Tracy Truppman about two things.  So apparently, Ginny only wants a Village attorney who is approved by Tracy Truppman.  It's a bit mysterious, then, why she was so eager to let Rebecca Rodriguez and Grey Robinson go, since Tracy more than approved of them.  And why she was so eager to fire Krishan -- it's Krishan, Ginny -- Manners, who was the darling of Tracy.  Somebody probably needs to give Ginny enough information that when she says something, it will be connected to reality.)

But Ginny goes on.  John "represents Rox."  Ginny gives no insight as to what she thinks she means by this.  But "Ginny" (very clearly Milt Hunter) has been working this angle for a while.  It's pretty out there, but apparently, so is Milt Hunter.  John and Rox once worked for the same law firm, although not together.  Rox is a paralegal, and she's exceptionally talented.  Rox offers -- and John accepts -- to compose documents like Resolutions and Ordinances, so the Village won't have to pay John to do it.  And then, the Commission votes the proposed Resolution or Ordinance up, or down, or makes changes in it.  Nobody puts anything over on anyone.  Although if you're paranoid, or afraid of stories about monsters, or you just feel inadequate, you might not be able to look at it that way.

And of course, "Ginny"/Milt have proof: Betsy Wise said so.  Betsy Wise, who had no involvement in and knew nothing about the Village until she decided she should be on the Commission, was very unhinged there (was Tracy's vicious attack beast), and eventually quit and abruptly moved out of the Village.  Who would know better than Betsy Wise?

And that's Ginny's material.  Ginny, who will have an important role in choosing the next Village attorney.  Ginny, who drinks the same Koolaid that Milt Hunter serves to Dan Samaria.  Ginny, who is mostly joined by Will Tudor, whose idea about how much to pay an interim manager is what "feels right" to him, whatever an amount of money that "feels right" means.  This is the level of discretion and thoughtfulness that constitutes the majority of our Commission.

It's essentially the same degree of basis in reality that characterizes young children who get scared by stories about monsters and bogeymen.  Because they really believe the monsters and bogeymen exist, and are in the closet, or under the bed.  At least with chronological children, they have to do what the adults say.  Not on our Commission, though.  And not Milt Hunter.


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