Remainder Table

Travelling along the Colorado River strip in Bullhead City, AZ, I saw a truly gigantic Wal-Mart Supercenter perched on a slope above the road. Remembering that Wal-Mart is the only store I know that carries 3-inch-wide masking tape (good for lint removal), I decided to stop and shop.

They only had 2-inch-wide tape at this Wal-Mart, but they did have a surfeit of other merchandise, including maps and atlases, plus two books I picked up from the remainder table: an autobiography of the pop singer Chaka Khan, "Chaka! - Through The Fire" ($3.94), and that great classic of 19th-Century science, and perhaps the greatest book of the entire century, Charles Darwin's "The Origin of the Species" ($7.87).

The checkout clerk thoughtfully paged through both books, looking with particular interest at the illustrations in Darwin's book (reproductions of the originals). She said, with what seemed to be a bit of disdain about the laborious process involved, that she doesn't read much: in fact, the only book she reads is "The Bible." She said that she gets all her information from TV, since there is way too much reading involved to get information off the Internet, and that she has trouble even reading employment application forms.

I sympathized with her about the employment application forms. Have you ever seen those SR-71's? No, wait, that's the Mach 3 high-altitude spy plane - I mean the federal form SF-171, or its current successor? Quite an involved form! It can take hours to fill out!

Truth be told, reading IS a pretty laborious and troublesome activity.