‘An ear-splitting shriek’ heard in Madison

1. Last night,  at the Union Terrace at Madison, on the outdoor seating above the boathouse, one middle-aged white dude told another middle-aged white dude about his job testing aircraft engines, and how, after one test, he received this note:

“Pilots report an ear-splitting shriek whenever they turn on the environmental control system.”

[If this information helps anyone score a big win in the stock market, you’re welcome.]

2. “Walter!” shouted a young woman, at a table with several other young women, to a young man on the sidewalk below our outdoors balcony. “It’s Lilly and Willa!”  she near-rhymed. And then when the boy told them he was coming up, one young woman said to the others, “be nice to him.”

Later on, one of the girls also said, “The fact that I got into a fight with my best friend at Ed Debevic‘s makes me so unhappy.”

And also later, a girl also told another one, “the second you left, he got normal — well, as normal as an actor can get.”

3. Later, about 9 p.m. on State Street, near the Triangle Market, one girl walking with other girls said,

“If you tweeted about me falling, I didn’t actually touch the ground.”

4. And walking down on State Street, I told my wife that, probably 80 years ago, my great-great-grandfather had “a dentist appointment” someplace nearby. My wife said that wasn’t really all that noteworthy. I said, approximately, “well, he was the dentist, so, I’m sure he had lots of appointments.”