It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books Page #3

I'll tell you where you used to smell garlic.

In Chicago. You get on a crowded streetcar

goin' to work in the morning.

- [Man] Oh, yeah.

- [Woman #2] In the morning?

Oh, listen... -And you think of

all these foreigners and the garlic--

- For breakfast?

- I guess.

Didn't you find them

in the elevators at school?

- I guess you don't--

- I had a one-story school. [Chuckles]

[Man] You've got to work

in an ethnic neighborhood...

to really get the flavor of it.

[Woman] Gavelston's kind of ethnic.

They have a really big Italian population.

Maybe their clothes were just

permeated with the scent of it.

- No.

- I don't know.

This is bad breath.

[Laughing]

This is garlic.

They'd been eating garlic.

[Man] You know, Italians

have very low heart disease.

- I think it's the garlic and the olive oil.

- Mm-hmm.

- And the lifestyle.

- It's all in sync.

- "I don't give a rip" attitude.

- Yeah.

That'll do it.

Well, it's not so much "I don't give a rip,"

but "I don't have any need to give a rip".

- You know. They don't--

- They have their priorities in order.

They know-- They know what's important.

I'm not derelict in my duty.

[Man #2] The most humane people. They

have a real sense of what's valuable in life.

[Chattering]

[Man #1]

Well, social community.

Like, I remember--

They don't sit at the house and drink.

Um, they go down to the bar.

- [Woman] Clorox 2?

- [Chuckles]

I've rediscovered Clorox. It's great.

Anything white in my house is--

[Man #1]

You're gonna want your flank protected.

[Woman] Even-- Even colored

things that I've washed.

[Knocking]

- Hey.

- [Woman] Hey.

Hey.

## [Pop On TV]

[Woman On TV, Indistinct]

## [Pop Continues]

[Woman On Radio]

Thursday... [Continues, Indistinct]

Friday...

[Static]

[Static Continues]

[Woman]

The Wailers on this first album.

And I understand he's quite an artist.

[Man] Was called into a special meeting

in the Hague yesterday and told--

## [Pop]

## [Rock]

[Woman]

There's no telling what impact, if any...

that could have on various aspects

of the 1,300-page farm bill.

[Static]

## [Pop]

## [Rock]

[Changing Channels]

## [Pop]

## [Ballad]

[Linda Ronstadt]

# Wait for the day

# You'll go away

- Are you out of your mind?

- I must have been.

[Man]

Hey, can you use an extra hand, Mac?

[Man #2]

Are you kidding? I--

[Man]

Pulled from the left to the right.

[Man]

He sure can play boccie ball.

[Man] Because whether you're just

starting out, or you've started a family al--

Be still.

You are the renowned

Gregor the Great. -Be qui--

Edgar realizes that--

## [Pop]

- Ripe tomato. I, uh--

- Yeah. Yeah, I know.

Yeah. I guess you do.

She wouldn't be the reason

you sold the Lady Luck, would she?

- Could be.

- Look, David...

it ain't none of my business,

but fishermen...

smart fishermen,

don't go chasing yachts or broads...

e-especially if they're married.

- And who says they're married?

- Well, aren't they?

[Man]

And now the final seconds will tick away...

and Chuck Knox and the Seahawks

will go home a happy crew.

They're seven and six.

The Cowboy season possibly over...

also now seven and six.

In a game that may have as many

repercussions for next year...

as it does for the rest of this season.

Thanks for watching the house

while we were gone.

Yeah, sure.

- Everything going okay with you?

- Yeah.

- Have a good trip.

- Yeah.

- Be careful.

- Okay.

[Door Opening]

[Starter Misfiring]

[Starter Misfiring]

[Starter Misfiring]

[Starter Misfiring]

## [Country On Radio]

[Speaking Danish]

[Elevator Bell Dings]

[Elevator Bell Dings]

Hey, what does your shirt say?

What does that shirt say?

It's Russian, um...

It-- I don't know.

[Speaks Russian] I can't really pronounce it,

but it means in Russian...

"You can't learn to plow

by reading books".

- Old Russian proverb.

- What's that book? What's that book?

- I guess I can't.

- [Chuckling]

It's The Burning Brand.

- It's these diaries from this crazy guy.

- Uh, yeah. H-Here you go.

Tapes, have one of my tapes.

You can have it.

- Your tapes?

- Yeah.

- I put some songs-- I record things.

- Really?

- I'm recording right now.

- Are you really?

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, I hope you like it. Yeah.

- Okay.

- Take it easy.

## [Out-Of-Tune Piano]

[Person]

# And all of a sudden...

# The room was--

## [Continues]

## [Stops]

# In livin' anymore

# And I don't feel much like livin'

# Can't see what for

# There ain't no life left in me

# I feel a bit funny

# Like a ghost with nowhere to go

# My hope has gone and left me

# A desperate man

# There's no spunk left in-- ##

# Or let yourself down

# Put yourself together or fall apart

# Make your mind up or let yourself down

# Oh ##

[Woman] Oh, I just, you know--

This Thursday night...

I put the cassette in and...

just laid there on my bed, and I just

started talking to the machine and--

I'd never felt that, uh...

Usually I've been real self-conscious

about recording my voice.

- Mm-hmm.

- And a machine, I don't...

"No. No, no. I don't like this".

Then we stop.

But I did it.

And I-- It all came out.

'Cause it all needed to come out.

It's like an hour and a half...

or however long the cassette was,

both sides.

And, like, I was interrupted

a couple times -

someone knocking at the door

or whatever.

But it was all on the tape.

It was all on the tape.

And then I-- When it was over,

I decided to listen to it...

and I listened to it, and I said...

"God, all these horrible things

that are happening to that woman".

I mean, that--

The poor little girl, you know.

Just so much, you know.

How-- I mean, she's so strong for herself.

She's talking to this machine.

You know, she's here alone in this house

talking to this machine...

telling it, you know,

all her problems and--

It's so sad. It's like it's--

While it was-- While it was still on,

I could hear my voice...

talking about my problems

and everything.

I just got so sad I started crying.

How can this poor girl -

she's going through so much -

how could she do it?

You know, it's so--

It's too much to happen to one person

in one lifetime...

let alone in two or three weeks.

She shouldn't be alone right now.

She should be with someone else.

[Water Running]

[Door Opening, Closing]

## [Guitar]

# I can't feel you anymore

# I can't even touch the books you've read

# Every time I crawl past your door

# I've been wishin'

I was somebody else instead

# Down the highway

Down the tracks

# Down the road

# To ecstasy

# I waited for you

# Beneath the stars

# Hounded by your memory

# And all your

# Raging glory ##

Originally published 08/21/2012

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