skylarking (or, secret lives redux)

mike o's a guy i knew from high school. he was (hopefully still is) tall, lanky, brown hair, and he wore an XTC t-shirt. in my memory of mike o, he is wearing that logo-ed shirt. wouldn't be surprised were i to see him today, that he'd still be in it. after he graduated, i don't think i ever saw him again, though i heard he was a writer for some comedy thing, a show, a magazine or some such.

it's possible, though, that i dreamed that bit up, the comedy part, just as i appear to have dreamed up a movie or television show about some boy, an elementary school kid, who has this secret life his parents know nothing about in which he's the most famous, most powerful, most-uber-most ninja in the world and hangs in his undercover ninja life with a mentor/fixer sidekick.

here's the puzzle: i cannot recall precisely what this story is or where i saw it or why i would have, since ninja-related stuff ain't my bag. so i called my sister late last night to ask her if she knew the answer, since she often knows them, and she had no idea what i was talking about, since ninjas aren't really her bag either, and she was on half-a-tank of margaritas.

the ninja thing was the first thing i thought of when i woke this morning. it seemed, in an odd reversal, foggier in the light of day. but i still feel this brain itch about it, trying to identify what it is, where it came from, if i'll solve it. if i don't, how's that 'splained on the neurological tip? i'm not going to trouble little sis for the answer.

the whole ninja bit gets play cause at dinner some folks told me that this guy i know from my office is a ninja. i had no idea. they were so matter of fact about it, nearly non-plussed, as if ninjas are as common as napkins. (i thought they were more on the order of wizards). i was left with questions.

are ninjas stealth? does he use nunchucks? is there a fixer/mentor in the picture? and, how do i weave ninja prowess into casual conversation with this office maximus? i don't know that i'll be able to resist finding out more next time i see him. he is foxy, after all, which i guess is exactly what you'd expect from a ninja.

meantime, i got a copy of the new yorker, strange in its own little way since it's saturday and my copy usually gets here midweek. stranger still, the issue date is july 11 & 18, 2005. double the fun, belatedly.

it put the day in a warp and i have yet to right it.