Photo – World-Renowned Photographer – Larry King. Story Inspiration: Matt King – Neophyte Longshoreman
So to explain how this off the wall piece came together, I must confess no genius among us said, “Hey, let’s give Joe a hook, take his photo and then make fun comments.” It did not happen that way.
It was more like an equation with several components all adding up to make it a humor possibility.
1st: Matt King landed a job as a longshoreman.
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2nd: Matt’s dad, Larry, who has invited me to lunch every week since high school back in 1960, without ever paying for my lunch, invited me one more time.
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3rd: I spotted the hook hanging from a rafter in my tiny barn and thought the hook possessed some humor potential.
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4th: I wore the hook to lunch. Larry got a big kick out of my antics, so much so, had he been wearing false teeth, he would have spit them into his ice tea with no lemon. Fortunately, Larry is too young for false teeth.
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Had I worn a black eye patch with my hook, our waitress would have thought she was serving a pirate.
5th: Larry took my photo which he sent by text to Matt who just started his longshore career. Matt replied with laughter, “All Joe needs now is a hardhat.”
This is when things raged out of control. Larry and I voted to shift the entire bit to an edition of Westside Story so you, my readers, might share some of our light hearted humor.
This entire Westside Story was built like an equation. Drop any component from the equation and there would be no hook, no photo, no text, no Westside Story and no laughter.
The equation: 1st + 2nd + 3rd + 4th + 5th = laughter.
Joe Boyle in character as Captain Hook. Joe, you have got to stop eating those odd mushrooms that grow along Gravelly Lake Drive.
Joe, your West Side Stories got me hooked. Thank you for another good morning chuckle!
Susanne,
If any of my Westside Stories are ever considered to be classics, you can brag it up to your friends that you are “Hooked on classics”.
Joseph Boyle
Despite Joe’s assertions of morality, turns out he’s a hooker!
Sure John, now you comment. You would never has said something like this when you lived in Lakewood all those years, because you knew, I knew where you lived.
Now that I no longer know where you live, you display what you seem to consider to be an unfettered access to free speech.
Joseph Boyle
(First, get in a cheerleader stance. Second, read rhythmically, assuming you know what that means.) Give me an “H”, Give me an “O” and an, “Oooooo-K”. Go, Go, Joe, you are “HO-Kay” by me…
It might take a couple tries to get the feeling of how genius this rhythmic presentation of a great cheer for Joe Boyle really is. Remember, “Perfect practice makes perfect!”
Stephen,
Thanks for the cheer. Until this very moment, I never thought about not having a Joe Boyle cheer. Thanks for solving a problem I never knew I had.
“Go, Go, Joe. You are ‘Ho-Kay by me…'”
Having my own cheer should help me increase my self concept, allowing me to overcome my natural crippling shyness. That willI help me to come up with more ideas I can use to creatively stuff Ben Sclair’s, The Suburban Times.
Go, Go, Joe
My pleasure! That’s what we do: We help solve problems that no one knew existed–kinda like the government! And, if there isn’t a problem, we create a problem so we can subsequently solve it, at your expense of course–kinda like the government!