Alas, Fred's wait to discover whether he was waiting or merely passing
time came to an untimely end when he noticed that one of the faded
posters adorning the opposite wall looked as if it might, at any moment,
come loose and fall to the floor. The possibility of an interruption to
his wait distracted Fred to such an extent that it became in itself an
interruption: indeed had the poster in fact fallen to the
floor it is difficult to imagine that it would have had any greater or
more detrimental effect on Fred's ability to concentrate on waiting than
had already been caused by his mere awareness of the possibility of the
situation coming to pass. "Beyjaysus!" muttered Fred, "Now I'll have to start waiting all over again." This however was easier said than done, and some time later Fred had still to recommence waiting. The more time which elapsed, the more Fred's nerves became agitated and the more he felt the resumption of his wait slowly bobbing out of his reach, like that time in the swimming pool when he had lost a water wing and could not retrieve it because each stroke towards it created a wave which pushed it further away... It was not until some time later that Fred realised (oh what a day for realisations this was!) that he had in fact resumed waiting. However the mode of his waiting had changed, as whereas he had previously been waiting for a revelation as to whether his waiting was indeed a waiting or merely a passing of time, now he was waiting for a specific occurrence, namely the falling to the floor of the faded poster, in order that his prior mode of waiting might be comfortably resumed. Fred waitied for the poster to fall. The poster did not fall.
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9/17/2004 7:29:09 AM
21320045 episodes viewed since 9/30/2002 1:22:06 PM.