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resist dewesternizing such a discussion. As usual he was brilliant. As usual he was dismissed as a rag head. Farr always kept his feet planted in the topic at hand when casting in the philosophical waters. But Seth Popper had gone on a bizarre tirade about philosophic anemia plaguing modernism - to a wall of Say what?s and Huh?s, complaining, for example, that nobody gives a poo about Nietzsche, as somebody mumbled schitzo, let alone Thomas Aquinas. "Oh listen to you," Morgan sneered, "Aquinas should have stuck to letching! Did less harm." Denise, still reacting to the Nietzsche reference, rambled something in pseudo-German about uber madchens and kranks, eliciting an "I'll give you a krank," from Popper, of all people. Belachnik approved with a rolling fist overhead gesture. Denise returned a mock swoon, "Oooo Seth. Will you get it up for me as you do for your life sized suitable-for-framing fluorescent-backlit Venus transparency?" Seth jolted, then went introspective for a short pause, "Mmmm, actually, Denise, no." She was crushed, no a match for a light box pin-up. It was Yount who, yesterday, totally out of his element in discussions about monads and pre-established harmonies, played the peace maker. It was he who, instead swept all past doctrines away, and proposed an alternative all embracing elastic philosophy for our modern age, Ernie-ism. Ernie Dwell, a laughable figure, laughable if he didn't have such institutional clout, decided what was and what was not the next thing that simply must be changed and implemented before the next commission inspection. Pointless preemptive preparation paralysis, was Gerry's evaluation. It was all those self imposed 'never can tell' what they might knock us down on barnacles of inspection paranoia - B.I.P.'s - that made the commission so despised. Even when they didn't fault you, it was proof that all that time wasting nonsense was for