This one, too, is related to an event
that happened here in Tucson, actually just a few years ago.
There was some strong storm, and one street, all the telephone
poles fell over, and it was the wooden ones.
So when they removed them, they replaced them
with the steel ones.
Anyway, so it's sort of related to rain, I guess.
But it heads in a slightly different direction.
And in here, I also put in one of the oldest corny linguistic
jokes that you get in Introduction to Linguistics.
So I'll see if you catch it.
And I call it "The Legacy of Telephone Poles."
And I also was just thinking that it doesn't matter anymore
about these telephone poles, because people don't use them
the way they used to anyway, because of Facebook
and instant messaging and so forth.
But anyway, you'll see what I mean.
"The Legacy of Telephone Poles."
"The telephone poles all fell over in a violent monsoon
storm, lying head to toe along the street like corpses.
With the old wooden poles went the legacy of the neighborhood.
On the poles were large staples, small ones, too,
nails, tacks, tape, and remnants of paper.
These were the bits of evidence of messages, signs,
and stories, signs inviting people
to yard sales, garage sales, estate and bake sales.
The pieces of paper provided a history of cars sold, traded,
or stolen.
They provided directions to all sorts of parties--
planned, but in particular, impromptu ones.
There were offers of all types of cleaning services
by daring individuals too cheap to buy an ad.
There was yard work, car washing, pet grooming,
and window cleaning, and the occasional light
housekeeping, though we are far from any rocky shores.
Tragedy was pasted on those poles--
lost dogs, cats, children, and adults.
The flyer of the family photo of the dogs and cat, where
the cat always looks so sad, perhaps at anticipating
wandering away from home, as is the nature of cats,
and that is what it was thinking when the photo was taken.
The children, on the other hand, never
looked sad in their lost little girl photo,
because no one ever thought they would end up
on the telephone pole as lost."
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]