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              :              HOTLINE! - Number 4              :
              :       (c) 1987 by James A.  Zachary, Jr.      :
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There are times that the telephone will ring in vain at the water and sewer
department, because there is no one there to answer it.
 
The bartender at the local pub wanders over to the slumping figure by the
window.
 
\"Looks like you need a beer! Rough day at work?\"
 
>Better make it a straight bourbon, a rough day at work makes me paranoid about
amber liquids that foam.
 
\"Where do ya work?\"
 
>At a sewage plant.
 
\"RIGHT!  One bourbon coming up!\"
 
>(A comely young lady wearing tight jeans and a 'Save the Armadillo' sweatshirt
walks over.)
 
\"May I have a word with you?\"
 
>No.
 
\"Awww, come on now, I just want to talk.\"
 
>Lady, if this is about your plugged sewer, or rusty drinking water or your
house flooding last September, call our main office tomorrow during working
hours.
 
\"Oh no, I don't live around here.  I want to ask if you are willing to observe
'Meatless Monday' with us?\"
 
>Please go away.
 
\"Do you know about 'Meatless Monday' and what it means to the world?\"
 
>It must have something to do with either 'Gay Rights' or the 'Celibate
Society' movements.  I'm definitely the wrong person to talk to...  please have
a nice evening.
 
\"OH NO! 'Meatless Monday' is a worldwide event planned to demonstrate the
cruelty of eating the flesh of other living animals.  We propose all people
become vegetarians.\"
 
>I really don't want to be a vegetable.
 
\"Vegetarian.  Mankind does not have the right, nor the real need, to slaughter
living creatures for food.  Meat protein and fat are slowly killing you.  Were
you aware of that?\"
 
>Sure beats getting knifed on the subway.
 
\"The more people we can get to observe 'Meatless Monday', the more animals will
be saved from vicious slaughter.\"
 
>Vicious slaughter?
 
\"YES! Do you realize how cruelly animals are killed before butchering? Most are
just bludgeoned into unconsciousness and are then quartered alive!\"
 
>I wondered where the 'quarter-pounder' came from.
 
\"This is serious!  There are no standards set for the humane killing of animals
and we want all people to boycott meat products for one day, as a demonstration
of unity.\"
 
>Sure, lady.  I'll try not to eat anything until it has quit wiggling.
 
\"Are you involved in any ecological or conservation programs?\"
 
>Oh, yes Ma'am.  I too believe all living creatures must be protected.  I am a
member of the 'Save the Mosquito Committee'.  I am the recruitment officer.
 
\"You are not serious! Just what does the recruitment officer do?\"
 
>I try to find people willing to stand naked in the swamp to act as feeding
stations.  Interested?
 
\"NO! Don't change the subject.  Our group wants to convince as many people as
possible to be vegetarians, but we realize that many will insist on eating
animal flesh.  We would settle on a standard that would require a humane method
of killing them.\"
 
>That's easy.  You can volunteer to talk to the animals.
 
\"I don't understand what good that would do.\"
 
>They would then simply die of boredom.