S.KRAUSE

Mr. Black

Mr. Oliver Black, the son of a bricklayer, a solid man with concrete ideas who believed that hard work was the foundation of a productive life, was a chimney sweep by profession, but a frugal and pragmatic family man by nature. In his thirtieth year he married Penny Smith, the daughter of the local banker, who had ties to organized crime, and on Sundays Oliver could be seen wearing his best soot and tie to church. At the same time, he was a capable town leader. More so than anyone else, whenever there was a problem, he was often able to get to the hearth of the matter.

Notes: ``Mr. Black'' was one of several short texts written while I sat bored in my Oldenborg dormroom sophomore year at Pomona. It perhaps contains more puns-per-paragraph than any of my other texts.