Lead Balloon: The Calamity of Being Cmmdr; a Life By W. August Weinerbaum. Excerpt from chapter 22 ‘Stoppage’

“….. even more nothing. The last person to give the Cmmdr notes was Aesop. Each month sloughed into the next, a sad series of ruptured days and false steps, finally pooling into the swamp of September, 2011, when even the cat had no more to give up. Indeed, by this point, this ‘convention’ cat had been abraded to the point where all that remained was a stinking rind of worthless photos and old sharpies. Drink and drugs seemed like a less-than-remote possibility. Days were filled with the tiring task of transferring twenty year old to-do lists over to the computer or clearing away the cobwebs which coated the phone. The downfall seemed complete.

But over at the Ensign’s, the flags of good fortune snapped strong in the high wind of triumph. The set of Bourne, not unlike some anteroom in Heaven, hummed with conviviality and purpose, and the Israelite lounged near craft service, chuckling and chewing the fat with his co-stars