Vinny Luigi Achmed

As we have a relatively ‘new’ guy visiting the gas station in the evenings, some of us have been making new friends—our rousing cheers of “Luigi!” “Vinny!” “Achmed!” are reminiscent of “Norm!” from Cheers. We call out these names when our new guy pulls up because we enjoy his one-liners, his type-tees, and have recognized an intelligent being in the midst of so many, um, oddballs. And to razz, yet welcome him at the same time! He reminds me in particular of ‘The Blaze’, a friend of mine from Long Island. I guess it’s the fast talk/accent.
When Vinnyluigiachmed dubbed Wamego ‘Cartoon Town’, we knew he was our soulmate. He’s moved here from Chickago, thus his first two nicknames; he also has a capped oilrig on some land he owns in Arkansas, thus the last nickname. I forgot that we started to call him ‘The Don’ until we discovered that he did indeed know 2 of the Chickago ‘Family’. Naturally we made up a quick tale of his motivation for leaving the Windy City… where else would one hide under the witness protection program? If he has to make a run for it, he could always steal Dorothy’s red heels and click them 3 times… (We are sometimes snide about that—everyone knows the tornado happened in WESTERN KS not Wamego.) Poor man—I’m sure VLA doesn’t know what to think about us, but we do enjoy his company and his wild bar stories of watching fellow pool players run out the door, cross the street, and beat a man to death. OH.
Vinnyluigiachmed has also met Messiah Man, who lives close by. Since VLA (really and truly) served in Vietnam (with the most horribly wounded battalion there yet was luckily hurt by none other than St. Christopher himself) I must warn him: NEVER MENTION VIETNAM to Messiah Man. World War III could erupt at the end of the street! (click on link)
So, “Cheers!” to VLA for (for giving me a nice compliment without being disgusting) recognizing the unusual diversity amongst the living Cartoons here-perhaps I will write on The Bearded Lady later—he’s almost HER neighbor! Shiver.