Monahans News
Monahans, Texas
April 28, 1998
Monahan's Well
(Noted as Opinion)
By Jerry Curry
In the reign of King Willie, whose concubines (all of whom it is said are female) fight for million dollar checks from affluent tabloids,
In the reign of King Willie, who invokes executive privilege to avoid investigations for assorted high crimes and misdemeanors,
In the reign of King Willie, to whom being a friend and confidant is truly dangerous,
In the reign of King Willie, when the Evil of Hedonism stalks the land,
It is something of a balm for the soul to be the target of an old fashioned money stampede which is what Monahans has become ever since the Meteor Fall of 1998 a couple of Sundays ago.
This came up in a conversation between myself and Everett K. Gibson, who works at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center near Houston. Gibson is the man in charge of studying Monahans '98 I and II. He plans to return them to the City of Monahans in a couple of months where we might enshrine them for future generations. I seem to recall one of the World's Great Religions has a meteorite for one of its venerated and most holy objects but I may be wrong.
Classified advertisements already had appeared by last Thursday in The Monahans News placed by various individuals who want to buy real Monahans Meteorites. Monahans Meteorites are hot items these days. (The pun is intended.) Some of these people are willing to pay $5000 for the first rock on the market but most of them are quoting prices like 75 cents for the second and subsequent space rocks.
The episode is amusing because nothing bad happened. One of those rocks might have hit someone as Orlando Lyles noted. One missed his house and some other houses, plus a bunch of basketball playing kids, by only about 50 feet. With disaster avoided, it is permissible to smile. Monahans Meteorite brokers are even asking The Monahans News if we
might have a spare meteorite or two. We don't. Gibson says these guys (apparently women are too ethical to get into such a business) are serious. He didn't say so but he left the impression anyone who decides to sell a real Monahans Meteorite to one of these people should make certain the check clears before you hand over the rock and it wouldn't be a bad move to introduce them to Police Capt. Dave Watts, who knows the difference between a space rock and one from Perch Pond. Watts also knows the difference between a flim
flam man and a legitimate collector.
One space rock broker (I think he says he is from New York) suggests there have to be meteorites all over Monahans - some, he says, might be gravel sized. I told him, "Not to my
knowledge."
This New York slicker says the people of Monahans will discover more meteorites the next time it rains because the wayfaring rocks will have knocked holes in the roofs of our buildings.
I reply: "Rain? Rain? I saw that on the Discovery Channel once. I think it even rained here back in Ought-Eight."
The meteorite broker hangs up the phone on me
