The Levi Prince

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Today is the first time Ernie has worn pants to work. They are blue jeans. Normally he wears loose cotton shorts.

JAKE: “You’re wearing pants?”

ERNIE: “Yeah, “I’m wearing pants so I can wear these low-cut black shoes. If I wear them with shorts, they make my legs look funny.”

Imagine the Muppet Ernie in full denim attire. Levi jeans, denim shirt, Levi jacket with the wool inside, a denim beret, an old black pair of tennis shoes dangling beneath two funny-looking legs. “The Canadian Tuxedo.” “Denim Dan.” “The Levi Prince.”

Ernie has been searching the internet for a new bag.

JAKE: “What happened to your old one?”

ERNIE: “It got dust in it from the car accident, and it ripped.”

I glance down at his desk and notice his cell phone is open. The display panel is all fuzzy and wobbly, much like an old TV set from the 1950’s with poor antenna reception.

JAKE: “Was your phone busted in the car accident too?”

ERNIE: “No.” (Picks up his phone and placing his thumb on the upper left-hand corner to stop the screen from jittering.) “Are you going to put this in your blog?”

JAKE: “Maybe.”

A co-worker of ours, who I shall call Kenny G. due to his musical tastes and curly locks, enjoys how the blog isn’t always about Ernie. He thinks it’s cool when I talk about other people. I think he secretly wants me to start a blog about him called “Tai-Chi with Kenny G.” but I won’t do it. (He listens to Tai-Chi style music sometimes.)

JAKE: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

ERNIE: “An economist.”

JAKE: “Really? Is square dancing economic?”

ERNIE: “Not really.”

Ernie tells me that water got into his cell phone and that’s why the screen wiggles. How did it happen? You might think it's because he took a bath with it, but Ernie claims he was caught in a rainstorm with his phone in his pocket.

His denim pocket.

KENNY G: "I think denim is a fine fabric. In fact, I wear denim trousers 30% of the time. What I mean is, 30% of the time I wear trousers, they are denim. I don't wear denim 30% of the time."

"Tai-Chi with 30% denim Kenny G."

Big No.


Listen to the audio recording here: http://media.libsyn.com/media/jakespage/MyErnieBlog_The_Levi_Prince.mp3