"Pretzel Logic" (Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic)

PAUL
What time is it?

CHUCK (looking at his watch)
1:55 in the mo'ning.

PAUL
No train.

JIM AND CHUCK
No.

PAUL
This is as bad as Boston.

JIM
Hey. Insult New York not. 9/11.

PAUL
That's tasteless.

JIM
9/11.

CHUCK
9/11.

JIM
It's been two months. Have you already forgotten?

CHUCK
Never forget.

JIM
Never forget.

PAUL
No, it's/

JIM
Paul, where were you when the world stopped turning?

Beat.

The world didn't stop spinning, no matter what Alan Jackson crooned to us in the fall of 2001. Maybe that was the problem. But maybe there's more to September 11th than rhe event itself, the jingoism, the temporary sense of unity, the Royal Irish Ass of one zealous member of the NYFD at the Concert for New York.

I'm not even sure how to explain that "more," the psychic damage, the more subtle shocks. All I meant to do when I started writing Waiting for the N in early September 2001 was write a funny play with a few jaded mid-20s guys talking shit and avoiding the fissures in their own lives while waiting on the N train. Then that event happened. Then the play started going in really odd directions. Then I threw it in a drawer for awhile, largely because I coudln't understand my own bizarre play. Then I took it out, dusted it off, moved more than a few words around, and found the pretzeled logic of it. And now it's gonna have a reading.

WAITING FOR THE N
a staged reading of a play by josh drimmer
directed by tom wojtunik
presented as part of Emerging Artists Theater's summer reading series
saturday, june 17th, 7 p.m.
at E.A.T., 311 W. 43rd Street, 5th Floor
FREE