The Wire

"The Wire" is the name of a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series The Other Side (series).

Synopsis

• Larry Block describes a new play in which a brothel owner reforms and buys a hand written Torah and his daughter runs off with a prostitute.
• Monologueof Joe's random memories part one:
  • Joe's family on vacation resurrects a neighbors dead chinchilla.
  • Joe dissolved his pants in battery acid while standing in a patch of mint.
  • Joe's father destroys his sister's indestructible glasses.
  • His grandfather tosses teacups out of windows when they don't suit him.
  • Joe's grandfather pushes a piano off a roof.
  • Joe is targeted by a bully trumpet player and takes his revenge by hitting the end of the trumpet while the bully was playing it, knocking out his tooth and causing his mouth to bleed. They get into a fight and are sent to the principle's bench. Joe's mother tells him he is a moron, and Joe's grandfather punches him in the stomach. Joe retires to his room to read about the Moore's of North Africa who's skin turns blue.
  • A dog steals Joe's sandwich.
  • A rich girl friend of Joe's vomits when she sees Joe's father cutting bloody slabs of beef. Joe's mother changers her expensive dress into Joe's sister's clothes, gets the dress dry cleaned by the Chinese launderers who break the buttons. Joe's mother tries to find replacement buttons but cannot, so she replaces all of them. She returns the dress by taking it to the servant's quarters of girl's mansion in a brown bag.
  • Joe breaks glass to accompany a singer at a service because he thought it would be funny. He cuts his hand on the glass and the service ends. A gentile black man takes care of Joe because the others are not allowed to handle blood on the Sabbath. He gives Joe whiskey to east the pain. His mother smell the alcohol on his breath and thought he was drunk when he broke the glass. She verbally scolds him on the way to the hospital, telling him she thinks he is truly a moron, but then is very kind and doting to Joe in the presence of the nurses at the hospital. The nurses are so kind, he wishes one of them were his mother, so he considers getting hurt more often.
  • Joe and his friend steal a magnesium ribbon from the science lab at school so they can light it at the park. To create a diversion from the missing magnesium, they get some cow lungs from the butcher. They take a duck call whistle and put it at the end of the trachea becuase when the lungs where squeeze, it would make a duck call sound. They leave the trachea and lungs in the classroom on a Friday. On Monday morning, the lungs where covered in maggots. The science teacher stashed some alcohol with all of the chemicals. In his excitement, he accidentally takes a swig of sulphuric acid. The fire department arrives and they flush the teachers mouth out with water. School has to close for the day so Joe and his friend go and see a movie.
• Jack Kornfield discusses a Rumi poem about a jealous wife and a maidservant, talks about grasping and immortality. He tells about a society of people that believe in immortality. He tells a story about a thief robbing a wise man's house.
• Larry talks about meeting a childhood friend turned concert pianist.
• Monologueof Joe's random memories part two:
  • Joe worked for a poetry-quoting family friend in the garment district as a teenager, his coworker falls in love with the boss. He gets hit by a car and encounters a nurse. A description of the beat scene in new york, getting offered "some housewife action."
  • In Santa Barbara with a girl in his bosses car, Joe drops a joint in the car causing the seat to smolder and burn. They find a gas station that takes the seat out and hoses it down. Joe replaces the seat with a folding bridge chair gaff taped to the floorboard. He gets fired and has to back to New York.
• Kornfield: a middle class woman from the Catskills visits her son in a monastery in India, different kinds of giving.
• Larry talks about leaving a note on the beach.

Commentary

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NickD

The segments about the chinchilla, breaking the glass in temple, and the vomiting friend have got to be one of the funnies stories Joe has told.