As we sip our morning coffee, CNN is waiting for another Trump hearing, and its camera fixates on a radiator in a New York City courthouse. It reminds Jen of the radiator in our old fourth-floor apartment in a once-grand, long-dilapidated townhouse in West Philly. And it reminds me of the hiss of steam in a clinic in Queens, where I played with my Batman action figure while waiting for a checkup. Jen observes that radiatore pasta are supposed to resemble radiator grilles, and we begin to wonder if other people are watching the radiator on CNN. We have suddenly become obsessed with radiators. Maybe a news analyst will fill the time by saying, “Alison, I’d just like to take a moment to comment on that old-timey radiator at the center of our shot.” And the chyron soon may flash “All Eyes on Old Radiator in New York Courthouse.” We crack ourselves up, and all the foolishness of all the world dissolves in the radiance of our silliness.

volcanic 
crack laughs—
fissure king 

Bio: Brian O’Sullivan