Normaller

Family Doctor. “Well, my little Man, and how are you this Morning?” Young Hopeful. “Oh, Nursey says I ’m ever so much Normaller to-day!”

A diploma in the waiting room revealed Big Boy to be a member of The American Association of Medical Hydrology, whatever that might be. Furthermore he was a deacon of the Royal Aryan Society for Positive Christianity and as such was privileged to throw in divine healing without extra charge. That went right along with the three-dollar treatment for a touch of the astral power and a short lecture on the latent powers possessed by all of us. “Pow-wers what vassly transent our normaller ones,” was just how Big Boy put it.

And in a normaller company it would be the wardrobe room, too, but costumery is my infantile name for it and the actors go along with my little whims.

ONCE I THOUGHT YOU WERE WEIRD; BUT SOON MY DOUBTS DISAPPEARED. I THINK YOU’RE NORMALLER THAN THEY.

Oddworld Inhabitants, partly because it’s a nice pun, wants you to believe that Oddworld Just Got Stranger. It’s a valid gag, since Stranger’s titular hero is a departure for the series: mean, graceful and self-assured. But it’s also a bit of a con because, in many ways, Oddworld just got normaller. Stranger takes the series into the realms of far more conventional gameplay, namely a thirdperson/firstperson adventure with guns, puzzles and fistfights.

So why can’t I ever get what I want, like a power structure that’s faults & fissures are not so glaringly obvious as to mock our imagined non-plussedness during normaller, Clintonian times

But I’m not one of these people who feels the need to hog every conversation or jump up on stage at the drop of a karaoke microphone. I’m just a normal fella, I reckon. Perhaps even normaller than most, if that makes sense or is an actual word. I’m certainly shyer. I don’t know.

“I’m thankful for this beautiful morning!” He points toward the sky. “See that sunrise? Smell that air—” / “That’s stink from the rendering plant.” / “Someone’s having a bad day.” He grins. “Shame too. Such a glorious—” / “Stop it! You don’t have … issues. Well, maybe an ongoing odor problem, but besides that, no issues. I, on the other hand, might look normal—” / “Whatever. I look normaller than you.” I hold up a hand and rub my knuckles. “But you, at least, might live to get arthritis.”