Either I am spending too much time in saloons or people are getting weirder.
A man sat down on the bar stool next to me and said his name was Stanley Esmerelda. He was dressed like a banker, in a dark suit, white shirt and striped tie. He appeared to be about 50.
“Will you at least hear me out?” he said.
Yes.
“That’s a relief,” he said. “I am the man who has discovered Atlantis.”
Uh-huh and how did you happen to do this?
“It started during the Chicago Fire,” he said.
The fire of 1871?
“I was there,” he said. “I am not saying I had anything to do with the fire but I saw Mrs. O’Leary’s cow.”
What does that have to do with Atlantis?
“To escape the flames, I jumped in the lake,” he said. “That’s where I found a coin, a gold coin from Atlantis, which is in the middle of Lake Michigan.”
Have you been there?
“I have,” he said. “It is as glorious as the books and legends say. It is more beautiful than Michigan Avenue is today.”
How did you get there?
“I swam,” he said. “It is closer than you think. Maybe only seven miles off the coast.”
Are you drunk?
“How dare you? I do not ever drink,” he said.
