A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall

The clouds to the northeast were black, totally black, and heading in our direction as we were going into the Chamber of Commerce building. From time to time a lightening bolt would flash inside the cloud mass, causing the entire thing to glow with a surreal light, followed at ever closer intervals by the boom of thunder as the storm's center quickly approached us. It almost seemed as if the weather was a metaphor for the frustration, the anger, the feeling of being violated, that was consuming Monkette that afternoon.

It had just been a few days since the infamous AT&T television commercial had first aired, featuring a look-alike for Monkette travelling around with a young business executive type who was photographing her at various locations on his travels. The phone had started ringing, the email box quickly filled up, people stopped us on the sreet, greeting us with a "Hey, did you see where AT&T ripped off your blog idea?" Monkette was NOT a happy camper!

A day or so later she thought that she had a New York attorney to pursue a claim against AT&T, but he soon backed out muttering some mamby-pamby excuses about not being able to copyright a concept, etc. Legalese mambo-jambo that Monkette didn't buy. So we stopped by the Chamber office to wait out the storm and I could cadge a free cup of coffee while Monkette poured her heart out to Penney and Mike. One thought that was kicked around was that the attorney was afraid of the ribbing he'd take if word got around the legal community that he was representing toy monkeys. Maybe. But that's his loss.

One thing that I have discovered over the past couple of years while carrying around a toy monkey is that women find the concept extremely appealing and think that I must be such a caring and sensitive guy. If I was a lawyer I'd give some consideration as to just how many female clients I might pick up by being associated with AT&T vs. Monkette, not to mention the publicity it would get, newspaper and magazine coverage, interviews on TV, maybe even an appearance on Oprah.

If you're an attorney willing to be seen in public, and maybe in court, with a toy monkey, and want the chance to get gobs of sometimes satirical publicity, Monkette wants to hear from you. Thanks. She can be reached at my email: preacherpop42@aol.com