The Candidate's Forum

Nearby Johnson and Wales University hosted a forum last week for the mayoral hopefuls in next week's municipal election. I wasn't going to miss it for the world but Monkette said that she had a headache and please extend her regrets. I promised to bring her a banana if they had a refreshment table, put on my Bonnie Schwartzbaum T-shirt (it was the last clean shirt in the house), put on my cap (my hair's too long and curly to stay neatly brushed and too short for a ponytail), grabbed a camera and some extra film, and headed on out.
The parking lot was just starting to fill up when I arrived about 15 minutes before the start of the forum. As I made my way into the building I must have fielded questions by 25 or 30 people "Where's Monkette?" "She's not sick, is she?" and the like. She's one popular toy monkey, I tell ya!
I took a seat along the side of the room so I could get up and move around without disturbing anyone. Before the forum got underway civic activist Judy Feldman went over to candidate Frank Wolland (right side of the row of candidates) telling him in great detail exactly what he should say and what points he damned well better make, or else! Judy is good at that.
Then I knew that the program was about to start! The university's photographer had finally showed up. You can't have a debate without an official photographer, now can you? I felt kind of sorry for her, barely able to hold that modern DSLR up to her eye while trying to balance that huge and heavy zoom lens in her hand. I raised my primitive film camera in one hand and got a few more shots showing what photography had come to in the 21st century. Or maybe it was just my hormones admiring the view. I never did pay any attention to what anybody actually said.