I'm probably going to be off-line for a while for the Thanksgiving break; we are hosting it at our house again this year and are expecting about a dozen to fifteen people. The day after is a movie and shopping and the long weekend will hopefully be stitching up.

Here's a little PETER ROTTENTAIL for now:


Peter looks at the two corpses, then produces a large, cartoony stick of TNT from his coat.
Lighting it, he chucks it at Tejeda's house.
The house EXPLODES and collapses.
Peter, CHUCKLING, hops away.
JAMES (V.O.)
The underworld. It has been a part of mythology since the first recorded tales.
CUT TO:
INT. CLASSROOM -- DAY
James paces back and forth in front of an indifferent group of students at a modest Midwestern college.
JAMES
Hades. Orcus. Sheol. We have always held the belief that there is a waking world...and then a world of the unknown. Are the roots primal? That as a species we recognize that in the fall, everything dies...only to rise again in the spring. Or is something else at work?
CUT TO:
INT. JAMES' OFFICE -- LATER
James is grading papers at his desk when the phone rings.
JAMES
This is Professor James Neely.
LENNY (V.O.)
Professor? Only if they give out PhDs for spanking off and smoking dope!
JAMES
I gave up smoking dope!
LENNY (V.O.)
It ain't too late to start back up, is it, cuz?
JAMES
My college days are behind me, Lenny!
CUT TO:
INT. LENNY'S APARTMENT -- DAY
LENNY NEELY, James' scruffy cousin, sits on a faded sofa among a stack of old magazines and empties, and the general debris of an unfulfilled life.
LENNY
You're still there, ain't ya?
JAMES (V.O.)
As a prof!
Lenny scratches the strip of stomach poking out from under his dirty t-shirt.
LENNY
Then you should get the best reefer and the best cooze, cousin!
CUT TO:
INT. JAMES' OFFICE -- CONTINUOUS
James shakes his head, smiling.
JAMES
To what do I owe the honor of this call, Lenny?
LENNY (V.O.)
You busy this weekend?
JAMES
Who wants to know?
LENNY (V.O.)
Come over later. I got a business proposition for ya.
JAMES
No pyramid schemes. No web cams.
LENNY (V.O.)
We grew up together! You know me better than that!
JAMES
And no mail order brides!
Lenny pauses.
LENNY (V.O.)
She told me that picture on the Internet was really her!
JAMES
Yeah, everything on the Internet is true!
LENNY
Now I know that! Shit, cuz!
Lenny hangs up. James shakes his head and cradles the phone.

Give me a yell at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.