The Second Invasion from Mars

June 8

Temperature: +17° C, cloud cover: 8, wind from the south at 3 meters per second. I'm sitting at home, not going out, not seeing anybody. The swelling has gone down and the injured spot almost doesn't hurt, but it still looks terrible. All day I examined my stamps and watched television. Everything is the same in town. Last night our golden youth besieged Madam Persephone's house, which was loaded with soldiers. They say it was a real free-for-all. The field of battle was held by the army. (They're no Martians, you can be sure of that.) Nothing special in the newspapers. Not a word about the embargo; you get the impression it's been called off entirely. There's a strange address by the war minister, set in brevier type, which says that our membership in the Military Commonwealth represents a burden for the country and is not so well founded as might appear at first sight. Thank God, they've finally figured it out after eleven years! But most of all they are writing about a farmer named Periphas who is remarkable in that he can give up to four litres of stomach juice a day without any harm to his organism. His hard life is reported with many intimate details. Interviews with him are recorded and scenes from his biography are acted out on television. A sturdy, rather crude man of forty-five years, without a grain of intellect. You look at him and never suspect that you are looking at such an amazing phenomenon. He kept insisting it was his habit of sucking a piece of sugar every morning. I'll have to try it.

Yes! In our papers there is an article by Calais the veterinarian about the danger of narcotics. There Calais writes that the regular use of narcotics by large-horned cattle is exceptionally harmful to the production of stomach juice. A diagram is even attached. An interesting observation: everything is printed black on white in Calais's article, yet it's unbearably difficult to read. It seems as if he were writing and still stuttering. However, it turns out that Mr. Laomedon was exterminated because he prevented the citizens from freely drawing off their stomach juice. One gets the impression that stomach juice is the foundation stone of the new governmental policy. Such a thing has never occurred before. But then, when you think about it, why not?

Hermione returned from a visit to friends and related that in the former estate of Mr. Laomedon a permanent donor station for the collection of stomach juice was being set up. If this is true, then I approve and support it. I always stand for permanence and stability.

Ah, my stamps, my little stampies! You alone never upset me!