Cue Rimshot

This is as frivolicious as it is lame (though that hasn’t stopped me before!), but ever since I discovered the east/west passage offered my bike and I by Washington Boulevard for our crosstown commutes I chuckle each time I pass this store on the corner of National and Washington, imagining the phone calls.

spartan.jpg

Never mind the 300-inspired “This! Is! Spartan!! Roofing Materials, how may I help you?” that one might conjure. Instead, I’m thinking more along the lines of how limited their actual inventory of roofing materials might be. After all they are “Spartan Supply.”

Hello, Spartan Supply.

Is. This. Spartan!?

Yep. That’s us. What can I help you with today?

I want to redo my roof with gray slate tiles.

Gray slate, eh? Right now we only have brown.

No gray?

Sorry, no.

All right, brown will do

Brown it is then. How much tile do you need?

1,500 square feet should cover it.

Oh, I’m sorry. We only have 45 square feet in stock.

Really? Why so little?

Because we’re Spartan Supply!

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."