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foreign
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ah
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um
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this man's life has lost its zest
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for him the kick's gone out of living
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you
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telephone
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all right
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hello
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here boy
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this is ralph carter
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listen boys this is big
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i wouldn't do anything like this to
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anybody i liked
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but a guy like you well
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who cares
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so here's the deal
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hey dad you know that place down by the
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creek hudson
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that call what does rock want oh he has
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some kind of a hair brain scheme up his
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sleeve
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he'll be by tonight
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oh phew
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ralph always manages to get you all
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upset
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bored stiff you mean
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and that's another thing i've made an
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appointment 130
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dr bogard
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why though i'll never know
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because it just isn't natural the way
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you've been dragging around this way
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after all everybody should have
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something to be interested in
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doesn't bother me well it does mean
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i think there's something wrong with
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your thyroid or something
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my friend
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well that's the story on you
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no interest at home or at the office
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either
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even when his boss leans on him he rolls
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with a punch i get in a sweat over a lot
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of busy work
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same way with friends
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don finney likes to talk hobbies hugh
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couldn't care less
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his appointment with dr bogart gives him
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a good excuse to leave
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physically hugh's okay the doctor
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reports no thyroid deficiency to slow
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him down but has he been short-changing
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himself on sleep
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is he depressed about
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anything has trouble developed to work
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or at home the answer is no
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the verdict boredom
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dr bogart's advice is for you to find
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some all-consuming interest in life what
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kind of nonsense is that you flat can't
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do it hugh's condition may be serious
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he'd better check with dr jeffers over
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in the medical center
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not a psychiatrist
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yes a psychiatrist
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boredom's an emotional state out of hand
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it calls for specialized treatment
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well maybe
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only well why make a federal case out of
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it
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after all what difference does it make
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for man's board
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what harm can it do
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advance hugh's boss could answer those
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questions for instance he'd like to put
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you in charge of the new branch office
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but a job like that calls for enthusiasm
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and drive
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ed's afraid that hugh just wouldn't
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spark the team
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the country club executive committee
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hughes nominated
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but don finney says no that committee
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job is not the place for a wet blanket
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at home too hugh's boredom exacts a
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price
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in terms of his relations with loretta
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for example
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by nature loretta's an enthusiastic
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person
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but no enthusiasm can hold up long under
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hughes boredom
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it's happened so many times
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it all creates conflict in loretta
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sometimes subconsciously she strikes out
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but mostly she she herself loses
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interest and enthusiasm
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it's as if
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hughes boredom were contagious as if
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loretta had somehow contracted it like a
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virus
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and for kenny the situation's even worse
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hugh has no time for the boy's
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enthusiasm
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how long will kenny be able to stay
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interested himself
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already the contagion of boredom is
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affecting his schoolwork
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disciplinary problems are beginning to
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develop also problems that tie in
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closely with kenny's boredom
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presence don't help
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neither does punishment
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ken's grades keep going down
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what to do about it
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what not to do comes easier
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it's like with ann galloway down the
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block she's bored so she drinks
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more and more and more she drinks
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sam haglin across the street has a
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private remedy for boredom too
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he makes friends with every 10 who
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comes along
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young link nagel down to the filling
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station gets his kicks racing the cops
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trouble is that kind of business can get
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you into some pretty messy
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situations important it doesn't really
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solve the problem of boredom at all
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you forget your frustrations for a
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moment sure
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but there's no real satisfaction
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excitement gets to be like ann
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galloway's whiskey the cake wears off
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why do bored people do such things and
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claims it's the monotony of housework
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that gets her down
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she dealt satisfactorily with monotony
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when she had a job though back before
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she was married
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actually her real trouble isn't monotony
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it's that she grew up feeling that being
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a woman a housewife is an empty
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meaningless thankless task
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her job on the other hand was exciting
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and meaningful
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but anne's husband won't hear of her
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working now the result
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inner conflict for anne
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conflict between the demands of marriage
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and her personal hunger for a feeling of
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self-worth
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her boredom her drinking
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their the symptoms of that conflict
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sam haglin claims his trouble is his
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wife's stupidity it bores him to
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distraction but really though his big
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problem is woodhalls his competition
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across the street
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so again the issues conflict reality
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versus sam's picture of himself as
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worthy of success but it's a conflict
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that sam can't bring himself to
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acknowledge the end result
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boredom but it's boredom for which he's
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found a remedy of sorts
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a boost for his ego in a pattern of
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behavior that dates clear back to his
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teens
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sam couldn't compete then either
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but there generally seemed to be some
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girl around to take the sting out of
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defeat
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link nagel
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he breaks the monotony of slum life by
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shooting craps
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though he doesn't know it the roots of
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his boredom lie deep in hatred of
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authority
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and yet self-preservation demands that
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he hold his rage under control hence
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conflict hence
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boredom
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where does hugh fit into this conflict
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boredom sequence how did he develop his
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present pattern the answer to those
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questions goes back a lot of years when
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he was a baby he acted spontaneously did
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just what he felt like without
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restriction
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then his mother began to interfere
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with input
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and outgo
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telling him when to go to sleep
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when to wake up
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enraging him
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soothing him
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he learned that sidewalks are hard
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stoves are hot
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and even little girls can bite
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cleanliness became a virtue so did green
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beans and obedience to orders he learned
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that his mother could be shocked shocked
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shocked by the time he reached school
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age he stammered just a little
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other kids laughed
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he tried to pretend that he didn't care
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he worked harder and harder in school so
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that he could show them that he was just
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as good as they were arithmetic seemed
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to come easiest for him
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later algebra was a cinch in geometry he
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got straight a's not that helped much on
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the dance floor
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mostly he still spent his spare time
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alone
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hugh's father was his best friend he
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taught him all about tools about
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machinery about hunting about people
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especially that people with white shirts
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have money and people with blue shirts
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don't
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hugh's father hated the white shirts
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prosperity they'd created nothing and
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yet workers still couldn't meet their
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bills
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to hughes mother the creation part
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didn't matter
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to her it was money that was important
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you could see her side when the time
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came to meet his father's funeral
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expenses
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loneliness was even worse
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but you went on though through college
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then into engineering it was a good life
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out in the field working and building
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the way his dad had always said he
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should
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and then he met a girl
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the girl
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only it turned out that loretta didn't
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like the kind of life a construction
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leads
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when you got the chance for an office
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job he grabbed it but then loretta began
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to object to other things she didn't
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like hugh's friends she didn't like his
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crudities
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his fussing with mechanical gadgets
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if you put up a fight well there were
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always those headaches he had always
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seemed to come at bedtime
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not that you struggled very hard his
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mother had trained him too well for that
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the higher hue rises in the firm the
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more he rebels subconsciously against
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the white shirted public relations frame
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of mind demanded of him
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and yet his family and his financial
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problems tie him closer and closer to
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his job it's a conflict situation
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instead of acknowledging how he feels he
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hides his anger behind a bland mask of
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false cordiality public relations
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the people that loretta forces him to
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meet socially are dull and boring
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he's cut off from the field projects he
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loves
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and the cause of clean hands loretta has
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ruled his workshop out of bounds
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his relationships with loretta have
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deteriorated badly
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night after night
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it's the same
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to torn by internal conflict to fight
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he sees himself through the eyes of his
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mother and loretta
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instead of looking to his own desires
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he takes it for granted his main goal in
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life should be to meet standards set by
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his wife
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with mounting tension comes
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boredom a symptom of that conflict
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between the life that hugh leads and his
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basic emotional needs
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in effect boredom says
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i want to do something but i don't even
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dare admit it so instead of bringing it
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out into the open i'll let my attention
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wander i'll develop what looks like
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fatigue a supreme disinterest in what
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i'm supposed to do
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in use case the situation has been
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getting worse for years
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by now it's dubious that he can deal
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with it effectively without outside help
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what might he do about it
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well he could find at least part of the
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answer right out in his own backyard
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watching son kenny
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ken's eager to build a tool shed
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but sometimes he gets tired of it
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football offers a change of pace
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swimming too
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bike riding
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in other words there's variety in ken's
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interests and change itself is a remedy
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for mild degrees of boredom as well as a
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universal human need if you do enough
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different things there will be little
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chance to grow bored with any one of
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them
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advance is another one who could teach
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hugh ways to deal with boredom
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because ed's so taken up with striving
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to outdo the competition that he's
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hardly aware of all the busy work he has
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to handle
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his drive to win shapes his whole way of
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living he makes no pretense that it
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doesn't
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whether he's hiring a rival's key man
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or just playing poker at home on
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saturday night
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to fight boredom then each of us needs
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to take a cold clear look at the rules
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he lives by for only thus can we resolve
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our conflicts we must face our drives
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with utter honesty release our tensions
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satisfy our inner needs
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a case in point
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don finney has a need to dominate
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but people who needle you can't always
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be controlled
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don knows that too
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so he takes out his frustrations on wood
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something that he can shape at will
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something that can't fight back
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but a man's patterns are already formed
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the best place to stop boredom is back
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in childhood before it even starts
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interest is such a fragile thing it dies
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so easily
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q senses that sometimes
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like today
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that nail that ken bent it brought back
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so many things the day so long ago when
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hugh's father showed him how to use a
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block to pull a nail
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we help ourselves by helping others even
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more when we help our children if you
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realize that fact emotionally his
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boredom could die
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right here in this backyard with kenny
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but the moment passed
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hughes pattern of conflict and of
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boredom was too rigid too strong for him
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to break
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another crisis came that night when
00:18:44
ralph collier followed up his morning
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phone call
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well there it is boy
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biggest contract our outfits ever landed
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but where do i fit in are you kidding
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job like this requires a real field man
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well i came to the best i know
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ralph
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do you mean
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do you mean you'd put me in charge of
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this whole job
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what else
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boy
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for two cents i'd do it ralph this is
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this is a project fella where are you
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please
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you're not a child anymore you have a
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family to think about
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she's right ralph
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you boy you don't know what you're
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saying
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why this is the greatest challenge
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you've ever been offered no go down
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no
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are you really serious curious
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just chop it up for my
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sorry i wasted your time
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oh you i'm so glad you didn't let him
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talk you into that awful job
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i mean
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being left here all the time with kenny
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well there there are lots worse things
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than
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being a little bored sure honey sure
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the day is ended a day to plunge you
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even deeper into boredom and yet there
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still is hope for him for out of the
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day's events a damn awareness is growing
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in him a vague realization that perhaps
00:20:45
the road he's on isn't quite the one he
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wants to travel though alone he's no
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longer capable of decisive action
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he still can win if he'll get proper
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help
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all it demands of him
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is the first step
00:21:03
can he bring himself to seek that help
00:21:06
does he have the strength and the
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courage to break down the walls of fear
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that pen him in
00:21:12
or is it too late
00:21:14
so late that he'll live out his years in
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futility and frustration
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another good man fallen prey to the
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creeping paralysis of boredom tasting
00:21:24
for himself the bitter gall of conflicts
00:21:27
unresolved potential unfulfilled
00:21:32
it depends on him him alone
00:21:36
unless he finds help soon
00:21:38
not just this day
00:21:40
but life itself is ended for him
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ended in another bleak needless tragedy
00:21:46
of boredom at work
00:22:04
so
00:22:15
so
00:22:42
you
