Exeter Carbuncle VIII was busy filling out forms when I dropped by St. Ita’s with Corey. We were on our way somewhere and if I remember correctly, burritos were involved. Well, that was the plan: other things arose, and we found ourselves peeking at the world through our cameras. It had been a while since I had a chance to visit the chimeras at home and at work on the front façade of a particular church on Broadway. Since we were in the area, I decided to drop by for a visit. Exeter Carbuncle VIII was busy, the other chimeras were…well…it’s hard to tell what they were doing. It looked extremely important and in typical chimera-ish fashion, rather cryptic. I’d intended to simply snap a photo, send a greeting or two, and head in the general direction of burritos, but one of the chimeras saw (and recognized) me, and so conversation ensued. Such is common. Chimeras love to talk. Even though Exeter was busy, I was able to enjoy a pleasant visit with Argyle Ipswich VonGluten: a chimera of venerable northern pedigree. Though our visit was pleasant enough, I could see that Argyle was somewhat flustered. “Itth thothe thupid cherubth,” Argyle declared, cringing with distaste. “There are tho many of them…and yethterday they pooped all over my atheliath.” It took a moment for me to make my way through the common, lisping chimeran accent. Because of the presence of both beaks and fangs, chimeras (especially those employed as architectural ornaments) have some difficulties with susurrations. After an instant of internal translating, I came to the conclusion that there was an infestation of cherubs in the area (probably round-bottomed cherubs, a common pest species.) It would seem that a particular garden-full of azaleas were now covered in the metabolized output of voracious cherubs. From what I could gather, a particular patch of azaleas, belonging to one Argyle Ipswich VonGluten are—or were, at the time—utterly ruined by the back ends of cherubs. As chimeras have a sentimental fondness for azaleas, this is devastating news, at least from a chimeran perspective. I suggested that he and the other chimeras stage a hunting foray to control the number of neighborhood cherubs, but Argyle shook his head and shrugged, fluttering his back-swept wings. “It’th no good…” he said. “Cherubth are apparently an endangered thpethieth now, and tho hunting them ith illegal! How thupid! What about my athaliath? They’re endangered too! It’th thupid…dumb politicth. Who needs cherubth, anyway? Humanth only like them because thome humanth have no thenth of tathte! They’re a nuithanth.” We talked for a while after that; well, I delivered the appropriate amount of sympathy in regard to the topic of cherub poop and prize winning azaleas. I agreed (wholeheartedly, in fact) that steps should be taken to control Chicago’s growing cherub population, and after a short time, I made my departure, but not before nabbing a photograph. Argyle Ipswich VonGluten has since seen the photograph, and he finds it sufficiently impressive, and so it’s okay to post it here. I rather like this shot, and the chimera in question. (As he does not have human features and a semi-primate shape, he is not a gargoyle. I much prefer chimeras, even when they’re grumpy and flustered because cherubs have ruined their gardens. As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.