You see (settle in for a story--you may want to bring a snack) quite a few years back, I was on a choir tour, and our bus broke down in Baker. Now, as you know, there aren't many places in Baker to put 85 singers for a few hours without serious damage to the natives or the singers. Therefore, we opted to stay in the shade of the bus and keep track of the steadily rising temperature on the omnipresent thermometer. We began speculating about the validity of an entire town founded on a large, kitchy object, and about the desirability of the phrase "Gateway to Death Valley" as a town motto, but mostly we were speculating about whether the temperature would hit 115 before Bob (our lovable and coffee-enhanced busdriver) fixed the bus. It did, but that's another story. Anyway, I had just happened upon the idea of collecting unlikely sentences, and "Gateway to Death Valley" seemed like a likely candidate. It was duly scribbled on the back flap of the cheap mystery novel I was using to occupy my time, and forgotten.

Fast-forward 4 years. I am cleaning out my embarrassingly large and unwieldy collection of cheap and badly-treated paperbacks prior to a move, and I uncovered the unfortunately titled "Blood on his Mother's Hands." A spark of recognition flared, and I flipped to the back page. There was the sentence, faded and illegible, but the brilliant beginning of another meaningless collection! From there it all came very quickly; unlikely sentences are everywhere if you listen, and the site has grown in popularity and use. However, the founding sentence, the creme de la creme (if I may) of Unlikely Sentences, was never believed! I received countless (well, okay, mid 20's) email messages accusing me of making it up! And I, with no way to prove my truthfulness, was forced to resort to "Is too! is not! is too! is not!" arguments with people I didn't even know. Well, anyway, to make a long story short (too late) I have been exploring and greatly enjoying your webpage for a few weeks now, and I discovered to my delight that you have a picture of the very sign that started this whole thing! I immediately linked to it, and I expect accusations and arguments to cease decisively!

So, to return to where I was at the start of this obscenely long email: thank you. You have restored the dignity of a fellow seeker-of-the-absurd-and-useless, and made a girl happy.

I apologize for having wasted so much of your time, but as I hear, you have a lot on your hands. (Do you still call the phonebooth?) Best wishes to you and Wagner--

In gratitude,
Olivia Henderson

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