Dateline Normal, Mn.----"The Liquor License"---FICTION

Well. It's the first weeks of June and everyone is headed out of town. Time to buy some sunscreen, some refreshment, some bait and then hit the road. As ususal, I headed up that long road to Normal, Mn.-----straignt on 94 to the Twin Cities and then up Hwy 10 to just south of Garrison.

Some folks have told me----"You sure live a long way from Normal."

To which I always reply....."YUP".

This trip, I vowed to find a new spot to hang out besides the "Hideaway Lounge." I was getting sensitive to smoke in my old age and wanted to see what the alternatives were. I searched on the Internet and found a whole bunch of bars to go to. There was the "Beer, Bait, and Ammo Lounge," The Speakeasy, The Club, The fishing Line, The Almost a Gentleman Lounge and The Fish Shop Lounge."

When I searched for the addresses for these places, I came up empty---or some had several addreses with the letters AKA, 192 Exhange or AKA 234 Union or etc. I just was thoroughly confused.

I dialed the cellphone and asked my old friend Herman, the countryboy lawyer friend from Normal:

"Where are these bars, Herman? I just do not get it.?"

Herman let out a loud bellylaugh.

"Shucks, Wolfman. Those are just "tradin bars." It's real simple up here. Ya have to have a physical bar in order to get a liquor license. So the guys just make one up for the city folks for the hearing. Once they get the liquor license, they can trade it like a stock and bond."

Do you mean it is traded like commodities---like a futures option like a Ford September 25 Call option or Put option?"

"Exactly" said Herman. "The only difference is that the value is traded not on any exchange, but rather during "Happy Hour" at the Hideaway Lounge. It is kinda like Monopoly but with a tinge of intoxication thrown in."

Wow. It sure is good to be back in good old Wisconsin. Where we have real bars and not just "Trading" bars with liquor license futures.