[PEN-L:2719] Did somebody say Alienation?

[valis <valis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

   Alibi News

   Odds & Ends

   By Devin D. O'Leary

   Dateline: Germany--Wolfgang Dircks, a divorced, disabled loner was
   found dead in his apartment last week--five years after he passed
   away. Dircks apparently died in 1993 at age 43 while watching
   television. Since then, neighbors in the Bonn, Germany, apartment
   complex where Dircks resided hardly noticed his absence. Dircks, a
   former toolsmith, had reportedly threatened to whip anyone who asked
   after him. The dead man's mailbox, which should have overflowed and
   raised alarms, had been emptied on occasion, though no one knows by
   whom. The landlords only came knocking after the bank account from
   which Dircks' rent and bills were paid ran dry. A TV listings magazine
   was still sitting on the lap of Dircks' skeleton and was open to the
   page for December 5, 1993--the presumed date of his death. The
   television set had long since broken, but the lights on Dircks' 1993
   Christmas tree were still twinkling away.

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