My company expanded to the building across the street, which is apparently owned by the same people. I noticed their lobby had a almost the exact same fountain, with a slight variation in size. I used to chuckle to myself about the very good day that that fountain salesman must have had back in the day. 'Sure, I can sell you this one fountain for full price, but when you buy two, I can knock of 10%' The salesman in my mind is always the same salesman - it's Gil from the Simpsons/ Jack Lemmon from Glengarry Glen Ross. So naturally, to see TWO sales for ol Gil is a plus! I was happy for Fountain Gil. The two great American plays about salesmen (Glengarry and Death of a Salesmen) don't paint the rosiest of pictures about the life of a salesman, so any little victory is a plus.One day I took a different route home through the streets of Hollywood. I peeked into the lobby of a random building and what did I see? Another stand-up waterfall fountain thingy! Suddenly my whole image of Gil changed. I wondered how many buildings in Tinseltown were adorned with the soothing white noise and hypnotic visual flow of these fountains. Now, I imagine a successful Gil, an empowered Gil. A raging, coked-up Gil, standing on the balcony of a stilt house hanging out over the Hollywood hills, looking down on the town and screaming out to the night, 'This is GIL'S TOWN- MY town! I OWN this fucking town!'
