hayfever leaves -or- the goldenrod comes in

He: What say we drive down to Cicero tonight? I know a place where they've got great table hockey.

She: Shoely, dolling, you must be Joe King.

Meanwhile those ordinary-looking blooms on the table behind them are silently, invisibly, odorlessly, and tastelessly filling the intervening space with pollen -- the dread advent of hayfever leaves. They have been known to cause unsuspecting renters of flophouse rooms to go mad with hysterical laughter.

We all know that dramatic effect, but rarely has its verity been better demonstrated than in the current bout of Hay Fever at Sal's Oyster House in Witonkin, Minnesota. Run by a neurotic, theatrical family enmeshed in unhappy love affairs - but there all sanity ends. It seems like forever since Hay Fever has been seen in Boston (for some reason).