Phineas T. Barnum was born on this day in 1810. He famously said:
"There's a sucker born every minute."
Billowby had bought the bar from Joe DuChamp four years ago, and since then he hadn’t put a penny in the place...It beat Sully to hell why Billowby had ever bought the place, because whenever he, Billowby, came in, usually once a day for ten minutes, he was pissed off or disgusted...
After Billowby had bought the place he’d thought about a name for it. First he’d come up with the High Note, thinking this might draw the music crowd in. Let’s hit the High Note, must have been what Billowby had in the back of his mind. That would be the phrase on everybody’s lips. But the only musicians that ever came in were the ones down on their luck. So eventually Billowby had changed the name to the Hi-Note, retaining his original intent but adding a fillip of friendliness. Welcome to the Hi-Note, Billowby had scrawled on a piece of poster board hung above the bar. Makeshift, in case he wanted to change the name again...
Billowby sold jewelry for a living. He’d sold Sully a watch, a real piece of shit. He was miserable in sales, and he’d had high hopes for the bar, but it wasn’t too long before he’d figured out that Joe DuChamp had sold him a real piece of shit. Maybe that’s what he should have called it, High Hopes, Sully thought. See where they got you?
-- Chapter 5, The Misforgotten
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