the pond-draining spect-op: Depend banners over the drained pond — Subsidized Time advertising the sky
Two private planes fly in lazy ellipses just under the cloud-cover overhead, banners strung out behind them advertising four different levels of comfort and protection from Depend.
Context
Subsidized Time made literal overhead: over the annual civic ritual of the pond-draining, "two private planes... [trail] banners... advertising four different levels of comfort and protection from Depend" — the corporate sponsor of the very year (the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment) advertising in the sky, the banners popping "like flags unfurling." The calendar-auction of 059/083/091 is here weather: the nation's time has been sold so completely that the sponsor's ad flies where a flag would, and an adult-diaper brand names the year a public crowd is standing in. The founding's fiscal scheme has become the atmosphere.