First story

Disclaimer- this one isn't officially mine- it's mine by marriage. So I'll claim it as my own and plant a flag on it and call it Mine.

There is a bar downtown called Charlie B's. Incidentally, both Spouse and I hung there A LOT in the years prior to meeting. I still can't figure out why we never met. Nevertheless, it was an odd place. I took my Mom and Stepdad there once- they were scared. But it wasn't really too bad- there were some derelicts there- but they left the college kids alone.

One night, Spouse (who for convenience I'll call K.) was playing pool. A man and his female companion came in. She was carrying a ratty little dog with a long chain. They took a table next to K's and she proceeded to laboriously wrap the long chain around Ray's chair. Ray took affront and yelled, "get the chain off of my fucking chair." She proceeded to laboriously remove the chain without saying a word. (Ray was kind of scary, so I can understand her reluctance to discuss it with him). She then sat on the floor with the dog cradled in her arms. The man she was with was in a jumpsuit. He approached the pool table and shouted incoherently at the players. He pulled a very large pipe wrench out of his back pocket and proceeded to hit himself in the head with it. Then he danced around and laughed. And hit himself in the head again. And danced around and laughed.
Finally, K and his friends finished their pool game, and the pipe wrench man was able to play.

This illustrates some key Missoula points. 1) there are a lot of really odd characters there. 2) people get used to them and don't really respond. and 3) the story is really funniest when K tells it- there is a lot of physical comedy involved.

But it did remind me of some kind of David Lynchian scenario.