jinian | land shark

Every morning on the way to work I see a little sidewalk-tent sign reading "LENIN SAT FLEA MARKET", and I keep thinking it sounds like code. A clever anagram of the real message, perhaps. Alas, I have found that the anagrams, while amusing and in some cases descriptive, don't make much sense either. Perhaps the code has more than one layer, or maybe I have to string them together just right to produce a story...

At the LENIN SAT FLEA MARKET there are many fascinating things to do and buy.

As we entered, we saw that a statue of A LAMINATE SERF KNELT to our right; A NAMESAKE TENT FRILL announced that the seller was Serf Enterprises, and they apaprently also sold food, judging by the rather enigmatic sign bearing a picture of the statue and the inscription "KNELT INFERS A TAMALE". Further on we found A KARATE ELF, MEN'S LINT, and A SMELLIER NET KAFTAN than we had ever seen. One densely-woven black tent claimed to be showing ASTARTE: A KENNEL FILM. We gave that one a miss.

At the center of the chaos we found an ARENA: FELTS, ELK, A MINT, and a rather frightening mime billing herself as A MANIFESTANT KELLER, who was waving A LENTEN SKIRT AFLAME. A booth selling pets caught our attention, and we were quite captivated by A MATERNAL, SILKEN EFT, though we realized we didn't have anywhere to keep her or her eggs. The blacksmith's demonstration was next, and we learned that A KETTLE ANNEALS FIRM if cast correctly. I temporarily lost my companion to a booth full of old comics; when she emerged with her arms full, all I caught on one of the covers was, "EL MELT ANTARES! A FINK!", which does not strike me as a title so much as truly awful dialogue.

I was intrigued by a little sign I glimpsed pinned to several of the tents, which showed a fern fiddlehead with an arrow. I dragged my companion, who by this time was trying to eat, read, and walk at the same time, and dragged her along the arrow's path. Wait, was that A MEEK RAINFALL? TENTS snapped shut all around us, leaving us to wonder what we were passing. We giggled together, imagining that A STERN MAFIA ELK LENT money to bewildered market-goers who had lost it all, and making up other scenes in which A FATAL INKER LETS MEN loose on one side of the market, then traps and tattoos them before they reach the other side. Eventually we got to the edge of the market, without seeing any other signs or any indication that we'd arrived at the place the fern was directing us to.

"A STALEMATE FERN LINK, huh?" essayed my companion, ducking the ensuing swipe at her head.

"Oh, hush. Let's go home."

(Want to play? http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/ will help. Whatever phrase you like.)