The Blob Parliament failed for a third consecutive day to hold a vote on the Crumb Supply Bill, after eleven members lost purchase on the recently polished chamber floor and rolled gently but irreversibly toward the north wall.

Speaker Pellham Ovinsworth called the incident "regrettable, and geometrically inevitable," before himself sliding out of frame.

A question of traction

The floors were treated last week under a maintenance contract awarded to a firm whose sole prior experience was the resurfacing of a municipal skating rink. Officials have declined to say who approved it.

We were told the finish would be dignified. Nobody said anything about slick. There is a difference, and we are living in it.

Opposition leader Dorotha Krumm has demanded an inquiry, though she conceded that any inquiry would need to convene in the same chamber and would face "the identical structural problem."

By evening, the Ministry of Works had proposed a solution: carpet. The measure requires a vote.