Pg 329
39. Under My Skin
the walking tour enters its third day/ how edge lost the secret of the universe/ bono dubs a sinatra duet/ the old fool controversy/ secondhand smokers/ a pub crawl with gavin/ michael jackson loses face
You know, just because I have to hang on Bono's coattail through every gin mill, juke joint, pool hall, and pub in Dublin doesn't mean I have to drag you along with me. Let's skip ahead twenty-four hours, to Thursday of the week of the Dublin concerts. You haven't missed anything. Bono's still coming up with excuses not to go home, he's still in the same clothes he's had on since he got offstage in Cork on Tuesday. We're both still awake and engaged in one of the greatest walking talkathons since Johnson jabbered to Boswell.
"Do you know the story of how Edge lost the Secret of the Universe?" Bono asks. Oh boy, a Hibernian folktale! "No, Bono, tell me."
"It started when Edge got a jar of psychedelic mushrooms," Bono begins, as wise as Uncle Remus. The legend, in summary, goes like this: Being very scientific, Edge decided that if he was going to sample any psychedelic mushrooms at all, he might as well eat the whole jar. Apparently those were potent fungi. Edge's eyes spun around and his hat flew off his head. He figured he'd better not take a chance on any impressionable members of the U2 Fan Club seeing him like this, so he went upstairs and got into his bed. He lay there for a while and then imagined he heard his wife calling him. He went to the door. No one was there. He went back to bed. And then, amid kaleidoscopes of spinning dimensions like an old Dr. Strange comic, Edge was given the Secret of the Universe.