Overheard at Table 3: FOX 8 Book Review

One of the praise quotes on the back reads "Not since Twain has American produced a satirist this funny" which is not true, as the 20th Century produced quite a few satirists who could be considered closer to Twain in humor.   However, since this is the only story I've read by George Saunders, perhaps I should reserve my opinion until I have read other works by him.

That said, let's focus on the story: it's good.  Sadly, not earth-shattering, and truly not all that original, although the premise is quite nice - a fox who has taught himself human language, both in speech and in writing, and is writing this story as a sort of "wake-up call" to Yumans.

In this, we see the devastation to the home of Fox 8 and the other foxes in his den by human creation of a mall and housing addition, much along the lines of what we saw in the movie "Over the Hedge"  and in truth, this story could be expanded into a novella length along the lines of the other great anthropomorphic books (Charlotte's Web comes to mind, as well as another book I once read from the 19th century whose title escapes me at the moment).   

There is a very dark scene in which his friend, Fox 7, is kicked to death brutally by two human workers, and I still can't tell if that scene if egregious (simply there for shock value) or if it makes a salient point about the mindless cruelty of human beings.  The fact that the rest of the story is lighter by comparison truly makes that scene stand out.

While there are some happy moments in the story (the image of the other fox dancing when she tells him that she doesn't want their future cubs to have a grumpy dad), ultimately the story leaves one unfulfilled.   In short, the story's too short.  Needs to be a bit more.  Again, a novella, perhaps.

But, it's a quick read for waiting in the doctor's office, which is much better than doomscrolling through one's phone, so there's that.

Overheard at the Counter: Some Scribbles

 Scribbles

2025-0504
#Erotica280 #1212 Response
    She wrote a poem
    and he wrote a reponse
    
    Their words danced
    and swayed

    back and forth
    step by step

    hand in hand
    across the room

    of negative space
    infinite wireless
    connections
    
#Erotica280 #1218 Xanadu

On her couch, some clothes unbuttoned,
she asked me what I thought of Xanadu.

So I told her of her pleasure domes
and fertile grounds,
to be watered by sacred rivers
blossom those incense bearing trees!

and she
said, “I mean the Olivia Newton-John movie.
I’m in an 80s mood.”

Well, I thought,
as I looked for it on Prime,
at least she wasn’t talking about
that god-awful Rush song.






#horrorprompt 1812 Game

“It’s just a GAME!” Artichokie said
as he brought the bat down on the man’s head.
“Why do you keep shouting at Aiden?”

“I’m … I’m sorry!” said the man,
holding up a hand,
begging him to stop.

Another crack, across the jaw.
Teeth flew against the basement wall.

“Every game!  You tell  your son
to run.  Run here!  Run there!  What the hell
Aiden, you scream, Get your head in the game!

Well, Carver, is YOUR head in the game NOW?”

The bat came down
again
and again

but Carver didn’t respond.
He didn’t hold up a hand
begging to stop.
Carver was out.

He would never yell at Aiden
again






#horrorprompt 1811 Bone Cracker

At Fort McCoy, they were getting ready
for the orders to move on Chicago.

Clear out the sanctuary city.

They knew they’d face some pushback,
so they painted names on their tanks,
names like:

Tianenmen
Bone Cracker
Matamojados







#horrorprompt 1810 Electrode

As they put the electrodes on my skull,
I knew that they were going to change my
brainwaves.  They said they were just going
to test my sleep patters, but I knew they were
up to much, much more, but still
my wife held my hand and said it was going to be
ok and I wanted to make her happy and now
I’m awake and she’s not around and they are
telling me that she died years ago but
they were wrong she was
JUST
HERE



#horrorprompt 1809 Drill

The last thing I remember was them putting the drill against my kneecap but I didn’t have anything to tell them that I hadn’t already told them but now I know that it was never about knowledge or information it was only about pain and they destroyed me for no other reason that that they could

Overheard at Booth 2: The Evening After the Death of Pope Francis

The Evening After the Death of Pope Francis

my wife and I were making love,
our bodies warm in the decades
of knowing and touching,
our breathing soft, slow, and quickening -
her hand, relaxed and curled and tightening again

pulling me into rigidity,

when suddenly she said,
"Did the Pope die of old age or do you think Vance had something to do with it?"

And I replied,
"At this particular moment, I really don't care."

And we laughed and we laughed
and then we got down to bidness.

 

Overheard at Table 3: Get that Cheese I Liked That One Time

 

Wife: When you go to the grocery store, get me some of that cheese i like. Me: What cheese is that? W: The one i liked that one time! M: There are literally hundreds of cheeses! W: If you loved me, you'd know. M *straining memory banks* Wedge? BellaVitano? Tomato Basil? W: Was that so hard?

Overheard at Table 3: Ultra-Processed People

Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food

Chris Van Tulleken

Published by WW Norton, 2023

 

 

This guy's a doctor, a professor, and holds a PhD in molecular virology, so it is wholly gratifying to read from him ideas that I have been harboring for well over a few years now.  Vindication for my observations!

While he admits that more studies must be made and that there has been no coherent, peer-reviewed and tested studies, the results of many doctors and scientists' observations convincingly argues for a link between the obesity epidemic and our food - and not just the sugars, but ALL of our food, which has become not real "food" in the ways that our bodies understand food.

Now, be aware, all you conspiracy theorists, he is NOT saying that there is some sort of global cabal of Illuminati who have decided to kill us all by giving us Type-2 diabetes; however, he is saying that the food industry, growing and evolving over the past 40 years, has been systematically breaking down our normal food staples to their bare essences, then adding chemicals to preserve their shelf-life, make them ready for long-haul transportation, and to make you consume more of them.

All for the sake of selling more, making more money.

He also makes the case that much of our obesity is not a moral failing or a weak will, as is so often intimated in our culture, but that these foods are designed to "hook" our brains.  They trigger the pleasure centers of our brains much in the same way that cigarettes and heroin do, and they tell the body to get ready for a heavy dose of nutrition that never comes.  So, the brain thinks that you're eating food, your guts then say, "Yo!  Where dafuq is the nutrition?!" and then your body, overall, is left wanting more and more ...

It reminded me so much of the Star Trek Episode, "The Trouble with Tribbles" in which an enzyme was added to grain destined for a starving planet that would render the consumers of the grain unable to process any nutrients.   The Tribbles got into the grain containers and over ate the grain, and died of starvation.  The tag line for the show was, "In a vat full of food, they STARVED to death"

My wife and I, just last night, had a three piece chicken strip meal from Raising Cane's,... complete with fries.   This was at least 1100 calories ... and we had had another 600 calories from Chick-Fil-A that morning and home-cooked chicken and rice for lunch (probably around 700 calories)

So, we had had possibly double our caloric intake need for the day, yet! about two hours after the Raising Cane's meal, we were both suddenly ravenous.  It was about 10pm at night, and frankly, I could've guzzled down a cheeseburger.  But we both just drank water and went to bed.  

What I'm telling you with this is that we understand what this book is saying because we live this, daily.

Much of the science contained in this book I don't understand, but I commend the author for doing his level best to make it understandable for a layperson such as I.   Also contained in these pages are many stories of his conversations with other doctors and scientists who are interesting characters in their own right.

The closest he comes to calling any specific company out as being particularly evil is Nestlé ... you need to read the chapter describing how they have single-handedly destroying the traditional food infrastructure in Brazil.

One of the most impactful chapters was on GRAS - Generally Regarded as Safe: a classification set by the FDA in the late 50s when Congress was concerned about potentially poisonous additives to food.   It seems there is a process by which any company that wants to make an additive to food needs to submit an application to the FDA for GRAS status; however, if they don't like how the FDA questions them, they can simply withdraw the application and put the additive into their product and call it GRAS anyway.  

So really, what's the point of the FDA if the "F" in their title is merely symbolic?

One other part of the book that interested me was a study conducted by a Chicago pediatrician in the 1920s named Clara Davis.  She did a study on roughly two dozen poor children just after they were weaned: she gave them various choices of foods and let the infants decide what they wanted to eat.  Each of them, without any prompting, ate the foods that their bodies needed to grow healthy and strong. 

I was reminded of the Book of Daniel, Chapter 1, in which Daniel asked that he and his fellow captive Israelites be allowed to eat their food of vegetables instead of the King's meat, to demonstrate that they would show themselves healthier than other people's on the "regular" diet.

This experiment (while admittedly was with a very small test group) underpins what most of this book is trying to tell us: that our bodies know what is needed to keep us healthy, but for the sake of cheapness and for convenience, we have given up our natural foods for mouthfuls of mush, jam-packed with chemical flavoring and colors and we have TOLD ourselves that this is food.

But it's not.

And it's killing us.

That's of course, my conclusion anyway.  The good doctor is a bit more dispassionate and a lot more erudite, but yes, we can only conclude that the food we eat has no nutritional value and it's designed to addict us into eating more and more.

We are the tribbles.  And we are in this grain bin, and we are eating and eating and starving ourselves to death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overheard at Booth 2: Notes from my Interview with Artichokie

Notes:

 

He didn't look like I had expected him to look.  Yes, I know he has a passing resemblance to Jackie Earle Haley, and that the actor has already been approached for a biopic loosely based on the killings committed by Arthur James Choake, and I had also reviewed all the recordings of the trial, seen every picture taken of him online, and still, he was a surprise.  

He is, in his own way, I suppose you would say, charming.  Not the sort of thing you'd expect from a man who is on Oklahoma's Death Row for the brutal murder of 13 people ... and possibly 34 others.  He had a smile that didn't seem one meant to impress or disarm, but one that genuinely seemed to be happy to have someone to talk to.  

I have talked with others who have interviewed serial killers and other murderers, who tell me that often these people want to talk, but always want to control the conversation.  Even though they have been rightfully convicted of their crimes, they always know details that no one else knows, and they hold on to that knowledge because it gives them a sense of power.  At the same time, they want you to know that they have this, because they know that the public (you/me/all of us) want to know their hidden secrets, however mundane.

While Choake, who also goes by the nickname Artichokie, definitely has that (I mean, he has only hinted at the additional 34 but has not given any concrete evidence) but he also seemed to genuinely want to talk to me.   He said he'd heard my podcast "Deacon" (I don't know how he'd heard it, being on Oklahoma's Death Row, and I don't want to ask any deeper because frankly I don't want him to have that access stopped).  Apparently that's why he wanted to do an interview with me.

...

Of course, I'm not going to jump right in to the murders (although I probably could have, because he's already well-known for liking to talk about the ones he's already been found guilty of). Having that as the first round of questions just seemed kind of vulgar, and part of my reason for being here is because we are told by God to visit those in prison, and that's what I was doing here.  So, was visiting Artichokie in a way, selfish of me?  I suppose it might be.  But then, aren't we all selfish in a way?  Such as the way that he won't talk about the 34 plus murders that we know he's probably committed?

But I started off with, of all things, current events.  The big one for March of 2025.

"So, what do you think of Trump and Musk and Making America Great Again?"

To be honest, the instant it left my lips, I thought it sounded stupid.  But it was too late.  It was out there.

He said, "Revelation 13 seems like a good possibility."

I quickly thought over that.  I didn't have my phone with me.  That had been left at the front desk.  All I had was a paper and pen.  He wouldn't even see me with a recorder, he said, on this meeting.

So I fought back through memory.  "The woman and the dragon?"

"Close," he said.  "That's Chapter 12.   I'm talking about the Beast and the Dragon.   They are both now in control of America."

"That's weird.  For some reason I wouldn't have thought you'd call Trump the Beast."

"Why wouldn't you think that?"

 "Well, I mean ... you're a Christian."

 "I don't follow false prophets.  And being a true Christian means you know how to spot the AntiChrist."

"So," I said, because I honestly hadn't thought of this before, "are you a Democrat or a Republican?"

"Son," he said, "that's like asking me if I'm a Moabite or an Ammonite.  Both are enemies of the People of God and both were born of the sin of incest."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overheard at Table 2: John Chapter 9:1-7

John Chapter 9

We were walking out of the Target near Fry Road and I-10. Judas didn't like shopping there because he said it's too expensive, but that's mainly because he like to keep skimming from the group fund.  Thomas always said that he thought he could find better deals and better quality at TJ Maxx, but James had to have his Bustelo, and that was the only place that sold it.

Anyway, as we were walking toward the frontage road, we saw the homeless people camping there among the trees. They were panhandling at the corner, and so we were asking Jesus, "Hey, why should we give these guys money?  Are they homeless because sometimes Life just happens, or because they were on drugs and made some bad choices along the way?

 Bartholomew said we should see which ones were the Vets and help them and maybe not the others.  "Ultimate sacrifice," he said, remembering something Jesus had been teaching us about friendship.   

Jesus went to one blind guy.  He said, "This man's homeless through no fault of his own.  It also wasn't the fault of having bad parents. This happened so that the works of God can be demonstrated through him."

We asked Jesus what He meant by that.  He said, "I'm only going to be here a short while longer.  You guys need to do this work with me.  As long as the sun shines, we have to do the work of God.   There will be a time when the opportunity is gone.  As Andrew likes to say from his favorite show, 'Winter is coming'"

The scant trees in this section by Fry and frontage road has a depression to catch overflow of rainwater.  Jesus walked down to the damp area, scooped up some mud, spit on it, rubbed it in his hands, and then walked back to the blind man with the goop in His hands and  while James and John propped the guy up, Jesus rubbed the mixture into each eye.

We all kinda stood around, wondering what was going on.  Surely that couldn't be sanitary.  At least, that's what I was thinking.  Don't know what the others were thinking.

He waited for about an hour or so.  The cars were driving by the entire time, most everyone slowing down to look at what we were doing with this homeless guy.  If they thought we were doing him any harm, no one ever stopped to check.  They just stared as they passed by.

Eventually, the mud dried and began to crack, and scales of it began to fall off, like dried limestone shale that gets brittle and breaks.   The homeless guy raised his hands to his face to peel the rest off and his eyes were red and puffy but he started blinking furiously, and then covered his face from the light of the sun.

"I CAN SEE!" he shouted.  He shouted so loud that I thought they could hear him all the way at the PetSmart.

Jesus told the man, "Go and wash in the baptismal pool at the Second Baptist Church building.  There, the healing will be complete."

The man got up and ran off.   Interestingly enough, he knew the direction to the church.   I had the sneaking suspicion that he was wandered there a couple of times looking for assistance.   I wonder what they would say now.

We looked at the rest of the homeless with new eyes that day.  I realized that even all those times I'd gone on church outings to give them clothes and sandwiches, that I always wondered what they had done to get themselves into their situation.  I realized today that it was not my place to wonder.  Not my place to ask such questions.  Not my place to judge.

The scales had fallen off my eyes that day.

Thank God.  Before it was too late for me.