THE
BLUE BOX (Recycled Ideas)
by Don Cox
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We still haven't finished installing the new roof, and it's
been a long week what with the work and the heat. The house
has three dormers that have, unknown to me, become the cosy
home of a number of colonies of wasps. These tenants of
mine objected to intruders, and it's difficult to move away
smartly when you are on a roof. The solution is to find
convoluted approaches, and when the day is done sometimes
this state of mind persists.
So it came about that while relaxing over supper we commenced
a convoluted approach to the menu. "Look at this" I said,
"Virginia chicken, a generous helping of roast breast on
a bed of rice. Now tell me why rice is served in beds."
I knew it had been a hard day when Dave replied, "I'm having
steak on a bed of mashed potatoes with a rocking chair of
broccoli" Once something like this gets started there's
no end to it. The broccoli did pivot about on their stems
a little like rocking chairs I had to admit. Gilles chimed
in with something about a mattress of omelette, and then
we had another round to celebrate the day.
I couldn't get this out of my mind on the way home. Why,
I wondered, does coffee have tables, and tea have waggons.
More than that, coffee tables have books, while tea waggons
don't. I've seen a lot of coffee table books, I remember
being invited to afternoon tea at a neighbour's house and
finding a book about horses on the coffee table. It was
heavy and colourful and I asked if it had any really substantial
information on the equine arts. "This book", declared my
hostess, "can tell you anything about a horse that you would
ever want or need to know." I was impressed, "Does it tell
you how to cook 'em?" I asked. I wonder why I haven't been
invited back.
People seem to want to eat certain things together. There's
liver and onions, and steak and kidney pie for instance.
I guess we could add apple pie and cheese as well. I was
reading in the Globe the other day that's there's a famous
restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya that is called Carnivore. It
has an impressive menu that includes giraffe, gazelle, zebra,
ostrich, oryx, impala and crocodile. However, it's most
popular item by far is chicken, and the management is at
a loss to explain this. It's obvious enough to me, people
are not used to ordering oryx and mushrooms, or impala and
crocodile pie, so they fall back on the familiar, chicken
on a bed of rice. It seems to have a powerful appeal.
Perhaps my new tenants, the wasps, could be made into
an unexpected resource and even a business opportunity.
How about chicken on a bed of wasps. They look a bit like
brown rice when you pull their little wings off.
Bluebox ©2001 Don Cox
Website ©2001 OttawaWEB
