Quiche Moraine

“Today, I asked Stephanie Zvan of the Almost Diamonds and Quiche Moraine blogs and co-moderator of the session on Science Fiction on Science Blogs, to answer a few questions.”

The traveler was a college-educated westerner with a late-Victorian attitude about Africans. The idea that all Africans are at least a little subhuman would have been a starting point for him. Throwing in a tribe here and there with especially cannibalistic or otherwise uncouth tendencies would be typical. Running into a group of individuals that looked to him almost like a separate species would be notable, and he did in fact make note of it, but this would be something he would take in stride.

Greggy’s family wasn’t rich. His dad was a highway patrolman and his mom was a nurse. With five kids, they often had to make do with what money they could spare, and Greggy didn’t have spending money very often. I was okay with sharing with him from my allowance whenever we went to the store to buy candy, because he was a good friend. So it was a surprise to me one summer afternoon when he told me that his mom had given him $20 to cut the grass. The most I had ever earned from cutting the grass was $5, and our backyard was much larger.

I am not asleep. The cats need reassurance, and every time I start to drift off, another explosion happens outside. Or a dozen explosions. Or an explosion preceded by a screech.

This strikes me as a very good time to remember what Independence Day is actually about.

PJ, who always dressed as a sailor for Halloween and worked three night shifts a week in the bar, would unlock the jukebox and reuse as many quarters as the machine would take and load up the play list with pure disco. Donna Summer got a little richer every time PJ was bartending. Alternately, Steve the Biker and Tex the Cowboy would take half their pinball money and load up the play list with non-disco songs, mostly Rolling Stones. The beer was good and it was all done in good fun.