Thursday, January 13, 2011

You Thought You Knew

You probably always thought the person who told us, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,"* was some expert. Maybe a 1930s nutritionist reporting on Dust Bowl families; or perhaps it was one of the late-19th Century health-food types who gave us Graham crackers and corn flakes?

Um, no.

It would be Kafka.

Franz Kafka. The surrealist writer, possibly best known for the story of a man who turns into a cockroach.

"Most important meal of the day," hey? It most certainly is if it keeps one from going...buggy.
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* Today: bacon, eggs, V-8, coffee, half a pink grapefruit sprinkled with just a little confectioner's sugar 'cos it's gooood -- and a strawberry in the center.

2 comments:

Ed Skinner said...

On a business trip to Hong Kong, one of the foods was a soup made from what looked like cockroaches. I declined a bowl for dinner and surely would've done so again for breakfast.

Funny what memories your missives dredge up...

Ancient Woodsman said...

I always loved the Stengelese-way my father told me about breakfast: "If you've got to miss a meal, make sure it's not breakfast."

That Army Ranger officer earned a PhD in nutrition from Purdue, so I trust that he knew what he was talking about. Well, he convinced us kids, anyway.