Fancy Whole Kernel Corn

Hey, I suppose this is my journal entry for Nov. 9, 2004. My friend Pat
called me while I was watching this movie on Oscar Wilde and he wanted
to know if I would play some pool with him. Now I haven't been drinking
at all for a couple months. But I thought poool sounded like a fun
challenge and Pat's a good friend. So I went to this old tavern called
"Lumpy's" and we shot a few games. I again noticed something that I've
noticed quite often. I'm a lot better at pool when I'm drunk. And this
is relevant to a philosophical question I've had for a long time about
whether drugs really serve a useful purpose... if they really expand
our minds or just confuse them. But if alcohol can clear the mind
enough to allow someone to perform better at a straightforward game
like pool, then it obviously could have beneficial effects on the more
important brain functions. After all, if you think in a historical
context, success or failure often depends on clearing the mind and
keeping one's cool during trying times. You have to shoot straight at
the crucial time. Now I'm not a big fan of alchohol but I really enjoy
pot, which I haven't been smoking lately. I don't imagine this
revelation will cause me to start smoking pot again because I really
can't afford it. Besides, the federal government has a law that if
you're caught with marijuanana, you can't take out school loans. That's
really quite a fascist policy. Pat has been quite a good friend. Over
the past couple years, he's stuck by me pretty faithfully. And I do get
depressed or in a funk now and then. But he always wants to hang out,
play racquetball, pool, whatever. He grew up in a Republican family but
he supported Kerry. I don't know what accounts for that sensibility in
him. He used to be rather sceptical of my liberalism. Probably a lot of
it has to do with his major in "international studies." Anyone who
thinks about America in a global context can't help but see that the
Bush administration as a force for the worse. At the tavern, I ordered
a side of fries and we ate those. We had some frie sauce with them,
which is something that I've never had. It was pretty good, though. But
if you think about it, the tendency to have things like mayoinasse and
frie sauce with fries is a step down in civilization. You know, kind of
like the hindus say that the consumption of meat is a step down. And
then when I got home, for nutrition's sake, I had a can of "Fancy whole
kernel corn."