<i>Make Room, Make Room</i> was the first science fiction novel I read. I was in elementary school, and prior to that I only read Jack London novels. I remember the cover perfectly thirty five years later: a man standing in the middle of a crowd in downtown New York with a look of sheer claustrophobic panic on his face. Re-reading it years later I was surprised to discover that the Soylent Green as humans aspect doesn't appear in the novel and only in the movie, and I had somehow conflated the two. We used to make jokes in college about a cafeteria pasta-cheese-crouton dish billed as "bubbly-bake" that no-one could readily identify. We called it Soylent Green. The line staff got used to it. They knew what we meant when he asked for it, though I'm not sure they grasped the specific allusion.<div>
<br></div><div>Darren <br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Dec 10, 2010 at 3:46 AM, John Grigg <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:possiblepaths2050@gmail.com">possiblepaths2050@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
I never ate soy substitute food products during their earlier days.<br>
But over the past ten years I've eaten some that I thought were very<br>
good, and they did not in the least bit make me nauseous.<br>
<br>
Oh, what became of the study that said eating lots of soy over the<br>
years would lead to brain damage?<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
John<br>
</font><div class="im"><br>
On 12/9/10, spike <<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net">spike66@att.net</a>> wrote:<br>
</div><div><div></div><div class="h5">> John Grigg wrote:<br>
><br>
>>> On Behalf Of spike<br>
> ...<br>
><br>
>>>There is a bit of context that is missing for many of you, who were not<br>
> regularly going to movies in 1973 and who missed the original Soylent<br>
> Green...<br>
><br>
>>I saw Soylent Green years later on television. The film is regularly<br>
> spoken of in the media... I miss the smart kind of science fiction films<br>
> they made back in the seventies.<br>
><br>
> There was another notable one right about that same time, West World. In<br>
> retrospect, I realize that one had emergent AI, with apparent outloading.<br>
> The robots become self-aware and attack.<br>
><br>
>>... Right around that time, food companies were experimenting with soybean<br>
> meat substitutes. The early ones tasted terrible. But at least they were<br>
> expensive and unhealthy...spike<br>
><br>
> Funny story that has nothing to do with anything, but I still laugh when I<br>
> think about it. A long time ago, I was camping with my wife's family at<br>
> Mount Rainier. My then 19 yr old brother-in-law and I went hiking all over<br>
> the place, and we came back to camp crazy hungry. We had soy veggie-dogs,<br>
> since he is a strict vegetarian. Even tho I was half starved, I only ate<br>
> two; I detest the wretched things. But he devoured eight of them, scarfed<br>
> them like a pack of rabid wolves. About three hours later, we were sitting<br>
> around the camp fire on a beautiful sparkly cold evening, as I waxed on<br>
> about how good it all was. Then I noticed he was hunched over, not moving<br>
> at all, saying nothing. It was hard to tell by the flickering campfire, but<br>
> he just didn't look at all good. I said, Hey pal, are you OK?<br>
><br>
> No.<br>
><br>
> Full stop. I said, Well, um what is wrong?<br>
><br>
> He said, Those veggie dogs. They are all still sitting down there. My<br>
> stomach might stamp them "Return to Sender" any min..<br>
> buuuurrrrrLAAAAAAHHHHH...<br>
><br>
> Right into the campfire. We scattered like scared roaches trying to avoid<br>
> the big column of barf steam.<br>
><br>
> He felt better almost immediately, but that one massive barf pretty much<br>
> doused the fire, so that was the end of our starlight reverie that night.<br>
> {8^D<br>
><br>
> If you have ever eaten soy-based meat substitutes, you will understand why<br>
> the notion of living on that stuff is so scary. {8-]<br>
><br>
> spike<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><font face="Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif"><span style="line-height:26px"><span style="font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;line-height:normal;color:rgb(255, 255, 255)"><span style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-style:italic"><span style="background-color:rgb(0, 0, 0)">"In the end that's all we have: our memories - electrochemical impulses stored in eight pounds of tissue the consistency of cold porridge." </span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(0, 0, 0)">- Remembrance of the Daleks</span></span></span></font><br>
</div>