
2001: A Taste Odyssey
“The best part of space exploration is setting down on an unknown planet, shooting the first thing you meet and roasting it over a charcoal fire. Sitting back under alien stars and digging into some interstellar brisket, now that’s pure heaven.
“Sure, sometimes you accidentally bag a sentient, maybe even a kid. You can’t tell just by looking at some of those things.”
The eyes of the kindergarteners are wide with horror. A few are crying softly.
“That’s . . . fascinating, Captain,” the teacher says with a gulp. “Maybe you could tell the children more about your rocket ship.”

Thank you Rochelle for choosing my picture for this week’s prompt. This is from a restaurant in Baku, Azerbaijan called Karvansary. It is underground in a former caravansary, which was a stopover rest stop on the Silk Road back in the day.
Good one, David! Easy to visualize. I bet their parents get an earful when they get home.
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Hopefully there wasn’t too much therapy involved later. 🙂
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Hahaha! I can hear the voice of Jim Kirk right now! 🛰️
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That’s kind of what I was going for, something between that and Zap Brannigan. 🙂
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Hunger comes in many forms. Poor kids, what happened to “Zoom, zoom, we’re flying to the moon”
Great picture for the prompt this week.
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Thanks, James!
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You give the story hour a whole new face. I love the photo. Makes me hungry. Interstellar brisket. Will potatoes come with that? 🙂
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They might, but I don’t know if I’d trust interstellar potatoes any more. 🙂
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You have a point. Great FF.
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a little vetting of the speaker beforehand would, in hindsight, have been a good idea
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Yeah, they’re stick to pre-recorded talks after this, maybe.
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What you’d bag most likely wouldn’t have any nutritional value at all or could even be toxic.
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yeah, it’s a pretty stupid, macho thing to do, to be sure.
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The excitement of space travel… might be great storytelling for those older than kindergarten… I’m with Neil – this spaceman shoulda been vetted before! So good, your story is!
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Thanks, Dale! I’m glad you liked it. This one keeps making me laugh.
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With good reason!
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Well, that’s different! Nice one, David
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Thanks, Keith!
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And I am guessing who ever booked this guy is deathly afraid of drag queens! heheheheheh
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haha, maybe 🙂
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Dear David,
Perhaps the captain could’ve left some savory details out, given his audience. 😉 Love the story and thanks for the delicious photo.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks, Rochelle. This was fun to write.
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Guest speakers are always a dice roll! Very real story, David, and a great photo, thank you.
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Thanks, Jen. 🙂 Glad you liked it. Yeah, if they go off script, all bets are off.
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Ok, this one made me LOL.
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Thanks, Dawn. It made me laugh writing it too. 🙂
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Good one with a fun ending! At first I was like, oh my! Then I remembered that I eat veal, so who am Io judge?
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Yeah, I know what you mean. I feel like I shouldn’t meat, but I still do.
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