The Cook Shack--Gab & Grub: Ah Well... Had t'happen someday I guess... the future is here.. Cookie goes on a rant..

Well Sir...when I was a kid back in the late 40's and 50's ( I know...I'm old), I used to read all the Sci-Fi books I could get my hands on... and the local drugstore was usually able to keep me supplied with the typical pulp mag's for this readin preference...

I remember readin one story in particular...where an "Inter-Galactic" space freighter that had just traveled through space for many years had just landed on some far off planet somewhere and was about to disembark it's cargo. Now Sir...the skipper was supposed to read a huge book that listed all the Do's & Don'ts of this here planet but felt it was unnecessary.

As was his personal custom, he would stand on the unloading gantry while the goods where bein unloaded and he would light up a special expensive cigar that he saved for these completed missions. Well Sir...in this here story, he was immediately arrested for lighting up the cigar because...smoking on this planet was ILLEGAL !!! After an immediate and brief hearing...he was sentenced to death and to die the next morning.

Now Sir... of course there's much more to the story (which had a good twist to its ending BTW) but the point is...back in the 1950's...very few folks would ever have believed that at some point in the future smoking would have been verbotten..forbidden...illegal...but look whats happened today.

Now this here post ain't about the rights & wrongs of smokin...its about how things that were once Sci-Fi are becomin the present...hell boy...back in the early 50's there t'were'nt even a satelite up there in space yet till the Soviet Sputnik came along.... next case in point....

Just in the past week...good old New York City made it illegal to cook with trans-fatty oils because of the health risks involved. Well Sir...this brought another Sci-Fi program to mind it did. Back about ten years ago, there was a program on the boob tube about some kinda "Time Cops"...and I furgot the name of the show but I distinctly remember one episode in particular.

An experienced "Time Cop" comes back to our age...but he has a rookie Time Cop with him. They stop at a fast food restaurant to get something to eat and the rookie has the first hamburger & fries he's ever had (cause he lives 200 years in the future).
As he begins eatin his fare...he makes a statement...somethin like "Man...this is great...now I see why they made it illegal to cook with fats and oils."

Well...what the hell just happened.

Now Sir...I could go on and on bout things that were predicted by Sci-Fi writers many years back, God knows there are hundreds of examples, but what I'm really writin about is Government mandates and laws to oversee my health....Where's my freedom of choice and why is it being taken away???

If'n I want to eat some good ol "greasy spoon" or fast food that I happen to enjoy the flavor of ever now and agin...who's business is that other than mine...its MY CHOICE!

If'n I want to light a good ceegar in a way that nobody else gets exposed t'second hand smoke...IT"S MY CHOICE! Look at the guy that just got fired frum his job cause he took a drug test for the company he wurks fer...and failed it cause they found NICOTINE! Gimme a break already. And some communities are considering making it illegal to smoke anywhere outside.

Well Sir....y'all might as well put the handcuffs on this here Cookie right now...cause I only got two vices left after all these years....eatin good food and smokin...and I ain't about to give up either one of em without a fight or lettin my feelins be known...