Roger's Dinner

[Dave Taylor]

What a thought provoking question, Gene. You certainly have a head-scratcher with that one.

I think the bigger question is how can we, as products of today's various dinner choices and venues, truly grasp the complexity of dinner in Roger's time? Sure, we can propose what we would do if we were in Roger's place, and we, of course, all have very strong opinions as the meal we would consume. However, I would put forth that even with all our study of Roger and his eating habits, it would be a fallacy for us to assume that we could predict Roger's next meal at all. There is an inherently personal and human element to your question that we, sadly, cannot predict without being in Roger's shoes. Though his demonstrations of character and inclination towards different foods help us to create an idolized version of his prospective meal choice, this "theorized" meal is also strongly influenced by our own, personal desires and expectations of him. Our predictions and opinions of Roger's prospective meal choice are not unlike the flavored wallpaper in Roald Dahl's classic children's book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." In said book, the different fruits of the flavored wallpaper tasted like their real life counterparts because those licking the wallpaper wished them to taste so. The "snozzberries" tasted like "snozzberries" due to the active desire and expectations of the tasters. I propose, therefore, that any prediction or opinion by us vis a vis Roger Norton's dinner would fall victim to the same process. In short, Roger's dinner can not be objectively determined due to our own projections onto his taste and the innate human desire to have our own expectations fulfilled.

There is, however, one thing that can be predicted with almost complete exactness, not open to any subjective bias whatsoever. Roger Norton will, most assuredly, have a Moon Pie for dessert.