‘The trouble with the world was,’ she continued hesitatingly, ‘that people were still superstitious instead of scientific. He said if everybody would study science more, there wouldn’t be all the trouble there was.’

‘He said science was going to discover the basic secret of life some day,’ the bartender put in. He scratched his head and frowned. ‘Didn’t I read in the paper the other day where they’d finally found out what it was?’

‘I missed that,’ I murmured.

‘I saw that,’ said Sandra. ‘About two days ago.’

‘That’s right,’ said the bartender.

‘What is the secret of life?’ I asked.

‘I forget,’ said Sandra.

‘Protein,’ the bartender declared. ‘They found out something about protein.’

‘Yeah,’ said Sandra. ‘That’s it.’

– Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

Cotaa’s Balacona

Breakfast of Champions:

2 slices Egyptian flat bread dipped in 2 unrefrigerated eggs; fried

1 banana; sliced

maple syrup

Nescafe; 1 sugar

equal parts Juhayna tropical juice cocktail and Baraka sparkling mineral water; iced

1 angry Marti cat; eager to express her opinion on current political events