Forbidden Fries
... my way through the smoke in the kitchen, sat down at my place. I said nothing, but the Pasionaria shouted: "Mondays in this house, nothing gets fried!" I ate the fried food and soon had a stomach ache. It was the following Monday. Early in the morning I went down to the kitchen and affixed the sign: "Notice: Today is Monday." I came down again at one, and Margherita was at the stove, frying something. I got angry. "Margherita," I asked, "did you happen to see a sign reading, `Notice: Today is Monday'?" "Yes," she replied cheerfully. "Of course you might also have written, `Tomorrow is Tuesday!'" Pasionaria cried: "Mondays in this house, nothing gets fried!" Once again I ate fried food and had a stomach ache and a hard time working that afternoon and night. It was the third Monday after the reform, and I went downstairs at lunchtime to find that Margherita was not frying anything because she'd already finished. The fourth Monday after the reform, I sat down at the table at one o'clock in the best of humor. Margherita had cooked up a panful of fried stuff. After about five minutes there was a ring at the door and a waiter appeared, carrying a tray in his hands. He took from the tray a plate of baked pasta.I began to eat quietly. The fifth Monday I went downstairs prepared for combat. Entering the kitchen, I smelled nothing frying. I smelled nothing, in fact. Somebody had laid the table. The waiter arrived with a large basket, brought out four plates of baked pasta. We sat down to eat in silence...