Despite my ingenious - if not culturally sensitive - plan to help out the struggling North Carolina hog farmers by awarding the food service contract at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention facility to Durham-based Bullock's Barbecue, the Taliban and al Queda detainees are eating quite well, apparently.

The most interesting piece of advice I learned from the article, though, came from a nutritionist who counsels federal prisons in Florida. She says:

When you are incarcerated, food becomes one of the few sources of social pleasure available to you. Meals are an opportunity to communicate with other people. Not insignificantly, it also becomes an outlet, like sex.

What did I take from this quote? Next time I find myself in a prison cafeteria with a 300 lbs., heavily-tatooed guy asking me if I want to finish my mashed potatoes, I think I'll just say, "Naw, buddy, they're all yours." As much as I like mashed potatoes, its probably better than the alternative.
- posted by Anonymous @ 9:54 AM