Bryan-TGWWW wrote:

> The Rescue Mission cannot stand "alcohol or drugs" because they compete with the religious delusion they brainwash the losers with. There's a big old man in the sky who loves them. If there were a god, these dudes are his whipping boys, getting juked in the ass with a holy broomstick handle.


I have eaten at soup kitchens hundreds of times. Stayed in a mission only once, back in my 40s. I have eaten in soup kitchens in L.A. and Allentown PA. Some were pretty good. My very first ever soup kitchen meal was at the "Downtown Jimmy Hale Mission" in Birmingham Alabama when I was hitch hiking through on my way north.

Of course we had to say a prayer. Maybe even listen to a sermon. That is the price we pay for soup kitchen food. The funny thing about the Chen episode is that the meal itself was the price. They had to eat the meal if they wanted the cash. In the end, all they got was a meal many probably had to force down. I can imagine their hostility.

I can also imagine that one or more of them could have borrowed money from a friend or acquaintance on the promise of paying them back once they got Chen's promised $300. All sorts of imagined episodes wrought by Chen's unfulfilled promise could have taken place - many tragic yet funny at the same time. I enjoyed reading the article - in bed, directly off the page, relaxed, ready to be entertained, reading an article about a meal as is it were dessert. Thanks for the response.

TJ

TJ

But the humor I saw in the Chen article