DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The hotel clerk was a diminutive Indian woman — young, perhaps 5'2'' and extremely slender. If I’d thought about it, I’d have expected her to be a vegetarian, based on her age, her size, and the fact that we were standing in California. Plus, given her ethnic background, she’d probably have a thing about cows.

So I asked her for restaurant recommendations. She reeled off a list of places that shared a common menu: cattle. She named grills, burger places, steakhouses. She became an animated Zagat’s Guide to local stockyards, so much so that she even realized it and apologized, then appended breathlessly, “… but I don’t know what kind of food you like, I like STEAK!” When she said “STEAK!” she actually growled. Her eyes bulged, her lips pulled back to reveal too many teeth, and I swear, I could see the cords in her neck go taut.