No DLE

1
Story Idea: No DLE

A man frequents a cafeteria that serves Campbell's soup out of vintage pots. The contents of each pot are handwritten on small chalkboards that hang from the pots.

Since the cafeteria serves the same soups day after day, it uses the same signs day after day, and the signs become smudged as they are bumped by patrons ladling soup.

One of the pots holds chicken noodle soup and the second "o" in "noodle" has been brushed away by hundreds of shirtsleeves brushing it each day.

The hero of the our story sees this every day and comments every day: "I'll have the chicken with no DLE. Ha ha ha!"

Later in the story, the hero gets hit by a Campbell's Soup delivery truck. When the EMTs arrive, he looks up at the truck and whispers, "No DLE, no DLE," and then he dies.

One EMT says to the other, "Did you get that? What do you think... a name? An address?"

The other replies, "I guess we'll never know," and pulls a blanket over the dead man's face.

2
Religion... [and] economics... both grow out of the nature of human societies

"Everyone grows up inside some tradition, under some authority and given some revelation – those are three things that every parent provides for their children, and which children will always find, even if they have to create it. ... Religion is not something imposed on us by priests any more than economics is imposed on us by bankers. Both grow out of the nature of human societies."
--Andrew Brown guardian.co.uk

3
Say something else in that ear.

"Americans are in love with voting. They don't care much what they're voting about."
--Clarence 0ddbody

 

c0

[1]
I once worked at a big retailer that had a cafe that served soup in this manner. I remarked a number of times, "Why is that soup missing DLE?" The cashier never supplied the missing "o," nor even a humorless smile.

Started: 2012-10-11