On Provisioning the World Below’s Residents

[Sgt. Saunders]

Catherine Chandler and the other helpers above must have faced an almost Herculean task in providing food and supplies to Father, Vincent, Mouse and all of the other residents of Father’s utopian society, the World Below.

I’m reminded of a great scene in the 1971 film comedy, “Bananas,” where star Woody Allen, as aspiring revolutionary/pathetic schlub Fielding Mellish, goes to a local bodega to get food for his fellow rebels in the tiny country of San Marcos.

Fielding orders 800 roast beef and Swiss cheese sandwiches, 500 ham and American cheese sandwiches, 1000 bottles of Coca Cola, 300 regular coffees, 600 side orders of potato salad, 500 side orders of Cole slaw and 200 side orders of macaroni salad plus 600 dill pickles, all to go.

I wonder if Catherine and the helpers had to make similar orders to go for copious amounts of Big Macs, Quarter Pounders, French fries and orders of Diet Coke’s and assorted milk shakes from a McDonalds in Times Square to feed Vincent and everyone down below?

No doubt, Catherine and the helpers would probably also venture down to Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan to buy large amounts of Chicken Marsala dinners, tossed salads, Pasta-Fazul soups and various pizza combinations at the finest Italian restaurants to provide Vincent and his fellow residents with a varied
selection of meals.

And, knowing how both Father and Vincent enjoyed Asian dishes, Catherine also purchased tons of chicken lo mein dinners, egg rolls, beef chop suey dinners and chicken egg roll soups to go at some of the superb Chinese restaurants on Canal Street as well.

Who knows, maybe Father, Vincent, Pascal and Mouse have developed a fondness for Indian, Korean, Cuban and Islamic cuisine over the years? And, maybe a now older and a decidedly more reubenesque Vincent has now been forced to go Dr. Irwin Stillman’s world-renowned Water Diet?