[yellowapple]

> "Com-pan-ions" are literally those who eat bread together: "com" is community, etc. and "pan" is bread.

Similarly, while plenty of people pan (pun intended, on multiple levels) American multiculturalism for being seemingly limited to food, it remains evident that food is a sort of universal language - a gateway to shared understanding even among those who share nothing else in common. Cuisine is a window into cultural tradition and history, and is a leading indicator of the formation of new cultures through the intersection of existing ones. To share food is to share what makes us human.

If we discover intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, I reckon this will be a key factor in whether we have any hope of ever truly understanding them and their motivations.

[carapace]

Dude! I think you just gave me a whole vein of sci-fi gold!

- - - -

Also, I clicked through your profile to your website and you mention you're a sysadmin, do you have any experience with OpenBSD?.

[yellowapple]

> do you have any experience with OpenBSD?.

I sure do! It runs my web and mail servers, and on my main laptop.

[carapace]

Excellent! I will send you an email soon. :)

(I'm starting a corporation, a little one, and I'm going to need some computers.)

[yellowapple]

Looking forward to it :)

[carapace]

Email sent. I've only had one cup of coffee so far, hopefully it's coherent.

[yellowapple]

That's one more than I've had, so apologies for any rambling :)