This work by Michael Etigson (E-mail) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Table Scrap Band

After several days of getting my meals at a hospital cafeteria, fellow patients and I noticed that despite seeing janitorial staff diligently cleaning the entrance hallway, food debris that had fallen to the floor the day before would be there to greet us the next day. At first it went unnoticed, but by the third and fourth day we could all thought we could identify which crumbs and scraps belonged to each of our respective meals. It was quite puzzling, since we could see staff busy ensuring that the hall outside was virtually spotless.

We even confirmed that the dining area floor was being conspicuously neglected by conducted tests, leaving a bits of food that were readily identifiable to each of us in specific locations to make sure we weren't seeing debris from other patients that had eaten before we arrived. I began to get somewhat attached to the odd French fry or apple seed dropped at my feet from prior meals and eventually imagined the accumulated detritus forming a band and marching away on its own.

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