“Did you ever have chickenpox?” George MacKenzie asked the others when the gang met for breakfast at Mabel’s Grill the other morning.

“Of course, nearly everyone born back in the day had chickenpox,” Cliff Murray replied.

“I read an article in the Globe and Mail that said 90 percent of kids born before the vaccine became available in 1995 had chickenpox,” Dave Winston said.

“That must have been the article I read,” George said. “Now apparently people who had chickenpox when they were young are getting shingles, a lot of them having to go to hospital.”

Molly Whiteside caught this last bit as she arrived with the menus. “I understand some provinces won’t pay for vaccinations against shingles because they cost so much. So instead they pay extra for people spending time in hospital. I know a guy who lives downtown who had shingles and is hardly back to normal yet.”

Some more diners came in and Molly went to get them menus while she left the guys to it.

“Got anything special planned for Thanksgiving?” Dave wondered.

“The wife has invited the whole family home for roast turkey,” George explained.

“Don’t you think it must be strange to be a turkey farmer and have close to 50 percent of your birds sent to market for Thanksgiving and the other 50 percent shipped in time for Christmas?” wondered Cliff.

“And hardly anyone eats turkey the other 50 weeks of the year,” Dave said. “I think I’d rather raise pork that people eat all year long.”

“‘I’m wondering how much gas gets burned by people driving to Thanksgiving parties, particularly this year when gas prices are so high because of the war in Iran?” George wondered.

Molly came back to get their orders.

“Have you guys heard all this talk about artificial intelligence?” she wondered.

“AI doesn’t raise a sheep so I’ve sort of ignored all that stuff,” Cliff said.

“It’s this talk that there being a 10 percent chance that AI could make humanity extinct that gets me,” Molly said. “I’m raising two kids and I hate the idea they could be wiped out just when they grow up.”

“You’ll notice that all this AI stuff doesn’t mean anything in food production?” Dave worried.

“Yeah it still means we have to plant crops and harvest them just like times gone by, and it still takes the sun and the rain to grow them.”

“But what about all this land that’s being taken up by these data centres?” Molly wondered.

“Yeah well we might need computer-generated food if we use up all the land for urban growth,” Dave said.

With that, Molly collected their orders and headed back to Mabel in the kitchen.

“Did you see that Trump promised $5,000 for every American if they re-elect the Republicans in November?” Dave wondered.
“It’s a good thing he’s not likely to have to pay out,” George grumbled. The others were surprised.

“You’re saying something against Trump?” Cliff asked.

“Well did you see they’re estimating it would cost American taxpayers about $1.2 trillion?” George said. “The Americans are already so deep in debt they hardly need to spend more.”

“Well I hope he can’t tempt people to vote Republican no matter what he offers,” Dave said. “And even if he won I suspect he’d find a way not to pay, just like he has in the past.”

“You know, for all the problems I have with politicians here in Canada, I’m awfully glad my vote is here, not there,” Cliff said. ◊