A biological study of Inertia;

When they got back on the road again Melbourne took the wheel, and put his arm around Andrea to give Sam more room. Sam's thoughts had turned back to the early stages of their friendship with Andrea, and he decided to be frank. "Andrea, do you remember when you told me I was short for my weight?" he asked. "I think so," she asked, wondering where she had stored her camera. "Well, it has occurred to me since then that you MIGHT have said 'You're fat for your height!'" Melbourne could assess the salient truth of this remark, inerrant in its logic, but failed to comprehend the social significance of his friend's new conversational gambit. "Are all short people fat?" he asked in his best disarming manner. Sam dutifully ignored his friend's unintentional density. He continued addressing himself directly to Andrea. "If you HAD, I could at least DO something about my weight!" Andrea was sensitive to his pain. "I know," she replied, "but I also know that weight is not as easy to lose as it is to gain." Melbourne showed that he had not taken offense, but chiming in, "5 pounds a year, from the age of 18 to the age of 65 is fully 235 pounds!" Andrea saw the truth of this after some mental computations, and responded before Sam could interrupt, "Yes, but I always LOSE at least THREE in the spring, just to get ready for bikini season!" A passing jack-rabbit caught Sam's eye, and he briefly wondered what a bunny would look like in a bikini. "Even ONE pound a year is 47 pounds," he shot back. "If I weighed 160 at age 18, I'd expect to be 207 by the time I was 65, just on account of FRENCH KISSING!" "That's why we have to invest all available resources in developing a food pill," Melbourne said, clarifying his own motive and intent. "For my own part," Andrea disagreed aloud, "_I_ think you should start your metabolism early in the day, whether by exercise or by breakfast, and then eat reasonable portions during the day to keep from getting ravenously hungry." "I don't know," was Sam's contribution to the discourse, "Hunger is better than A1 or Barbecue Sauce to make a steak delicious." He turned his attention to Melbourne, "Would you still be able to get a steak flavored pill?" "Actually, it hasn't even been established whether the pill will be oral or a suppository," Melbourne responded, proving that HE, at least, was willing to keep an open mind. Being thus reminded of the value of peace and quiet, Sam could no longer keep his own council. "Melbourne, If you only eat a pill, what's your gut going to have to work on? Even rabbits need roughage." Although he could see obvious problems with his theory looming on the horizon, Melbourne remembered Sam's attitude about crow, and used his own judgment. "Save's time in the crapper then, too," he replied. It was Andrea's turn to comment, and she did so without device. "All I know is that when I taste sweet, I want carbs for my insulin... if I don't get them my metabolism feels like my circadian rhythms do when I stay up all night - expletive deleted crappy!" Sam was philosophical. "I guess we'll never get rid of bodily functions then," he intoned. Peace and quiet now seemed appropriate, so they listened to the highway song of the tires, and rode on without a significant change in pace.