Sunday 8 March 2015

Antidote

Antidote: verb. To bestow or express excessive hatred or lack of fondness upon someone or something in a habitual manner. The word antidote can be used in sentences such as the following: "Cain truly antidoted Abel," or "God truly antidoted the people of Sodom and Gomorrah."

Fragment XXI

It was not long before Mr Collins was hauled back in by his wife, who had - to the great disapproval of Lady Catherine - undressed herself and tied her numerous garments together, forming a rope to throw to Mr Collins. Mr Collins was very alive and well by the time he was inside the giant box, which was to the great consternation of Babbage who was convinced that Mr Collins' head should have turned into a giant turnip according to all laws that had been formed about the universe so far. In fact, Babbage had secretly wished that upon the opening of the door, everyone would be sucked out into space, earning his crew the title of the first space-murdered crew in human history.

Unbeknown to Babbage, however, the box was just drifting through an area of high oxygen concentration surrounded by a relatively thick layer of ozone. Thanks to this absolutely unlikely explanation the writers of this story have just pulled out of their rear ends, it happened that no one died and that the crew was able to shut the box door before a swarm of angry Kamasutras could attack them. 

The entire episode left utterly no impact on the crew's morale and, after Mrs Collins was persuaded to dress herself again, the crew returned to the trouble plaguing everybody's mind: jam.

"I do not understand," Lady Catherine orated, "How anyone could dare to dip baked products into jam instead of smearing it on top. It is almost as indecorous as salmon harlotry."

"I couldn't agree more," said Mr Collins.

With that remark, the conversation was ended, as no one dared to raise their voice against Lady Catherine in such a confined area. 

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