Challenge 623

Spiked Casseroles

In Charles C. Cole’s “The Neighbors at the Gates,” what do the neighbors want? What are they up to?
In Mike Acker’s “Fine Dining,” how does the poem differ from the usual run of documentaries like those of Nature or The Nature of Things or National Geographic?
In Arthur B. Cover’s “Elvis at 50”:
1. Does the story constitute “fan fiction”? Would BwS be able to publish it if Elvis Presley were still alive?
2. Is at least part of the story historically accurate or not?
In Jason A. Feingold’s “The Grad School Detective”:
1. How does the story satirize graduate students? Conspiracy theories? “Private eye” novels? Would you include Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, in view of its search for Aristotle’s supposedly lost treatise on comedy?
2. At the end, Sam Dupinsky “punts” the conclusion and leaves it up to his abductors. Do you think he should join the Clown Conspiracy?
In Amanda Krenicki’s “As Exquisite and Unsatisfying as a Cigarette”:
1. What do you think of the title? Might it be “as inexquisite and satisfying as a cigarette”? Something else?
2. How do the characters Wm. Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde contrast in this story? What seems to be the basis for Shakespeare’s coming off so badly?
3. Shax O’Connor is an incubus to allow for time travel. What do you think of Shax personally?