sci-fi story

 

Today someone sent me a spoof: Carrot Juice Constitutes Murder which I find pretty funny, in its own way. It reminds me of a story I read once. Wish I could remember the author or title, or even a good plot synopsis...

It was 1994 or so, and the book was large, old and dusty. It was a science fiction collection from 1989 or earlier. The dust jacket was gone. The story was near the front of the book; it may have been the opener.

A group was sent on a prolonged space mission. They had a substance --a food, maybe, or a drug-- with them whose function wasn't fully revealed to them. It made them smarter. The story was told from the point of view of the mission's "control," back on Earth. The astronauts began disobeying, began taking more of this substance, and got smarter than their control (this is what was feared). At one point they got so smart they were insane. They cut off their limbs just to watch them regenerate.

The line I remember, perhaps not verbatim because I've googled it and variations on it with no result is one of the astronauts saying:

"It's a sin to eat a carrot, but the radishes rather enjoy it."

***

Today it rained most of the day, as predicted. Bob went to town and returned with a new giant flat-screen monitor for me! I didn't realize how old and clunky my monitor was (and how much space on my small desk it took up) until I set up this one. The cats will hate us for a while though -- it's hard to sleep on top of a flat-screen.



Later in the day a pizza was ordered, delivered and devoured (and in the process I learned that our pizza delivery guy will deliver beer if asked to), the compressor fan on the refrigerator was examined and a new one ordered. The dog killed something, rolled in it, ate part of it, and now wants to come inside and sit on the furniture. Nuh uh, no way. We think it looks like it was a small hawk. Hopefully it wasn't the neighbor's rooster. Still later the dog got a bath, the bird got bagged, and life goes on (except for that bird).