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if no major repair is required at the house. And if Patsy keeps up with her payments.
    At least the twins are finished with their undergraduate expenses. What a relief it was to see that the trust funds held out! Now that they are both in graduate school at Ohio State , their “packages” from their departments are paying them tiny salaries and providing them places to live as dormitory counselors. It must be very much like my situation, except that the University surely has better roofing materials over those dorms.
    Romance is in the air here, though. A new chef arrived in June and has aging hearts aflutter. This is a man, something unknown in the kitchen heretofore, except for the dishwasher repairman. I sent everything I knew about him to my real estate agent in Ohio , and she sent back a complete report of his adventures. Coming to Clarkl was not his idea, it seems, in spite of what he says. He had a choice between ten years on Clarkl and twenty years in the state penitentiary. He may be dissatisfied with his decision, especially since he is pursued nearly everywhere by one of the more energetic women.
    The Clarklians are not dissatisfied with his decision, though. Our dining room is overrun at all hours, and the appearance of certain of his dishes on the buffet cause the Clarklians to call all their relatives to further drum up our business. The chef is especially known for curried potatoes, wild rice with wickenberries and broccoli, and pineapple upside-down cake.
    Our numbers of meals served has increased by thirty percent in the last year. The Clarklians had to renegotiate their contract with the American government, and that was the cause of my small increase in pay. Our government also threw in about 2,000 place settings of Lenox and some Kirk flatware. This is the first American china we have seen here, and it is very popular, too.
    We are going to have to build onto the main building. I am in charge of pulling together the requirements for the addition, due in New Washington in a month. Everybody is crowded in the kitchen, and the Clarklians wait patiently in line until a table is cleared and reset. I hope we can expand with a facility equal in size to the one we have. I believe it will be easier to run two smaller dining rooms than one huge one, but the government surely will have opinions about that.
    The Fundamentalists are not having these problems. Their numbers of meals served have actually decreased over the last year.
    The news in our kitchen is that the Fundamentalists have a prayer meeting right after dinner, and they shuffle the Clarklians from the dining room into their big tent for the services. The Clarklians usually refuse to attend, but they don’t like the pressure. On the other hand, if they come here for dinner, they can walk or ride back home without having to insult the hosts by turning up their noses at the prayer meeting. This is my simple explanation of why our dining room is more popular.
    We have had a wonderful year with root vegetables, mainly turnips and parsnips. Some kohlrabi, too, although this is not a root. The new chef likes celery root, and he juliennes that into match-sized pieces and mixes the pieces with an egg-free mayonnaise. Each time he makes the celery root dish, we have less left on the buffet.
    Our recipe book had a major overhaul after the new chef had been here about three months. Now, it is less of a curiosity for the people back home and more of a real cookbook. Mrs. Wade wrote to tell me she placed an advertisement in the New York Times and over 2,000 people ordered the cookbook! My picture, along with those of most of my colleagues, is in that book. I am standing just behind a potato tray along the buffet line, serving spoon in hand.
    December 25, 2141  
    I’ve been here over four years! When you are working fourteen hours a day, the time flies.
    Our fine manager left in August, amid many good wishes and a few tears. She was over seventy, and she had a great