sunday brunch

The machine had whipped up a Monte Cristo sandwich, with a fruit-cup and a well chilled rhine wine....."Finished?" it asked, as I leaned back from the table.  "Yes, thank you, that was excellent." I replied, tossing the linen napkin down next to the empty china.  So the machine whisked everything away through the air to the white door with the round window in it which only appeared in the bulkhead when the galley was active.  The dirty dishes went away, and the door disappeared....."Tell me" said the machine "Can you offer me any more pithy aphorisms about life in general?"  This was a little game we had been playing on the voyage.....swapping bits of wisdom....."Well" I offered "My father used to tell me 'Son, when you get right down to it, life ain't really nothin' but a dang tragic waste of time and money.'"  It took a while for the machine to reply....it said that time and money meant nothing to a machine, so the waste wasn't very tragic, as far as it was concerned.  It allowed as how such things might seem important to a short-lived flesh and blood creature, trying to function in a larger society of similar beings......