The slave admires the tyrant because the last is what the first would be.

"He surveys himself all over in the glass of royalty. The swelling bloated self-importance of the one is the very counter-part and ultimate goal of the abject servility of the other. But both hate mankind for the same reason. because a respect for humanity is a diversion to their inordinate self-love, and the idea of the general good is a check to the gross intemperance of passion."

As we wind down 2022, a year I think everyone but the utility and gas companies will remember as one of the worst in their lifetimes, let us abandon the trappings of rote behaviour and surrender to WHIMSY, not for the spark of joy that might illumine those pitch-hued corridors of your guarded hearts but as an experiment to test the strength of those bonds forged by that which is stronger than twined steel and more steadfast than the mightiest of ancient oaks: FLAVOUR. Perchance the flavour of a cauliflower hash brown bun, whose yielding dough and alarmingly savoury layer of chilli crisp mayo surrender to the pressure of your grinning jaws and yield up their crispy, well-seasoned bounty. Maybe to the flavour of numbing Sichuan noodles whose hidden cashews proivide a rich textural contrast to the soft, pork-dappled noodles atop them. Does the flavour of kedgeree that you can hold in your hand do more to move the blood through your sluggish veins? How about the spicy crackle and finger-staining bliss of a salt & chilli aubergine?

Regardless, all of these are valid possibilities at one of Nanika's famous MYSTERY SALES.

And a MYSTERY SALE is all we are doing tonight because Cilijn is away to a funeral and I am too overburdened to run the whole place by myself, but still have to run the whole place by myself because there are so many bills to pay and no other way to pay them! That's the joy of being alive right now! Inflated bills from companies that are absolutely rolling in money! Corporate interests that threaten to sue the government if they try to cap their greed! Amazing! You have to marvel at the illusion that anyone else is actually in charge of the country!

So come on down (or call; you can and probably should call ahead) to Nanika and get yourself a bag of WHIMSY, containing one main, one bun, and two sides for only £16.00! That's it! That's all we're selling! And you don't know what's in it, just that it's food, and that it's good! That's the MYSTERY!

ETC!