December 16, 2022:
"That's really terrible food," said my then-girlfriend's mother, watching me eat Fritos with lunch.
"I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call it 'food'..."
She was brassy, accustomed to a peremptory style of command in her little office queendom. I was uncomfortable, so that after a few weeks I left, whether on my own or by mutual decision I no longer recall.