...Gabriel Garcia-Marquez told me this morning, "for today he gets to eat a hot meal in the midst of five-score slack-jawed graduate students." I thought that over for a moment; I thought to myself "This is not the same Colonel I grew up with." An older, wiser Colonel, perhaps? No, just slack-jawed like the rest of us.
Gabby always has a way of putting things into perspective for me. I guess that's why I let him stay in the bungalow.

While Gabby was fetching the paper (late, as usual), I flipped through the trade rag, and then the commentary on the Colonel took upon a whole *new* perspective:

-Variety, April 4, 1997-----------------------------------------------

asked Eisner, "So, you think this'll be a big show?"
The man rolled his eyes at Ted. "Let me spell it out for you. We will be bringing you an epic meal, constructed in 6 different kitchens from 7pm last night to 5:30am this morning. We also sold the rights to the story as a sort of 'Star Wars' trilogy meets 'Like Water For Chocolate'.
"Kind of like 'Merchant-Ivory Takes on the Galloping Gourmet'?"
"You bet." Eisner was getting revved into pitch-mode now. "We have 'Potatos Au Gratin of Loving Forbearance', 'Black Beans of Uncontrollable Passion', and 'Taco Meat: The Madness of King Bessie'." Eisner now got his arms into the action. "And, AND, we've got plenty of fixings. This is like Taco Salad meets the Rainbow Coalition."
Ted was not convinced. Although I was standing across the room, I know what Ted looks like when he's not convinced, and Ted was not at all convinced.
"I'm not convinced," said Ted.
And now Mike laid the hammer upon the wedge he had been so carefully positioning on Ted's resolve. "Of course, we've got ice cream sandwiches."
"When?"
"12:30, 8ai."
"I'm in," yipped Ted.
And the deal was struck.