As socialism crumbles (maybe), Cubans get creative to deal with the food shortage.

(from Zoetrope All-Story, Spring 2009)

After some inquisitorial sleuthing, chance hit unerringly upon its answer: At school one of the neighborhood girls remarked, completely off topic, that there was nothing to eat at her house, and then her father cooked a chicken leg like this for dinner. With this last comment, she opened her arms as wide as she could. The teacher pressed further, and the proud girl confessed that the chicken’s neck was also like this, and the heart and the wings were like this. And so it was discovered that the zoo director had fattened Pancho and served him on his familial table, as the girl just happened to be the director’s daughter.

What a great and sick little story. Or maybe it’s not a story but a string of vignettes. There’s the part about raising pigs in bathtubs, and crocodiles in backyards, the crazy part about fishing for cats on the roof. Oh, can’t forget the ostrich part. Loved reading this, whatever it was.