Liberty of Cooking

Donald Barthelme's "Cooking With the American Canned Good" is not in The Teachings of Don B., as I had recalled.  Nor is Pynchon's description of D.B.'s weighing and measuring short forms in his backyard lean-to.

My mother found me cooking without heat, one evening around six, using only canned goods, D.B.'s excellent article at hand.  I chose nine cans for my trial dish.  I cleaned and stacked them, marring levelness with the stove.  Deaf, dumb, and blind—I stooped to hear, where dumb means mute.  Reserve canned goods, she lipped to me, advertise in moderation.  Deplete no food without present hunger.  My dish was slut ("all done" in Swedish).  It tasted good though aroused no draft, of mutton, for example.  My grandparents' bed held flat.  I filed alone, in realist kitchen, reading Froeding, standing, striding, continent as gym.  "Oh, laws!" my mother suddenly said.

Gathering, meeting, affordable eating, characteristic of that graduate class.  Friendship.

My Three Studies with Can Contents (1984-1985) are typed in goose formation of the following words:

CAN

canticle
       candid
            cancer
             ash can
                   Candy
                       candle
                            Canada
                                 canteen
                                       candor
                                           pelican
      canto
          Canterbury
                   cannelloni
                            candelabra
                                     candescent
         cantaloupe
                  can-can
                        cantankerous
                                   cannabis
                                          cannibal
       canker
           cane sugar
                       canter
                            canyon
                                    cant
                                       cannon
                                            canvas
                                                 canoe
    canny
        Cantonese
                canopy
                     cantata
                           decanter
                                  American
                                             canal
                                                scandal
      candy bar
              can too
                    can you too