Review: A clever look at wasted money
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 23, 2012
"No Free Lunches" by Jeffrey Somogyi is a funny short story that can fool the reader if you don't think about what you're reading.  This has been on my Kindle for a while and I just got around to reading it and glad I did.Scientists gathered for the meeting of great minds to solve the problem of how to create a better shaped hot dog so that adolescents don't choke on them isn't as far-fetched as it might seem.  It shows what happens sometimes when government and science get their heads together over grants and also smacks of the millions of dollars that are spent each year on studies that make no sense and are funded by taxpayers' dollars.  In the meantime, the scientists consider all different ideas, but each one is put down by another for a specific reason. The scientists are blaming politicians for the fact that they haven't been able to change the shape of hot dogs for years.This is a convention of sorts, and lunch is free, so everyone wants to take advantage of that.  In addition, it's like most conferences in that there are other things to do besides the work at hand.  There is the pool, pay-per-view movies on the TV in the hotel room and taking in the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex.  After all, look at who's paying.I think this is a very well-crafted and clever short story.  It's satirical and humorous along with showing how time and money is often wasted on frivolous things.