On The Road

We did a Lake Tahoe drive by. Very hard to take photos on a clear sunny day. None of mine turned out - between the light, the glare, and my polarized sun glasses, I couldn’t really see a thing through the lens.

Somehow the conversation between us riders, two of us locals and a German traveler, veered towards genetic engineering. I don’t quite know what led up to this bit of conversation as I was sitting in the back seat looking at the rocks and trees as they passed by.

But this part of the conversation began with the question “What do you Californians think of genetic engineering?”

“Of vegetables or animals?”

“Well, nothing like Dolly … ”

“Well, we aren’t as against it as the Europeans, but we aren’t all for it …”

“The Americans are always trying to sell us genetically engineered mice …”

“Mice?”

“Yes, of course mice. You Americans are always trying to make us buy them.”

“Why would we want to sell you genetically engineered mice?”

“We don’t want to buy them, they’re genetically engineered and we don’t like that …”

“They must be doing some research …”

“But how many mice could they possibly need for research?”

“No it’s not for research …”

“How many mice do we try to sell to Germany?”

“Oh, maybe 40 tons a year …”

“40 tons? Of mice?”

“Yes you know, the mice in the field”

“40 tons of field mice? Huh.”

“Oh yes, enough mice for everyone …”

“What would a single German want to do with genetically engineered American field mice?”

“Oh we eat them!”

“Eat them?!”

“Yes, you know, like this …” and he raises his hands and makes a nibbling motion between them.

“You mean corn?? We try and sell you genetically engineered corn? What does corn have to do with mice? …”

“Yes! Mice! (Maize said in English but pronounced with a German accent!)”

Laughing that hard was not good for the driver, but we finally settled down. Every now and then for the rest of the four hour trip, when there was a lull in the conversation, one of us would start to giggle and then mutter the word mice …