(WARM CARING MUSIC) .....
TR (ANNC): These are the golden years for Barb and me. Both of us have jobs we love. Rich rewarding lives, enjoying arts and outdoor activities. And each other. The kids grown up and finished with their treatment programs. The mortgage paid off. The pets finally dead. The house renovated. It's a good life. But the other day-----
SS: I don't know how to say this, Jim, but---- I'm desperately unhappy.
TR: I sensed as much, Barb.
SS: We have everything we always wanted. The house is beautiful, and we love our jobs, and the kids don't call us at three in the morning anymore, and we get to travel, and thanks to that article in Readers Digest we read, our sex life has suddenly become wild and passionate and a thing of beauty, and yet there's something missing. I'm terribly happy and yet, I feel strangely empty and unfulfilled.
TR: I think it's what we're eating, honey.
SS: What do you mean?
TR: Like so many others, we've gone in for ethnic dishes ---- one night it's French, the next it's Ethiopian, or it's Thai, or it's Canadian ---- and we've forgotten something.
SS: I know. But what?
TR: Ketchup.
SS: Ketchup! You're right.
TR: We're not eating as much ketchup as we used to, Barb. And ketchup ---- good old-fashioned American ketchup ---- contains natural mellowing agents that work to comfort people. That's why it's America's favorite vegetable.
SS: I love you, Jim.
TR: I love you, honey. What do you say we go in and boil ourselves a couple of wieners?
SS: And eat them with ketchup.
TR: Ketchup. For the special times.
(c) 1998 by Garrison Keillor