The Professor settled back down into his seat.
The effort he needed to lower himself into the chair made me wince a little. I heard a *pop* or perhaps a *crack* from one of his limbs as he settled himself. I made a mental note to get more exercise and eat better.
"Now where was I?" said the Professor.
"Ah yes.... but before I tell you would you like some cake?"
I looked at the cake. It was a dense fruit cake. I had to admit it looked good.
"Yes, thank you," I said taking a slice. I would go the gym later.
"Well now, in the future they've managed to bottle the truth. Strange concept I know."
The Professor laughed his little laugh and raised his eyebrows to me.
"Yes?"
I replied. The cake was okay, pretty good by the standard of cake here.
"Yes, people often used it to win arguments, you see. For example I was talking to a chap about Humphrey Bogart - wonderful actor old Bogie - and that it was a shame he never won the Oscae for being the best actor.
"Now this chap said to me,
"'We can fix that', and he took down this little blue bottle - about this big - and then he said to me, 'Humphrey Bogart won the best actor Oscar for The African Queen' and drank from the little blue bottle"
"May I have some more cake, Professor?"
"Help yourself, my boy!" the Professor exclaimed, leaning forward and slapping his legs.
"So then we watched a little clip of Humph accepting the Oscar. Then this chap told me that he was the world press up champion, took a sip from the bottle and proceeded to do a thousand press ups in two minutes. He barely broke a sweat! Needless to say I was delighted - clapping and whooping and laughing... congratulating him."
This cake wasn't really sitting right on me. Maybe I shouldn't have gone for the second slice, the first was good but maybe if I had left it a minute I would have felt full. I always did this, thought I needed more food than I did.
"After that I did ask him about some of the implications of their wonderful discovery - what about children or people who wouldn't use it properly?"
The Professor smiled at me.
"Well, he replied that the nanny state was a thing of the past - and he said this was a good thing too, which I wasn't too sure about myself - and that it was only partial truth that they had in the bottles, anyway. The real undiluted truth was kept safe under lock and key"
"Oh," I said. I had definitely had to much cake, no doubt about it, and I was feeling a little tired. I'd go to the gym another day, when I was feeling a hundred percent, no use in pushing myself too hard.
