Recently I read (or saw on TV) about a chef, Brian Price, who has written a book “Meals to Die For” about his career cooking meals for inmates on death row. It has recipes. I am not going to read it. He prepares their last meal according to their wishes.

In Texas, a condemned inmate ordered two chicken-fried steaks smothered in gravy with sliced onions, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, a cheese omelet with other ingredients, a large bowl of fried okra with ketchup, three fajitas, a pint of Blue Bell ice cream and a pound of barbecue with a half-loaf of white bread. Then he added a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts, a pizza and three root beers. But ate none of it. Not a bite. (Too many calories, I guess.)

"Enough is enough," said Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, a day after the execution. "It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege -- one which the perpetrator did not provide to their victim." Texas prison officials agreed with Whitmire, immediately halting the tradition of letting an inmate about to be executed choose the menu for his or her last meal.

So Chef Price decided he would pay for and cook every last meal for condemned inmates himself, after Texas announced it was stopping the tradition.

It got me to thinking what I’d order if I knew it was going to be my last meal and it would be two Kosher hot dogs with all the trimmings, a side of Sauerkraut, dark German beer, and lemon meringue pie for dessert. That’s quite enough. Who wants to be offed with a stomach ache?

That’s it for the macabre.

xx, Teal