technically, it's dilithium crystals. it's only "antimatter" if you very loosely define the word "use," like our former president defined the word "is."

on thursday someone chose a stellar Question of the Day at the Star. i don't remember the whole thing, but it was something to the effect of:

what was used to fuel the Star Trek Enterprise?

and the answer was, of course, antimatter. no one would dispute this.

except for Crazy Man. Crazy Man has been coming to my store on and off ever since i started. and he has always been Crazy. he is probably in his 50's. he has long, grey hair tied back in a pony tail. he wears dreamcatcher jewelry, which makes me think he might be native american or be into that tribal kind of stuff. and it's weird, he will come every day for a few weeks, and then disappear for months, or a year, and then show up again. i have some hypotheses as to where he might be during his absences, but i will be silent out of respect.

today we picked a new Question of the Day and put up the answer to the Star Trek question: antimatter.

Crazy Man came in for coffee, saw our answer, and ADAMANTLY insisted that the answer was incorrect.

"Pshaw! The Starship Enterprise was powered by dilithium crystals, you boneheads! Maybe 'antimatter' in a very broad sense, if you loosely define the word 'used'!"

Crazy Man was extremely passionate about the answer to this question. it's obvious that he cares a lot about the things of Star Trek. and politics. he made some reference to how Clinton brought the definition of the word "is" into debate, and he likened that scenario to our poor usage of the word "used" in the question. a startling accusation, i must say.

i talked to Crazy Man outside for awhile a little later in the morning. he mumbled something about there being tornadoes and grapefruit-sized hail northwest of minneapolis this morning and that it was coming our way. grapefruit-sized hail would be AMAZING to watch... that is, from the safety of a very sturdy shelter.

Crazy Man seems like a nice guy all in all, but a little crazy. but then again, i suppose that's what people said about John the Baptist.