The sad story of Sumanto
If spinach be the food of love, read on
By Sophie Elmhirst Published 03 August 2009 13:50
This morning we travel to Indonesia, courtesy of Papua New Guinea's Weekend Courier newspaper.
I think this might be my favourite story so far. I'm going to list the reasons why. I do like a list.
a) The protagonist is an ex-cannibal.
b) He's looking for love.
c) It contains the quote: I love meat... all types of meat as long as it's cooked. But I don't eat people any more. (Mostly spinach.)
I can see why some might not take to the plight of Sumanto. (He once dug up a corpse. And ate it.) But in the spirit of Second Chances, and New Beginnings, and generally supporting lonely, strange people the world over (one of the manifesto commitments of this blog - watch this space for further manifesto commitments as and when they occur to me), I'd like to suggest a general surge of goodwill in his direction. I also really like the idea of an ex-cannibal lonely hearts column. Surely My Single Friend could easily diversify into My Ex-Cannibal Neighbour?
Anyway, good luck to you, Sumanto. I hope you find love, and I hope that said love likes spinach (the greatest euphemism for flesh I've ever heard).
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