John Wise

Up against the wall, almost out of view, seldom considered and often taken for granted – the electricity meters. As a kid, I could watch the little sliver of a wheel turn inside the box and when someone turned on a high voltage power-sucking something-or-other another, the wheel would race around and around, making me wonder if it could ever spin too fast. Today I am denied that childhood pleasure as meters are going digital. With an intrusive prong, the invisible meter reader whom I swear I have never seen even once in 43 years, is able to jab the meter to download the undecipherable codes blinking on the LED display. I want the silver disk back where it belongs.

With no regard to the warning not to photograph, make a recording, shoot videos, or otherwise capture images in my local grocery store, I threw caution to the wind, risking who knows what for the chance to bring you this shiny picture of the ugly, genetically modified, prepared and over-processed fluorescently packaged stuff we Americans call FOOD. I tend to make it a practice not to shop at these giant conglomerates that have become bastions for the boring masses, instead opting for small markets, farmers markets, and ethnic grocery stores where usually I get to know the owner and find great tips and good conversation from my fellow shoppers. But it does happen that I need something I can’t otherwise find, such as Woolite or that colored watery stuff we put in our dishwasher to stop water stains. Other than that, these stores are off-limits, just like Walmart.