Order Up, It’s a Game

I know it’s a game, because I bought it.

I got it for my grandkids when they were young.

They loved it. We played it a lot. A review of the game

says it all: “Order Up puts the ‘short’ back in ‘short-order cook,’

but virtual cooking has never been more engaging”—think about it;

it’s a Monday, a work day, customers are pouring in

placing orders with little time to wait around,

maybe they’ve got a half-hour or so for lunch, it’s called

“fast food” for a reason. I once knew a social media

content creator who got fired because she took too

long a lunch break, she was “stealing” time on company time

they said so this is serious business, wolfing down a Big Mac

and fries is an eating skill essential for the average Jane or Joe.

In other words, this is nothing to play around with, except
in your spare time, on PlayStation. If you’re ever at

a Waffle House or other diner worth its name pay attention to

the cook who’s manning the grill, it’s a culinary operatic ballet:

Adam and Eve on a raft, 86 the Axle grease, BLT hold

the mayo, Blue plate special, Bowl of red, Tube steak deluxe,

synchrony in motion. There’s close to one million short order cooks

employed in the United States according to one recent estimate.

Most don’t have time to play games.

Afterword: “Trump visited a Bucks County McDonald’s to cook some french fries and work the drive-thru” the news headline says it all. In a post-truth world, deepfake, simulated, virtual has become an accepted stand in for real. If only Orwell was yet among us, he’d have a field day!

News source: Donald Trump works at McDonald’s in Feasterville, Bucks County https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/donald-trump-mcdonalds-bucks-pennsylvania-20241020.html

Additional news coverage: McDonald’s issues statement after Trump campaign stop at Pa. location

Howard Richard Debs is a recipient of the 2015 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards. His essays, fiction and poetry appear internationally; his art and photography will be found in select publications, including Rattle online as “Ekphrastic Challenge” artist and guest editor. His book Gallery: A Collection of Pictures and Words is a 2017 Best Book Awards and 2018 Book Excellence Awards recipient. His chapbook Political is the 2021 American Writing Awards winner in poetry. He is co-editor of New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust a winner of the 2023 International Book Awards. He is listed in the Poets & Writers Directory: https://www.pw.org/content/howard_debs