Food To Go

There's a ruckus in Texas over prisoners' last meals.
 

The furor arose after Lawrence Brewer, 44, a convicted murderer and self-described white supremacist, requested a last meal that included: two chicken-fried steaks with gravy and sliced onions; a triple-patty bacon cheeseburger; a cheese omelet with ground beef, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and jalapeños; a bowl of fried okra with ketchup; one pound of barbecued meat with half a loaf of white bread; three fajitas; a meat-lover’s pizza; one pint of Blue Bell Ice Cream; a slab of peanut-butter fudge with crushed peanuts; and three root beers.

When it was ready, Brewer decided not to eat it.  Recognizing that no one ever lost a vote making life tougher for inmates, State Senator John Whitmire, a Democrat, has demanded prisons stop granting these requests.  "He is a bad person who I don’t believe the state should be giving special conditions.” But they are giving him special conditions--they're killing him.  Besides, even in Texas last meals can't be that big a cost.

Anyway, the whole story sounds odd when we find this out later:

The most popular requests have been hamburgers [...] Prison cooks have tried to honor all requests [...] -- if not in quantity, then in quality. For instance, Brewer requested a pound of barbecue, but received a smaller amount. Unreasonable food requests are not honored [...]. For instance, an inmate would not be given a Big Mac.

The story further notes no one gets T-bone steaks or crab.  So Brewer couldn't have gotten that much. (BTW, a Big Mac is considered unreasonable?  Is there any food request in the world easier to get?)

I'm not sure when the whole concept of the last meal started (though I once heard that its origin deals with feeding someone well so he won't come back and haunt you). When you think about it, it's a strange tradition.  I mean it's nice to let a prisoner eat whatever he'd like, but it's not so nice to kill him the next day.

Anyway, who wants to be hanged, or gassed, or electrocuted, or shot, on a full stomach?  If I knew I was going the next day, I'm sure whatever I ate would taste like ashes.  Now a nice meal well before my execution--that would work.  How about an annual "last meal" day where the condemned can create their own menu?  Their execution is still far enough away that they can enjoy it.  But a big, tasty meal the night before?  Give it to the guards, who need to keep up their strength.

PS  Here's a blog that lists what the condemned are eating these days.