I have never eaten a durian, a southeast Asian fruit known for its distinctive odor and it’s spiny coat of thorns. It is said that inner flesh of the durian is mild, sweet and good to eat. Chances are I will never get to try one, nor likely even see one other than as a picture on a screen. Ah well. There are so many different fruits and vegetables out there. I don’t think any one human could possibly try them all, even if one could devote a lifetime to searching them out one by one.
I suppose that I can offer rather more hands-on testimony with regard to drunkenness, although I drink very little these days. With my diabetes, alcohol breaks down quickly into lots and lots of sugar, so I mostly avoid it. But in my younger days I did drink and more than once or twice did so way to excess. While drinking can at times be a lot of fun, being drunk most of the time is not in fact very pleasant. And the aftermath of having been in that condition is also well known for not being any fun. Then too there are the very much not any fun places getting drunk can sometimes lead one to visiting, such as police stations, jail, the hospital and the morgue. Most folks who drink don’t end up in any of those places from drinking, but it is enough of a possibility that one should probably think about those places.
It seems to me that death is perhaps the only certainty in life. The fact that for each of us, life here on earth must inevitably come to an end can either be terrifying or comforting. Or perhaps lots of other things, but the two I suggested seem the most likely to me. It’s easy to understand that no one wants to think about their life ending– and indeed many religious believers do hold that their lives will continue even after their body’s have died. But outside of science fiction, and accepting whatever heaven or hell may lie in store, it is irrefutable that some day we each of us must die. This is hardly a hopeful or uplifting note on which to close. And yet that is where I find myself this Friday afternoon. Here’s hoping the next set of words will prove less of a downer 🙂
Libdrone's Thoughts and Musings 
Oh, being dead’s not as bad as all that – just think, you won’t have to eat any durians! I am here to tell you that you are missing nothing, re durians, that is. Can’t tell you anything about death yet. Durians are disgusting. Everyone knows they smell disgusting, but I was made to eat one (in Zanzibar, in the open air). I challenge you all to name one thing which tastes delicious in spite of smelling disgusting. There just aren’t any. Tastebuds and whatever we use to smell with are surely interconnected – you smell wine before you drink it, and the smell is part of the taste. Anyway, stay away from durians, that’s my advice. 🙂
Thanks so much for confirming what I had thought– that the awful smell would make it impossible to enjoy eating a durian– some of the stuff online suggested that some folks don’t find the smell that bad, but there were enough mentions of “rotten socks” to make me leery 🙂