Kicks and Chips (by K B)

What is that deliciously horrible smell? The cheapest fast food in Paris makes a great pit stop on the way to the neighboring sex shops as they dish out loads of overly saturated chips daily. There is a funny connection between these greasy chips and the local prostitution and pornography. The cheapness and unhealthiness of the fast food on St. Denis helps to build the atmosphere of the area and promote certain clientele. Actually, these Greek restaurants with the rotating animal on a skewer are amongst the most unsanitary places to eat in Paris. A friend of mine who lives in the area and has stumbled down Rue St. Denis on his way home after many a night at the bar told me, “The trick is not to eat all the chips.” It is ok to indulge yourself a little, just as long as you do not get carried away and eat the whole bag. It is reasonable to say the trick to pornography is that it is ok as long as you do not go all the way. What the sex shops are selling is like the greasy chips; it is something you feel is not exactly right, but oh does it taste good. But! – Do not eat all the chips. This extremity is one block up where the majority of prostitutes work their territory. Prostitution is finishing the chips; and this is bad.

But what is it that makes us as human beings want these greasy chips? The temptation of the prostitutes is greater than the reality of tasting them. I imagine a similar feeling must pass through the men who taste this not-so-rare delicacy as I experience after I eat too many chips. There is a feeling of satisfaction, but also of guilt and preoccupation with the side effects of my rash behavior. The accessibility of these fatty chips and pornography is also outstanding to me. In a country where trying to cancel my phone bill is more complicated than brain surgery, I can easily buy greasy fattening food that will eventually give me a heart attack, or sex with a random strangers just outside my door.