Dinner table conversation

[truepenny]

Pursuant to my reading of Doctor No

TRUEPENNY: When I am an evil overlord, if I must serve my enemy a hearty last meal, I will count the fucking silverware.
MIRRORTHAW: And poison the steak. Why waste a bullet?
TRUEPENNY: If you use a botanical poison, it's a renewable resource.
MIRRORTHAW: And ecologically sound.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I'm relying on memory cold these forty years, but I thought they _did_ count the silverware. Also the cigarette lighter.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, they hadn't by the end of Chapter 16. I haven't finished the book yet.

[heresluck]

Man, I've missed those conversations. *g*

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Also, many biological poisons are harder to detect and harder to trace. On the other hand, your sources for unusual items like arrow frog poison in nontropical areas is, admittedly, limited, and such sources may already be under observation by the authorities, and cultivating a relationship with teh crazy Colombian importers for odd little items like curare may be more dangerous to your health than anybody else's. Might be easier to have some junkie steal it from a local hospital.
What?
Why is everybody looking at me so funny?

[ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com]

And also, if you own a chipper, you can use the corpse to feed the next year's crop of botanical toxins.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

To follow up, now that I've finished the book:

As far as I can tell, Bond gets away clean with his swag. Either Dr. No and his guards don't notice, or they stupidly allow him to keep the knife and the lighter. They certainly don't mention the matter.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Evil overlords are pretty decent chaps, really.

They always give the hero a fighting chance. Which is more than the hero ever gives them.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Now that is thoroughly weird. False memories implanted by a therapist I _don't_ remember, some Evil Overlord's minion? I have this vivid scene in my head of either Dr. No or a servant counting the silverware after the dinner....

And your later comments about the Bond Girl are right on -- but nobody noticed that in those Dark Age times.