I've never actually had a schwarma. I'm not even sure that's how it's spelled. But my brother waxed quite rhapsodic about them after one of his deployments to the Middle East.
As for the whole "A-B-A" structure of this story--two weeks doing one thing, two weeks doing something else, then going back to the first thing for the last two weeks--it's just me trying to emulate the Canadian science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer, the guy whose novel the current TV series FlashForward is based on. He always seems to structure his stuff this way...
If you'd like to read something else about which I apparently have strong feelings, I've got another webcomic review article up, this time on the SF webzine Strange Horizons. It's all about Maryanne Rose Papke's fine, fine comic Tile.
Thirty-Seven - Second Date
