This post has nothing to do with Thanksgiving.

You wake in a windowless office--there is a computer monitor a few feet away. Images flash across it: some are photographs, some are maps, others paintings, or etchings, some your brain cannot decode before another set of images supplants them. A voice conveyed through a speaker above your head asks you what you are feeling. "Thirsty," you reply. You feel a small but distinct shock pass through your body. It is then you notice you cannot move your arms, they are strapped to the arms of your desk chair. In fact, your entire body is strapped to the chair. "Try again," says the voice, "what are you feeling?" This time you give no answer. A second, more severe shock shakes your body. Again the voice repeats the question. This time you answer quickly. "Fear," you say. "I feel afraid." "Good," says the voice, "very good." Suddenly you are aware of something. You are hanging upside down, nude, under bright lights. Something large and strong holds you by the ankles. You try to wriggle free but cannot. It is hard to catch your breath. Something strikes you sharply, twice, in the buttocks and you begin to cough. Again you hear the voice. "Congratulations," it says, "it's a boy."