Kitchen nose-pushing and the Gratitude List

texture · 11 Nov YDAU, ~2300h

• When: 11 November YDAU, around 2300h — Gately's late-evening head-count/Chore rounds, roughly an hour before the midnight fracas.
• What: In the kitchen amid the mess of Krispie-treat bowls and pans, McDade pushes the tip of his nose up with a finger so his nostrils face straight out and canvasses the residents piggishly about whether they know anyone whose nose looks like this; he announces he's "constructing a Gratitude List at Calvin T.'s tough-love suggestion" and has decided "one of the things he's grateful for is his nose don't look like this here," then moves on to squunching his upper lip up and asking about cleft palates. Gately, watching, registers his standing daily struggle against the urge to hit McDade. (Gately also finds, in the same kitchen check, fresh evidence that his wrapped meatloaf has a "secret admirer" — narrated adjacent to McDade's clowning but never pinned on him; kept out of McDade's record, see Dating notes.)