midday
Probably ham and eggs or corned -- beef hash would have cut him off at ninety , and water from the tap in the Patterson kitchen was both clear and cold . It was not so much that he cared to live beyond ninety or so , but he wished to survive until things began to pick up on the Holden lot , and if this did bring him many more years , well and good . Further , if the woman in the casting office persisted , as she had for ten days , in saying `` Nothing yet '' to inquiring screen artists , he might be compelled to intensify the regime of the Ohio centenarian . Perhaps a glass of clear cold water at night , after a hearty midday meal of drug -- store sandwiches and pie , would work new wonders . It seemed to be the present opinion of other waiters on the extra bench that things were never going to pick up on the Holden lot nor on any other lot . Strongly marked types , ready to add distinction to the screen of painted shadows , freely expressed a view that the motion-picture business was on the rocks . Unaffected by the optimists who wrote in the picture magazines , they saw no future for it .