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Desert Survival

by Craig Childs


Sonora, Mexico

The last cache is a metal ammo box stuck into boulders at the edge of a sand sea where I've been following a pre-Columbian shell-trade route across the desert. Sealed for a few weeks, it lets out a puff of hot air when the seal breaks. Inside are the remains of a bad run through an Asian market, some dusty bags of dried seaweed, some tiny petrified fish, their eyeballs larger than their bodies. Masticated fish are to be washed down with warm water followed by stabbing a gritty spoon into a bottle of fudge, because you always leave a treat for the end.


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Craig Childs is a commentator for NPR's Morning Edition and has written several highly acclaimed books including The Secret Knowledge of Water, House of Rain, The Animal Dialogues, and most recently Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession. He lives in Colorado.

Buy Craig Childs's books through Amazon at the LOST Store.

Articles in this Issue

Introduction, by the Editors
Monkey Head Soup, by Charles Lindsay
Barbarians at the Hotel Bar, by Edward Chupack
Desert Survival, by Craig Childs
A La Recherché du Cheese Perdu, by Brenda Peterson
Heaven on the Half Shell, by Andrew Beahrs
A Hog Butchering, by Thorpe Moeckel
Lamb Shanks Roasted in Paper, by One Ring Zero
Lemon Meringue Pie, by Alan Huffman
Making Sajur Lodeh, by Julie Lauterbach-Colby
Lost Meals, by Phil Buehler
It's Seaweed Weather!, by Wendy Noritake
The Ingot, by Edward Hardy
My All-American Bacchanal's Deep-Fried Remains, by Nick Kolakowski
The Last Supper, by Susan Buttenwieser
The Spoils Room, by T. D.
A Taste for Tonka, by Ramin Ganeshram
Recipe Cards, by Ted Weinstein