When taking a job at any Dairy Queen across the country, you are handed a manual describing the technique behind the perfect “ball and curl” ice cream cone.  What you are not told is that the technique is garbage and there is no such thing as a perfect ball and curl ice cream cone.  There are many Frankenstein’s Monster-type cones which are worthy attempts at the real thing, but never quite live up to the manual’s description.  I noticed, though, as I read through the manual one more time just to make sure I wasn’t missing something, that the manual itself was photocopied from a book that could have been published in the same year as the Hollywood blacklist.  In fact, I am convinced the last perfect ball and curl ice cream cone was made by the Dairy Queen herself who, just before being arrested and charged with being a damn Commie, burned the secret.  What I had before me, was a lie and a fantasy.