"John the Butcher"

Here Palm playfully allegorizes the daily travails of Jim Larsen, hard working restauranteur, with a deft classical hand. Not as easy to slay, perhaps, were the devils that plagued Jim's friendship with Palm, that is, Palm's moods and sharp temper, his frequent crashes into despair. But they loved each other, these two radically different men. Perhaps it's not so difficult to see why. Olaf always came back to the comforts of Jim the way one returns to the comfort of home, whether real or imagined. Jim the family man, the well-loved and successful restauranteur, earned Olaf's respect and trust. In return Olaf - the gypsy, the drama king, the tempermental artist with scandalous adventures to brag about - probably offered Jim some vicarious fun. One could say, in the best sense, the two friends deserved one another.