When he thought of something unpleasant, he remembered his mother giving him cod liver oil syrup, which was very good for boosting his immune system. He hated the taste. "You have to take it, it's good for your health. It will help you not to get sick. Open your mouth. Come on.“ Just like spinach and other detestable vegetables such as beets. Yuck. ”Look how it gives Popeye strength. Eat some more.“ Accompanying his wife to one of those endless social gatherings was his weekly dose of something unpleasant. ”Let's just go for a little while, my love. We'll say hello and then we'll leave. We'll have a drink and that's it.“ That ”little while" was always more than two hours of greetings, smiles, and conversations with people with whom he didn't have much in common. But that's how they had met. She was the public relations manager for a company he worked for. That day, he told her he had a bad headache and wasn't going to accompany her. She didn't want to eat canapés or talk or drink. She left alone and never came back. It had become unpleasant for her to live with a man she had to drag around all the time to do the things she liked.

Cuando pensaba en algo desagradable se acordaba de su mamá dándole el jarabe de aceite de hígado de bacalao, que era muy bueno para aumentar las defensas. Odiaba el sabor. “Tienes que tomártelo, es bueno para tu salud. Te va a ayudar para que no te enfermes. Abre la boquita. Vamos”. Igual que las espinacas y otras verduras detestables como la remolacha. Puah. “Mira cómo le da fuerza a Popeye. Cómete otro poco". Acompañar de nuevo a su mujer a una de esas reuniones sociales interminables, era su dosis semanal de algo desagradable. “Vamos un rato nada más, mi amor. Saludamos y luego nos vamos. Nos tomamos un trago y ya está”. Ese rato era siempre más de dos horas de saludos, sonrisas y conversaciones con personas con las que no tenía mucho en común. Pero así se habían conocido. Ella era la encargada de Relaciones Públicas de una empresa a la cual le prestaba servicio. Ese día le dijo que tenía un fuerte dolor de cabeza y no la iba a acompañar. No quería comer canapés ni conversar ni beber. Ella se fue sola y no volvió. Se le había hecho desagradable vivir con un hombre que tenía que arrastrar todo el tiempo para hacer las cosas que a ella le gustaban.