you say you're full? please!
and now for a little something that comes up every thanksgiving:
about 16 years ago i was living with a guy named scott taylor. i was living as a full -time missionary in phoenix, arizona; and, scott was my companion at the time. the members of the church are kind enough to feed the missionaries and the people of arizona were particularly generous. i don't think i cooked a night-time meal in two years. typically, a family would have us over to their home for a meal and a visit. after a (usually) lovely meal, we would gather in the living room for a few minutes so my companion and i could share with them an inspirational story about sharing the gospel, or we might teach them something from the scriptures. it was a very fair trade. actually, we always came out on the better end of the deal.
one evening, a very nice couple took us out to dinner. we didn't often go out to eat, so this was a great treat. and they were paying? outstanding. the couple were about 40 years old, and without children. this alone made them unique in the lds church. they were also quite overweight. i'm not sure what constitutes obesity; but, they were probably on the verge. this didn't matter to me, but it lends flavor to the story. they took us to king's table. king's table was a phoenix substitute for luby's or furr's - all you can cram down your throat and keep down. well, 20 year-old boys who ride bikes all day long can put away a little bit of food. in those days i could really get my money's worth from any buffet. anyway, scott and i had been gorging ourselves for long enough to require a rest. our hosts were still going strong when we received the best bit of advice our young ears had yet received.
"when you think you are too full to eat any more, go get a small plate of cantaloupe. it packs the rest of the food down in your stomach, so you have more room to go through the buffet again." what beautiful words of wisdom culled from years of the buffet circuit. if anyone needed to go through "just one more time, " it was definitely not either of these two. we did not take their advice.
this story gets resurrected each time we take the opportunity to over-exert ourselves at the dinner table. the best part is that, by now, i am almost never the one to bring it up. i hear reports that the cantaloupe advice has left the confines of our family relations. hopefully my contribution to society will extend beyond this.
for the record, i have never ventured to verify the theory. first of all, a plate of melon is not always available; secondly, it just seems wrong. what if it isn't true? i will have destroyed something that is beautiful to me, and that can't happen.
about 16 years ago i was living with a guy named scott taylor. i was living as a full -time missionary in phoenix, arizona; and, scott was my companion at the time. the members of the church are kind enough to feed the missionaries and the people of arizona were particularly generous. i don't think i cooked a night-time meal in two years. typically, a family would have us over to their home for a meal and a visit. after a (usually) lovely meal, we would gather in the living room for a few minutes so my companion and i could share with them an inspirational story about sharing the gospel, or we might teach them something from the scriptures. it was a very fair trade. actually, we always came out on the better end of the deal.
one evening, a very nice couple took us out to dinner. we didn't often go out to eat, so this was a great treat. and they were paying? outstanding. the couple were about 40 years old, and without children. this alone made them unique in the lds church. they were also quite overweight. i'm not sure what constitutes obesity; but, they were probably on the verge. this didn't matter to me, but it lends flavor to the story. they took us to king's table. king's table was a phoenix substitute for luby's or furr's - all you can cram down your throat and keep down. well, 20 year-old boys who ride bikes all day long can put away a little bit of food. in those days i could really get my money's worth from any buffet. anyway, scott and i had been gorging ourselves for long enough to require a rest. our hosts were still going strong when we received the best bit of advice our young ears had yet received.
"when you think you are too full to eat any more, go get a small plate of cantaloupe. it packs the rest of the food down in your stomach, so you have more room to go through the buffet again." what beautiful words of wisdom culled from years of the buffet circuit. if anyone needed to go through "just one more time, " it was definitely not either of these two. we did not take their advice.
this story gets resurrected each time we take the opportunity to over-exert ourselves at the dinner table. the best part is that, by now, i am almost never the one to bring it up. i hear reports that the cantaloupe advice has left the confines of our family relations. hopefully my contribution to society will extend beyond this.
for the record, i have never ventured to verify the theory. first of all, a plate of melon is not always available; secondly, it just seems wrong. what if it isn't true? i will have destroyed something that is beautiful to me, and that can't happen.
posted by cm at 11/25/2005
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