
Tacticslion |

The person who accurately predicts the destruction of the earth will not have the opportunity to celebrate their success.
Well, they will if it's after we've all moved off, and/or they're on another planet and/or other celestial body and/or synthetic habitat (simulated or otherwise).

lisamarlene |
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Ah, the inevitable "week before the event" nonsense:
After going around the Fake Russian to his wife to get a confirmation, then confirming with the restaurant, the Fake Russian had a sudden (and very legitimate) need to bow out. Now I'm waiting on his wife to find out whether to call the restaurant and drop one or two. (Honestly, 14 to 13 doesn't need a call, but 14 to 12 usually means they can slip in a table for 2 somewhere else.)
Similarly, choir director texted with, "I forget. Is my husband invited?"
Very amusing. I wanted to text back. "Nope. Nor is he welcome at the 1-on-1 after-dinner hot tub party," but I felt that might have been mildly inappropriate.
Still having issues with the whole, "NobodysHome is paying for dinner. Stop arguing," thing.
NobodysWife put it really well: You want to have a big get-together with your friends. Your choices are:
(1) Choose a restaurant everyone can readily afford. Which, when you're dealing with teachers, writers, and teenagers boils down to $15-$20 a plate, which around here is basically fast food or Chinese.
(2) Cook a giant meal at home. Kind of removing the entire fun of the situation, since you're working 6-8 hours just before the gathering.
(3) Have the home meal catered. Costs just as much as a restaurant, plus your house gets trashed.
(4) Have a potluck and have everybody hate you.People are just SOOOOO obsessed with money and fairness, when we all know that money isn't fair. All I want is to have a really nice dinner with all my friends and have nobody even think about what it costs. Instead, the whole weeklong debate leading up to dinner is, "Are you SURE you can afford it?"
If I couldn't afford it, I wouldn't be doing it.
And I'll shout out Lisamarlene as being a champ in NOT doing this. She listened to my arguments and said, "Good enough for me," and let it go. Thank you, Lisamarlene!
Anyway, should be a fun dinner anyway...EDIT: And I'll openly admit, Shiro gets that impish look on his face whenever I...
You're welcome.
But, to be entirely transparent,a) You are probably about the best friend I have, anywhere. (Well, you and the Fake Russian, but I see his wife more often than I see him nowadays);
b) You are Lawful Good and Do Not Lie, which means that when you tell me your reasons for a thing, I know I can trust you on it, so I've more or less learned to stop arguing;
c) I'm about to move 2000 miles away and I'm really gonna miss you.
(I mean, I'm gonna miss GothBard and the Impii and Hi and Shiro, too, but damnit, you mean so much more to me than a miniature crock-pot of Que Bueno.)

The Game Hamster |
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The Game Hamster wrote:Well, at least two free per customer, as noted.gran rey de los mono wrote:Red Bull should really open a chain of restaurants that serve chicken wings.Like buffalo wild wings?
Except affordable right?
giving and selling are not mutually exclusive. You pay and THEN they give.

Tacticslion |

Tacticslion wrote:giving and selling are not mutually exclusive. You pay and THEN they give.The Game Hamster wrote:Well, at least two free per customer, as noted.gran rey de los mono wrote:Red Bull should really open a chain of restaurants that serve chicken wings.Like buffalo wild wings?
Except affordable right?
Yes and no.
If you pay for, say, "seven wings" and they give you nine wings, and they do that every time, that's actually just paying for nine wings, no matter what the board says - hence the false advertising.
If you pay for a small mash potatoes (or whatever) and also get two wings, you're going to have an awful lot of people purchasing a single small drink or something else extremely minor - as minor as you're willing to go - to get those two wings for free.
And that's where the difficulty will lie: balancing things so you can stay afloat with all those "gimme" customers who only want the "free" wings, but not being so expensive that they don't buy anything at all.

lisamarlene |
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Orthos wrote:People on the West Coast view potlucks as a way to try out for both being a judge and contestant on Masterchef.Tequila Sunrise wrote:NobodysHome wrote:I'd rather starve and stop socializing entirely than attend another potluck.That sounds awful.
I'm not a particular fan of potlucks -- why does someone always bring some sort of cold carby 'salad'? -- but I've never had a horror experience like you describe. The worst that happens is inevitably one or two people go home bummed that nobody ate the dish they brought. Or not, often those are the dishes picked up from the supermarket on the way.
Pretty much this.
In my experience, potlucks are guaranteed to bring the following:
> Someone stops at KFC and brings a bucket of fried chicken
> Someone grabs a platter from Walmart's deli section
> Someone brings a pizza or three, usually from Little Caesar's or Papa John's
> At least two people bring deviled eggs (YUM!)
> At least three people bring salads that barely get touched
> At least one person brings a tuna-based dish
> There's either almost no desserts or far, far too many, never anything inbetweenBut the one thing I have NEVER seen at any potluck I've been to is open scorn of anyone's offering. At worst, people get a bit disappointed looking when they have to take home a full or mostly-full dish that no one touched. But there is most certainly nothing like the open, in-your-face dressing-down that NH described.
The one big exception to the "West Coast Potluck A$$#^T Syndrome" is the Standard Methodist Church Covered Dish Potluck.
Because a Methodist Church Covered Dish Potluck, even in California, is both humble and civilized, and even in California, there will be Pimiento Cheese sandwiches on soft bread with the crusts cut off, and three different kinds of homemade mac and cheese, and there will be molded jello salads with bits in. And no one talks smack, because they're too busy stuffing their faces with Nancy's lemon bars and Donna's coffee cake.

gran rey de los mono |
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gran rey de los mono wrote:Someone who gets straight to the point is often referred to as "being blunt", yet blunt things have no point.why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?
A driveway is a path connecting private property to a public road. It is literally "the way to drive" to reach the road. Since it is private property, you can park on it as well if you wish.
Parkways, on the other hand, were originally roads that went through parks. But then many of the parks were turned into stores and gas stations and whatnot, but the name stuck.

Vidmaster7 |
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Vidmaster7 wrote:gran rey de los mono wrote:Someone who gets straight to the point is often referred to as "being blunt", yet blunt things have no point.why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?A driveway is a path connecting private property to a public road. It is literally "the way to drive" to reach the road. Since it is private property, you can park on it as well if you wish.
Parkways, on the other hand, were originally roads that went through parks. But then many of the parks were turned into stores and gas stations and whatnot, but the name stuck.
Did you google that? you know it was rhetorical right?

gran rey de los mono |
4 people marked this as a favorite. |
The one big exception to the "West Coast Potluck A$$#^T Syndrome" is the Standard Methodist Church Covered Dish Potluck.
Because a Methodist Church Covered Dish Potluck, even in California, is both humble and civilized, and even in California, there will be Pimiento Cheese sandwiches on soft bread with the crusts cut off, and three different kinds of homemade mac and cheese, and there will be molded jello salads with bits in. And no one talks smack, because they're too busy stuffing their faces with Nancy's lemon bars and Donna's coffee cake.
Having been to far too many Methodist Church Potlucks (my Dad with a Methodist minister, so I pretty much literally grew up in the church), I can attest to this. However, it really sucks when you (like me) hate pimiento cheese, jello salads, lemon bars, and coffee cakes, and only occasionally tolerate mac & cheese. Just please, please, please, please, please don't let there be ham loaf. *shudders*

gran rey de los mono |
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gran rey de los mono wrote:Did you google that? you know it was rhetorical right?Vidmaster7 wrote:gran rey de los mono wrote:Someone who gets straight to the point is often referred to as "being blunt", yet blunt things have no point.why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways?A driveway is a path connecting private property to a public road. It is literally "the way to drive" to reach the road. Since it is private property, you can park on it as well if you wish.
Parkways, on the other hand, were originally roads that went through parks. But then many of the parks were turned into stores and gas stations and whatnot, but the name stuck.
No, just to be different I Binged it.
That's a lie. I googled it.