‘’My sister is extremely kindhearted and always makes way too much food. I told her that, next year, she should charge for takeout dinners.”
-- “My friend had provided all of the food for Thanksgiving, and the preparation for everything with the exception of the pies.
‘’When the dinner was over, a neighbor she had invited started carving the leftover bird. The hostess gave him a pie plate, thinking he would carve his portion of the meat and leave room on the plate for the potatoes, stuffing and vegetable to take home.
‘’Instead, he proceeded to carve away on the bird, filling the entire plate with just turkey meat. It was a large bird, 20 to 22 pounds. When the plate could hold no more turkey, he quit carving and took the plate home with him.
‘’My friend had intended to split up the remaining bird for herself to take to work the following week and to give some to me. What the neighbor left was barely enough for one or two meals.”
-- “My three sisters and I take turns each year hosting, but when one sister hosts, she always keeps leftovers even though she didn’t fix all the casseroles or bread, stuffed mushrooms, etc.(we brought them to her house). When the rest of us host, we share leftovers with each other.”
-- “We were asked to contribute to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at the home of friends, and I made more than enough soup for the 18 people who were invited. After the dinner, I noticed that the hostess put the leftover soup into a container for her own use. She had her housekeeper clean my pot and gave me my empty pot as we were leaving.”
-- “I was asked to bring a rather specific bottle of wine, which I did, although it was rather costly. Once I got to the party, I found out that almost everyone had brought wine, almost all pricey imported bottles.
‘’The party lasted several hours, but during the course of the dinner my bottle of wine was never opened. As I was leaving, I was shocked that the hosts did not offer to return the wine to me. They kept not only my bottle, but also a few others’ bottles that they had specifically requested us to bring. This, while others who attended and brought only food were allowed to take their leftovers home.”
A fine way to top off the day of giving thanks and sharing — squabbling over the leftovers.
These people are not starving, Miss Manners gathers; on the contrary, they are probably complaining of feeling overstuffed. They are not at soup kitchens, where they hope to stretch the holiday meal for an otherwise bleak next day. Nor are they at restaurants, where they may ask to take home food they bought that would otherwise have to be thrown away.
They seem to have mistaken the holiday for Grabby Day.
Visit Miss Manners at her Web site, www.missmanners.com, where you can send her your questions.
2012, by Judith Martin
Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS
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