Amour Propre

In my last post, I spoke of my horrific experience with H&R Block. While this remains true from a financial stand-point, I must say, the man who helped me out had some amusing/interesting things to say. He was an elderly gent full of trivial information. The sort of tidbits that can only be amassed through decades of observation and mental note-taking.

One such tidbit came out when we were discussing my job at Olive Garden (remember, when getting you taxes done, past jobs tend to be the focus of conversation). He went on to give me the usual spiel I've heard a hundred times or more: "Oh, I love the food there." "My wife and I go there all the time." "The (insert appetizer/entree/dessert here) is the best you can get around these parts."

The interesting part of the conversation came about when he confessed that he could never finish any of their entrees. This, too, has been said to me many times. I offered up my usual response: "Yeah. They give you enough for a meal at the restaurant, and lunch the next day."

To which he responded (totally paraphrased obviously, but the point is still here):

"Well, a long time ago, back in the 20's or 30's, it used to be considered unsophisticated to take food home from a restaurant. So then people started saying they were taking the food home for their dog. That's where we get the name for a 'Doggie Bag'. [and he actually said this next part] But you have to wonder how much of that food actually made it to the dog."

It was one of those things that kind of force you to say "Wow. You learn something new every day."

Vanity has never been so interesting.