Judge Hodgman exposes his quaint naivete when he admonished Adam to "Stop bringing partly eaten pies to parties". If the Judge had ever tasted the sour cherry pie (for example) from Two Little Red Hens he would greedily accept any smidgen of pie offered him, at a party, or, indeed anywhere.
6
Reminds me of an old trick to assist in avoiding the nut bowl. Has everyone washed their hands?
3
I have been laughing and laughing over "I baked another pie for the party and brought a supermajority of it." It's a keeper--both as a sentence, with or without practical use, and as a euphemism that could come in handy one day. Thanks to Adam, Judge Hodgman, and Noah for this piece.
23
What about guests who bring a complete dish (pie, cake, entree) and then take home the uneaten portion after the party?
7
If the host wants the food out of the house and asks you to take it home, then ok. Otherwise, NO.
4
I am a firm believer that food taken to a party stays at the party; if you are leaving and need to take your dish with you, see if the person hosting has a dish into which you can put the rest of your offering. I only take the remaining part of my food home with me if the host insists—twice, and sincerely—that I do so.
5
Or guests who bring a bottle of wine and when you ask what they’d like to drink they ask you to open that one. Is it a gift or are they self-catering my party?!
10
In my work as a volunteer for a church making coffee for coffee hour, I often find people have brought remainders of left over desserts to church to share. For some reason they believe their breathed on, mauled and crumb laden plates are going to be appetizing. What is odd to me is that people do eat it. And I have concluded that's because the eaters believe that there was once an entire cake or pie there and what is missing was already eaten by their buddies on site.
The other problem is people put half eaten things in the refrigerator with no date or label. "Some one will eat it." Well, no. No one wants to eat stranger food they just find in the church fridge. But maybe Noah might. Where is that guy?
25
We recently had a post-Christmas party to which some friends brought salad, other friends brought half of a chocolate pecan pie, and we provided the rest of dinner plus half of a German Christmas stollen and most of a bar of chocolate covered marzipan to share. We were all delighted - and overstuffed! - after dessert. Now, if they had brought half eaten cookies or donuts, we might’ve felt differently. Unless the brother is spitting on the rest of the pie so no one else will eat it, I don’t see the problem!
27
Thank you for the important work you do with youth offenders. My wife and I are still talking about a dinner party we hosted decades ago where a fully adult friend brought a cheesecake and told us we could only eat half of it because she needed to take it to another party the next day. At least we got the first crack at sneezing on it before it moved on.
73
@Tudor City Crab
Yes. This is why you should never eat food at a child's birthday party. Most especially the cake.
12
@Tudor City Crab
Sometimes, one muses out loud or to one's self. . .have they no commonsense? And now time for prayer: father/Mother forgive them for they know not the terms courtesy, common sense or generosity. Just remember, we cannot make this stuff up, it writes itself!
1
@Madeline Conant Ha ha - you are so right! I remember looking at a photo taken of my 6 year-old nephew as he was blowing out his birthday candles on top of his cake.
The camera's flash has caught the saliva mist invisible to the naked eye from his mouth as he blew. From that moment on I decided it's best to skip the cake!
8