THEY TOOK THE MAY OUT OF GOURMET
They took the “may” out of gourmet, and changed it to “may not.”
When I was a kid, steaks were best cooked rare and vegetables well-done, but now people want it to be the other way around, and I am aggravated.
“Dried up old shoe leather” was the
common term for an overdone steak, and accurately so. Most restaurants placed
disclaimers at the bottoms of menus, stating that the establishment refused to
be held responsible for any steak ordered “well-done.” But now, except for very
rare instances, the carrier pigeon has carried that paragraph away, right along
with the equally delightful “Please keep children seated” admonition.
Vegetables were to be tender, not tough, but now, an entire generation of kids has been programmed to mindlessly chant, “Mushy!” at any suggestion that vegetables should have the consistency of, say, baked beans, rather than the crunch of a potato chip or the resistance of beef jerky.
All that I am suggesting is that we should have a right to choose. If some people enjoy desert-dry beef and teeth-breaking vegetables, fine. But those of us who still prefer a flavorful, juicy steak and delicate vegetables should have that option.
On the other hand, I suppose that I cannot be surprised that the masses are once again dictating unfairly to the rest of us; this is, after all, the same country in which they’ve taken the “service” out of service stations and rammed self-serve gas stations down our collective throats.
