Old Country Wisdom: Secret of the Soup BowlLiteracy Weblog)

Yesterday, my son Peter won a free dinner for participating in the library’s summer reading program, so my parents took us to Old Country Buffet (an all-you-can-eat restaurant).

While I was making myself a small bowl of ice cream, the older gentleman in line behind me looked around conspiratorially and whispered, “Go get a soup bowl instead. They’re much bigger!”

You may have noticed that in salad bars, the bacon bits and ham cubes are always in the back row… you have to reach over the crutons and other less expensive ingredients. I can only assume that the Old Country Buffet wants to save money on its ice cream, so it puts tiny bowls near the ice cream and hides the larger bowls far away.

And yes, I did get a few odd looks as I pulled out my digital camera and snapped these shots. But two of the people who glared at me were talking on their portable telephones.

Maybe they were talking to each other. “This is Old Country Special Agent Zebra,” one of them was probably saying. “We’ve got another one who’s on to us.”