This got brought up in comments about the "What's on my Plate" tree, and Maren didn't know what it was. It's time you all knew. Brace yourselves.
First: a little history. In 11th grade Gabe Soll and I were partners on a civil-war era novella for our AmHist class. He did most of the work, I mostly proofread. One of the other groups got a failing grade when it was discovered that they had essentially rewritten the film "The Posse". I digress. Anyway, I borrowed Gabe's copy of Penn & Teller's How to Play with Your Food, and I never gave it back. Gabe, if you're reading, I'm sorry. Also, why are you reading, we haven't spoken in years - I heard from Chuck Moscato that you were a balding lawyer. Call me.
What the rest of you need to know is that the book in question is chock full of fun things to do with comestibles. That's right. Everything from "How to transport David Letterman's Watch into the Belly of a Fish" to "Stabbing a Fork in your Eye" (ask Kari about that one sometime - I did it at the Potomac Mills Food Court and she totally freaked). One of the tamer entries is "The Parsley Game." I quote:
"The parsley game is very simple: when Parsley, that useless biennial bastard nephew of the carrot family, is served on your plate as a garnish, you sneak it onto the plate of one of your dinner partners without being seen by the recipient. It's as easy as that, but, like chess, the possibilities are endless... The first few times you play the game, you'll win, but then your pals will catch on that you're playing and it will get harder... After a while, no one will turn around for anything."
So there you have it. Palm your parsley early, when nobody's thinking about it yet, and be ready at a moment's notice to get it onto the plate of anyone who looks away or goes for a drink refill.
6 comments:
i'd love to stick a fork in penn's eye. seriously, that guy has it coming.
but pass the parsely sounds really fun.
Now that my friends here at work are aware of the game, we played it at lunch today (happened to be at the American Cafe - unusual for us to be anywhere with garnishes). Josh got detected putting his on my plate. I put it back on his plate while he wasn't looking, where it remained until the server took it away. So score one for me.
This game is super funny, especially if you gang up on one unsuspecting sucker at the table (I have been that sucker...) Dave is very, very good at this game.
As for the fork in the eye trick, it's disturbingly freaky if you don't see it coming - it can even be a little mean if the person can't take shock well. But it's great if you're in on the joke. I didn't take it well, I admit, but that's because I was under extraneous social stresses that night at the mall, if you recall... If it had been just me and Dave (why would we have gone to Potomac Mills instead of somewhere more fun?), I would have more likely laughed it off.
We tried a variation of this the other night: Pass the Baby. You walk into the room with the small child, stay or awhile, then figure out a way to leave him there playing (under the jurisdiction of the other parent) and slip out the back, Jack.
Nice. We play that same game with higher stakes: Pass the Baby with a Dirty Diaper
Hey...this is Gabe...wtf, man? I was wondering what happened to that book. Chuck was mostly right...however balding is not accurate...bald is more like it (although in truth I do help myself with the aid of a razor...but as my wife notes, it is the best haircut ive ever had). where the hell are you?
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