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This month's Sk8J writing challenge:
And I agree, on the surface this is a pretty idiotic idea, whether you're a woman or a man. Ostensibly it's an exercise in indulgence, in feeling free to live it up, have some fun, go on, you can be extravagant for once, you don't have to politely refuse dessert all the time! The thing is, you can't eat all that by yourself; and if you can, either you really should not be doing so, or else the selection and portion sizes are both very small. This suggestion really is a McGuffin, just a plot device intended to create social interaction, possibly causing wacky hijinks to ensue. If you're by yourself and order all that dessert, you'll have to offer the desserts to your neighbors; depending on your personality and social skills, you may pull this off as charmingly eccentric, haplessly foolish, or creepily weird. No matter which, you're not really experiencing the desserts, you're just using them as a means to a different end. If you're with a group of friends, it can be fun, but it's hardly necessary for creating social interaction—you've already got people to interact with. And if you really want to mix dessert and wacky hijinks, forget this timid nonsense of ordering the entire top shelf of a dessert cart, step on up and have a pie fight and be done with it.
No, the real reason to order the entire top shelf of a dessert cart is because all of the desserts are just that good, each of them should be experienced. But then dessert is an experience, or it ought to be, one of sensual pleasure. And in that case ordering all that dessert at once is completely contrary to all sense and sensuality. You want to take your time with each dessert, and have enough room to appreciate it. What is its aroma? Is it a strong and bold coffee? Subtle and smooth vanilla? How about taste: cool lime, light coconut, luscious chocolate? Textures and other physical qualities: moist, dense, flaky, crumbly, creamy, chilly… Dessert is an exercise in indulgence, all right: it's indulging the senses, not your wallet, not your "guilty pleasures," not your whimsy. And that's why it's a bad idea to order the entire top shelf of a dessert cart all at once. Order one thing. Experience it. Indulge your senses. Enjoy it. Then come back another time and order the next thing. Work your way through the entire set of offerings. If you could get three friends to come along and order the entire dessert cart all at once, you're probably in the wrong place to start. You should be able to bring three friends, each order a different thing each time, and not have any duplication in at least four visits; it should take at least a dozen visits just for you alone to try each dessert. If you live in the Seattle area, I recommend starting at B&O Espresso.
At work we found a fairly idiotic "101 things a woman should do" calendar and have been laughing about it ever since then. Because honestly almost all of these things are incredible stupid, to put it mildly.My assignment: "Order the entire top shelf of a dessert cart."
So for October, everyone's writing topic is actually one of the items from this list. Fiction, non-fiction, go to town.
And I agree, on the surface this is a pretty idiotic idea, whether you're a woman or a man. Ostensibly it's an exercise in indulgence, in feeling free to live it up, have some fun, go on, you can be extravagant for once, you don't have to politely refuse dessert all the time! The thing is, you can't eat all that by yourself; and if you can, either you really should not be doing so, or else the selection and portion sizes are both very small. This suggestion really is a McGuffin, just a plot device intended to create social interaction, possibly causing wacky hijinks to ensue. If you're by yourself and order all that dessert, you'll have to offer the desserts to your neighbors; depending on your personality and social skills, you may pull this off as charmingly eccentric, haplessly foolish, or creepily weird. No matter which, you're not really experiencing the desserts, you're just using them as a means to a different end. If you're with a group of friends, it can be fun, but it's hardly necessary for creating social interaction—you've already got people to interact with. And if you really want to mix dessert and wacky hijinks, forget this timid nonsense of ordering the entire top shelf of a dessert cart, step on up and have a pie fight and be done with it.
No, the real reason to order the entire top shelf of a dessert cart is because all of the desserts are just that good, each of them should be experienced. But then dessert is an experience, or it ought to be, one of sensual pleasure. And in that case ordering all that dessert at once is completely contrary to all sense and sensuality. You want to take your time with each dessert, and have enough room to appreciate it. What is its aroma? Is it a strong and bold coffee? Subtle and smooth vanilla? How about taste: cool lime, light coconut, luscious chocolate? Textures and other physical qualities: moist, dense, flaky, crumbly, creamy, chilly… Dessert is an exercise in indulgence, all right: it's indulging the senses, not your wallet, not your "guilty pleasures," not your whimsy. And that's why it's a bad idea to order the entire top shelf of a dessert cart all at once. Order one thing. Experience it. Indulge your senses. Enjoy it. Then come back another time and order the next thing. Work your way through the entire set of offerings. If you could get three friends to come along and order the entire dessert cart all at once, you're probably in the wrong place to start. You should be able to bring three friends, each order a different thing each time, and not have any duplication in at least four visits; it should take at least a dozen visits just for you alone to try each dessert. If you live in the Seattle area, I recommend starting at B&O Espresso.
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