Polite biscuits
It was Bunn who first introduced me to the concept of The Polite Biscuit. This is the lone biscuit - last of its once numerous kind - that remains untaken, because nobody wants to be the impolite person who takes The Last One. At work today, we have a Polite Mini Pink Doughnut, a Polite Mini Chocolate Doughnut, a Polite Slice of Cake, and a Polite Chocolate Chip cookie, all of which have sat there untouched for over 24 hours, despite the fact that their fellows were devoured with great rapidity. Doubtless they will soon start to look stale and unenticing, and will end up going to waste, all to preserve the taboo of the Last Biscuit.
Some months ago, our Morris side was presented with three plates of sandwiches by a kind pub landlord. The dancers descended on them like vultures, and within minutes all had gone... except one lone Polite Sandwich per plate. Eager to experiment, I discreetly united these 3 sandwiches onto one plate, turned my back for a second... and when I turned round again, 2 had gone, leaving just one.
In fact, so ingrained is this urge to leave The Polite Biscuit, I think it should actually be impossible to eat the second-to-last biscuit, since that is in effect the last biscuit that anyone can eat. So with this logic, we can just keep on working back through the biscuits, and conclude that nobody in a group situation can ever eat any biscuits at all.
And, sure enough, there is frequently a problem with the First Biscuit, too. When they were brought in, the cake sat there uncut for hours, and the boxes of doughnuts remained unopened. It was clear that several people wanted them, but nobody wanted to be the greedy person who dug into them first. You can see this very clearly at buffets, when a roomful of people sit there salivating as they longingly survey the buffet table from a distance, none of them wanting to be the first person to approach it. When some brave soul finally gets up and heads to it, there is a veritable stampede of relieved people, all rushing to feed.
The Polite Biscuit is a very useful term, but I feel the lack of a term to describe this reluctance to be the first person to approach a buffet table or cut into a cake. I also feel that there should be a title for the noble person who takes it upon themselves to be first into the fray, this saving their fellow diners from accusations of greed. suggestions?
Some months ago, our Morris side was presented with three plates of sandwiches by a kind pub landlord. The dancers descended on them like vultures, and within minutes all had gone... except one lone Polite Sandwich per plate. Eager to experiment, I discreetly united these 3 sandwiches onto one plate, turned my back for a second... and when I turned round again, 2 had gone, leaving just one.
In fact, so ingrained is this urge to leave The Polite Biscuit, I think it should actually be impossible to eat the second-to-last biscuit, since that is in effect the last biscuit that anyone can eat. So with this logic, we can just keep on working back through the biscuits, and conclude that nobody in a group situation can ever eat any biscuits at all.
And, sure enough, there is frequently a problem with the First Biscuit, too. When they were brought in, the cake sat there uncut for hours, and the boxes of doughnuts remained unopened. It was clear that several people wanted them, but nobody wanted to be the greedy person who dug into them first. You can see this very clearly at buffets, when a roomful of people sit there salivating as they longingly survey the buffet table from a distance, none of them wanting to be the first person to approach it. When some brave soul finally gets up and heads to it, there is a veritable stampede of relieved people, all rushing to feed.
The Polite Biscuit is a very useful term, but I feel the lack of a term to describe this reluctance to be the first person to approach a buffet table or cut into a cake. I also feel that there should be a title for the noble person who takes it upon themselves to be first into the fray, this saving their fellow diners from accusations of greed. suggestions?