Wednesday, September 5, 2007

No free dinners and lunches - corollary

Pigeon eloquently pointed out in a previous post that there ain't such a thing as a free dinner. This being my third consecutive week with way too many work-related "free" lunches and dinners, I'd like to expand on this point.

First of all; this only applies to lunches and dinners in which there is an obligation involved outside the realms of friendship. Even though one might be a cantankerous bastard and make the point that dinner with friends still ain't free because you either go to a restaurant or it's expected that you in turn make dinner at a later occasion, what you gain is more than what you have to put in (unless your friends suck, in which case you have more problems than the pecuniary to worry about). These dinners and lunches take place in your free time, but you have them 'cause you choose to, not out of a sense of obligation.

Now; to the other "free" dinners. Just to be all pedantic guy on y'all, I'd like to summon my vast skills in statistics and remind you that all events reside in a probability space between the asymptotic values of 0 and 1. Thus, to paraphrase Captain Jack Sparrow, a free dinner is unlikely, rather than impossible. How unlikely, you ask.

Imagine the Abominable Snowman milking the Loch Ness Monster to get milk for his pet Unicorn. I reckon' I'll see this about five times while driving to work before I experience a free lunch or dinner.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

So true bro'
Especially when you have to sing !!!

What's with norvegians and songs during dinner ?

Wilhelm said...

I'd like five minutes alone in a dark alley with the guy who came up with the bright idea of incorporating drinking songs and crap during dinner parties.

Five minutes and a power drill.

Anders said...

Well, you guys are lucky that don't have relatives that like songs about putting on false cardboard teeth, cardboard platters for ears and plastic cups for eyes. And then take photos of the whole thing for later enjoyment... I’ll take the “free” working dinners and lunches over that any time!

Pigeon, guess you've been exposed for the traditional song "Theodor", which are a Trondheimsk (Yeah, that's word. Look it up!) tradition, at least among the academics. Stand up and bang in the table (hard!) at the right time, and you'll be fine.

Unknown said...

he he
the guy who will see me singing is not born yet

Wilhelm said...

..bang your palm in the table the first time, stomp the floor the second time.

Monster throwback to when you couldn't say "ass" or even "rear end" in public.

Wilhelm said...

Big Poppa P: If the crowd is large enough, you can always Britney it and mime. If there's a small party or if the other guests are like me, you're screwed.

:-D

Anders said...

No need to sing, P. Just bang the table and stomp your feet. Unless you're at at party with W-master. Then you're screwed. Regardless of there are singing involved or not... ;-)

Wilhelm said...

....from the speeches, ya mean?

Anders said...

He, he. Touché...