quite a few years ago I worked with the son of a company owner as a small printing press operator.
This particular son was not one of my favorite people that Ive ever come across in life, but I did at least get to observe some things with him that helped me just a little more in understanding human nature.
He was built pretty small, so his interest...'obsession'....with food didnt always make a lot of sense in my own mind. I dont think there was more than 30 minutes of any particular day that you couldnt look at him and see something being stuffed into his mouth...sometimes it was things that personally would make me physically ill, but apparently it was edible.
This is the guy who literally brings a grill to work because he cant wait for the evening to have something cooking. How he kept as thin as he did is beyond me.
He used to love grilling burgers and brats will all sorts of 'extras' tossed on. Ill admit that I did eat my fair share when the recipe was right.
Something that stands out in my mind tho, was his use of mustard. Dont get me wrong, I love the stuff on anything that it will work with, but he seemed like it was his favorite part of the meal or something.
So we had a big cookout at lunch one day...well, long before lunch, he had started grilling just after clocking in that morning and kept running outside every 15 minutes to check the oven, so to speak.
Most of what was on the menu that day was brats and sausages of one sort or another...and plenty of mustard.
Im not really sure how many mustard plastered brats he ate before he got the bad news, but my guess is that it was at least half a dozen.....
Well, I cant remember exactly how the topic came up, but apparently someone had started talking about how much mustard this chap put on his food and I remember him saying how much he liked it.
His long time GF worked there as a PT press operator/gofer and she was almost as fond of food as he was.
I didnt get to hear every word of the mustard conversation, but I got enough of it to understand that everyone noticed the same thing I had, that he seemed to be infatuated with the stuff.
So his GF says something along the lines of 'I just dont know how you like mustard so much when you hate vinegar".
I do remember the expression on his face at that point. It was a cross between shock, horror and anger at her for daring to blaspheme his precious mustard idol.
It was probably better that he had a mouth full of food and had to finish chewing so he had time to think before responding to her (he wasnt the most polite person in the world). But when he did finally speak it was to deny any possibility that mustard contained vinegar.
Im not sure why she waited until he was actaully mad, but she finally went out to get the bottle of mustard to bring it back to show him the contents.
Huh...'vinegar'.
Well, lunch was very quickly over and he didnt talk much the rest of the day.
After that point the man wouldnt touch mustard. I worked there a couple more years and there wasnt a cookout that I can remember after that day and as far as I know he declared mustard to be anathema...banished forever from the cupboards and REFRIDGERATOR....and death to the one who ever brought the vile stuff back into his presence.
Obviously Im exaggerating a bit, the man wouldnt know what anathema meant if it were shown to him in a dictionary, but his passion for mustard completely died that day simply because he found out it contained vinegar, which I found out he had had a bad experience of some sort with as a child.
This grown man was able to convince himself that something he loved just 24 hours before was disgusting and inedible simply because his ears heard something that they didnt want to know.
All these years later I think of how many things our perceptions have caused us to like or dislike... to believe or to reject....not because they are reality, but simply because on some conscious or subconscious level we choose to believe what we want to believe.
How does this tie in to anything even remotely relevant to anything?
Im not entirely sure.
It just seemed like a good story...
This particular son was not one of my favorite people that Ive ever come across in life, but I did at least get to observe some things with him that helped me just a little more in understanding human nature.
He was built pretty small, so his interest...'obsession'....with food didnt always make a lot of sense in my own mind. I dont think there was more than 30 minutes of any particular day that you couldnt look at him and see something being stuffed into his mouth...sometimes it was things that personally would make me physically ill, but apparently it was edible.
This is the guy who literally brings a grill to work because he cant wait for the evening to have something cooking. How he kept as thin as he did is beyond me.
He used to love grilling burgers and brats will all sorts of 'extras' tossed on. Ill admit that I did eat my fair share when the recipe was right.
Something that stands out in my mind tho, was his use of mustard. Dont get me wrong, I love the stuff on anything that it will work with, but he seemed like it was his favorite part of the meal or something.
So we had a big cookout at lunch one day...well, long before lunch, he had started grilling just after clocking in that morning and kept running outside every 15 minutes to check the oven, so to speak.
Most of what was on the menu that day was brats and sausages of one sort or another...and plenty of mustard.
Im not really sure how many mustard plastered brats he ate before he got the bad news, but my guess is that it was at least half a dozen.....
Well, I cant remember exactly how the topic came up, but apparently someone had started talking about how much mustard this chap put on his food and I remember him saying how much he liked it.
His long time GF worked there as a PT press operator/gofer and she was almost as fond of food as he was.
I didnt get to hear every word of the mustard conversation, but I got enough of it to understand that everyone noticed the same thing I had, that he seemed to be infatuated with the stuff.
So his GF says something along the lines of 'I just dont know how you like mustard so much when you hate vinegar".
I do remember the expression on his face at that point. It was a cross between shock, horror and anger at her for daring to blaspheme his precious mustard idol.
It was probably better that he had a mouth full of food and had to finish chewing so he had time to think before responding to her (he wasnt the most polite person in the world). But when he did finally speak it was to deny any possibility that mustard contained vinegar.
Im not sure why she waited until he was actaully mad, but she finally went out to get the bottle of mustard to bring it back to show him the contents.
Huh...'vinegar'.
Well, lunch was very quickly over and he didnt talk much the rest of the day.
After that point the man wouldnt touch mustard. I worked there a couple more years and there wasnt a cookout that I can remember after that day and as far as I know he declared mustard to be anathema...banished forever from the cupboards and REFRIDGERATOR....and death to the one who ever brought the vile stuff back into his presence.
Obviously Im exaggerating a bit, the man wouldnt know what anathema meant if it were shown to him in a dictionary, but his passion for mustard completely died that day simply because he found out it contained vinegar, which I found out he had had a bad experience of some sort with as a child.
This grown man was able to convince himself that something he loved just 24 hours before was disgusting and inedible simply because his ears heard something that they didnt want to know.
All these years later I think of how many things our perceptions have caused us to like or dislike... to believe or to reject....not because they are reality, but simply because on some conscious or subconscious level we choose to believe what we want to believe.
How does this tie in to anything even remotely relevant to anything?
Im not entirely sure.
It just seemed like a good story...
