I had Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Roast turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, a modest scoop of sweet potatoes. I begged off when it came to the cornbread stuffing because I?ve been trying to go easy on the carbs these days, and also, you know, um, it wasn?t actually Thanksgiving.
It was just a normal working day, and I wound up eating this festive holiday repast out of a flimsy takeout container at my desk. I tried to eat it pretty fast because it seemed as though the gravy was about to leak through the bottom.
In other words, I succumbed to something that?s become a weird sub-ritual of American life ? one that automatically precedes the macro-ritual of Thanksgiving itself: the Corporate Cafeteria Thanksgiving Preview, or C.C.T.P.
You know the drill. You go to work one day, and lunchtime inches closer, and you get hungry. You head off to the office cafeteria thinking, ?Hmmm, maybe I?ll go for the stir-fry station today, or I could try to impose a little nutritional discipline and stick to the salad bar, or if the Global Nation of the Day happens to be Greece, I could get some Greek salad and souvlaki ? ?
But then you float into the cafeteria and see this long line. No matter where I?ve worked, there?s always a long line for the C.C.T.P. Why is that? We?re all going to have the exact same meal in a week, folks ? why do we feel compelled to have it now?
Yesterday I did one of those cafeteria reconnaissance swoops where you sort of glide past a food station, craning your neck and surveying the spread. I saw the turkey, the stuffing, the gravy. I thought: ?No way. I really do not need a full Thanksgiving dinner right now. It will be heavy, I will get all sleepy, I have an important meeting at 2, and besides, we are all having the exact same meal in a week.?
Then I got in line for it.
I couldn?t say no. This remains inexplicable to me. Maybe the part of the human brain that is patched into the appetite sector gets so hopped up with pre-Thanksgiving cranberry-fantasia anticipation that when our synapses finally start to pick up the homey scent of turkey, we?re like mice in a laboratory maze ? we reflexively click the lever because we want the treat.
How do you feel about the Corporate Cafeteria Thanksgiving Preview? Do you tend to avoid it ? or give in? And do you have any theories on why this has become so prevalent in American life? What?s going on here?
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