Yeah and I don’t spend time with those kind of people. Except on the 1-3 occasions a year where I must. I wouldn’t miss Thanksgiving with my family for anything, but there will still be a couple of people there who I don’t care for. I think the point of this article everyone is missing is that this is a day where you…

I don’t think there is a really polite way for an adult to refuse food offered on a meal. ( Refusing for a medical or ethical reason is another subject).

I played the long game. I hate mushrooms. Always have. I am 37 now. When I was about 12 my parents insisted I try them. I quietly threw up on my plate. Haven’t been asked to try anything since.

Two bites. I grew up having the two bite rule - you must eat two bites of every dish prepared. if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat more. It’s polite, it exposes you to new and potentially delicious foods, and it makes un-delicious foods more familiar. Sometimes the un-delicious foods become delicious with some…

You say mmm that looks great! Poke at it. And ditch it discreetly at the first opportunity. I’ve been there, before my grandpa was diagnosed with dementia, for a couple years before that his cooking was...haphazard.

This is very good advice. Anything that approaches “ew” or “ick” is rude as hell - even if it’s true. There’s so much available to eat at the big family feeds that are holidays that it should never be an issue to say, “I have plenty” or even say nothing and pass the dish. 

The larger the gathering the easier it is to inconspicuously pass a dish along without taking anything. I was always taught to take a small amount, at least try it, and if you don’t like it as expected, push it around the plate a bit so it looks like you’re eating it.

Can you stay at your brother’s house long enough to just let ALLLLL the gas out while sitting right next to him? This might be a viable way to communicate your discomfort and never have to listen to him blah blah blah at you anymore about the lactose intolerance.

They don’t work so well for me anymore. They will keep me from rushing to the bathroom, but I still end up with cramps and horrible gas.

Whatever you do, do NOT fake an allergy to refuse a food. You’ll eventually accidentally eat something with the magic ingredient in it and someone will notice, even if you don’t get called out.

So how do you politely get out of eating stuff with leftover eggshells in it, an expected insect, or a piece of hair in the food?

What’s sadder? The person who wrote an admittedly shallow book full of pop culture references, the people who enjoyed reading the shallow book full of pop culture references, or the critic who will not rest until he has explained in great detail how all the people who enjoyed the shallow book full of pop culture…

I agree. This isn’t one of the greatest literary works of the century, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s a fun read. It’s a fast read. It’s a summer blockbuster movie. Enjoy the ride.

Yeah, pretty much everyone who liked the book all agree it wasn’t anything great, just a quick easy read. I feel like no one has ever tried to claim this book is anything more.

Seriously. I’m a YA librarian and I can’t keep the book (or audiobook) on the shelf. It’s not YA (every library I know of shelves it in Adult, fwiw) but my teens loved it. They didn’t grow up in the 80's but they view it with the same nostalgia as Wade does. (Now, the 90's are cool again so you get to feel really old…

I agree. Is it going to be covered in a literature class? No. But I thought it was a fun, light read. It was SUPPOSED to be a list of everything 80's. If you don’t like that going in, you aren’t going to enjoy the book. As an 80's baby myself? Heaven is a place on Earth!

I am with you. Was a fun easy book. Nothing deep and complicated, brought back a lot of my childhood along with some that was before my time (born in ‘83). Maybe I don’t have the deep nostalgia but I know most of the stuff that was referenced at least. Hey, entertained me for a few days. Not a literary classic, not…

Yeah, it was an entertaining, light read (and I typically don’t enjoy reveling in nostalgia). I liked it too and my bookshelf is full of classic literature and more complex modern fiction because I like to be challenged. I’m not so jaded that I have to pretend to hate anything that isn’t highbrow though.

The angst this book produces in those that hate it is so baffling to me. As a child of the 80's I found it to be a fun, silly romp that allowed my mind to spin up memories of days gone by. Now the chic thing to do is tear it down like its Dostoyevsky.

There is little of the plot—or its entirety—that can’t be condensed to a Hollywood elevator pitch. “What if The Matrix was also The Last Starfighter?”