# Dear work, potluck is not a 'treat' **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 4, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877 "2010-06-04T02:50:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2011, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/181 "2011-06-30T22:42:03Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > 1. Actually, pre-cut fruit is itself disgusting. Bring whole fruit, dammit! And you people, when there’s whole fruit on the platter, take the whole damn thing.. What if it’s pineapple? Am I supposed to put the entire pineapple on my plate? Of course not - you cut it up. Ditto fruits like melon. Cut that shit up. **Irishman** , I’m by no means religious, but something about your post seems … selfish, somehow. It makes the baby Jesus cry. People have been literally breaking bread together since bread was invented. What, do you people eat lunch with ebola victims or something? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/182 "2011-07-01T02:42:58Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > What if it’s pineapple? Am I supposed to put the entire pineapple on my plate? Of course not - you cut it up. Ditto fruits like melon. Cut that shit up. I’d say that stuff just isn’t appropriate for potluckery. If you have to pierce the skin, convert it into something spoonable like fruit salad. ---
**Author:** ![keturah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e95f7d/32.png) [@keturah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keturah)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/183 "2011-07-01T03:01:42Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > I’d say that stuff just isn’t appropriate for potluckery. If you have to pierce the skin, convert it into something spoonable like fruit salad. Which involves cutting it up, right? That is clearly objectionable going by the responses in this thread. As a matter of fact the idea that someone has ever touched the food seems objectionable to several people posting. How they think food gets into those cute little packages when they buy it at the grocery store is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/184 "2011-07-01T14:58:14Z")
Yeah, **Acsenray** , I’m all kinds of confused now. You yourself said upthread you don’t wanna eat cut-up fruit. Do you have some different definition of “spoonable fruit salad” that doesn’t involve cut-up fruit? Or are you just going to (politely, I hope!) decline no matter how it’s presented, if we’re all at a work potluck? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/185 "2011-07-01T15:19:32Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > What if it’s pineapple? Am I supposed to put the entire pineapple on my plate? Of course not - you cut it up. Ditto fruits like melon. Cut that shit up. This makes me giggle like mad. Plop! Goes an entire pineapple on the plate. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/186 "2011-07-01T15:24:47Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Yeah, **Acsenray** , I’m all kinds of confused now. You yourself said upthread you don’t wanna eat cut-up fruit. Do you have some different definition of “spoonable fruit salad” that doesn’t involve cut-up fruit? Or are you just going to (politely, I hope!) decline no matter how it’s presented, if we’re all at a work potluck? A fruit salad is a dish. It’s got citrus or sugar or something that prevents individual pieces from turning brown, etc. That’s different. I’m talking about taking a fruit that is meant to be served as a unit – a banana, an apple, an orange – and slicing it up in advance for people to help themselves to individually or letting people cut it at the buffet and taking only parts of it. Fruit pieces that aren’t already incorporated into something like fruit salad turns brown, it gets mushy, people feel free to touch it, etc. As Jerry Seinfeld said, “You know that sound you hear when you open a can of soda? That’s the sound of you buying a whole can of soda.” Same principal. If you break the skin on a piece of fruit, you take the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/187 "2011-07-01T18:34:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > A fruit salad is a dish. It’s got citrus or sugar or something that prevents individual pieces from turning brown, etc. Uh, no it doesn’t. You just cut up a bunch of fruit into bite-size pieces, toss it in a bowl, and mix it up. The only difference is in presentation. Which, I’ll grant you, is a perfectly legitimate distinction, but the fact that you’re bringing up something that doesn’t exist kind of makes your whole complaint sound a little woo-ish. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect that sliced fruit will be served in a bowl with a serving spoon, or on a tray with tongs, versus just in a bag where everyone’s jamming their grubby fingers in. Coming up with some bizarro pseudo-scientific justification for why you don’t like it dealing with browing, however, is just weird. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/188 "2011-07-01T18:42:13Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > I think it’s perfectly reasonable to expect that sliced fruit will be served in a bowl with a serving spoon, or on a tray with tongs, versus just in a bag where everyone’s jamming their grubby fingers in. Are you suggesting that I haven’t witnessed exactly that? Because I have. > [@](#): > > Coming up with some bizarro pseudo-scientific justification for why you don’t like it Are you suggesting that I’ve never eaten fruit salad or have never seen it made or have never made it myself? I’ve never seen a fruit salad that’s only fruit. It’s got sugar or mayonnaise or _something else_ in it. But none of that really matters. There’s a difference between (1) a dish made with fruit that is served and eaten just like any other dish and (2) pieces of cut fruit lying on the table that people are grabbing with their hands. If you’re serving nothing but servings of plain fruit, its skin should not be pierced by anyone but the person eating it. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/189 "2011-07-01T18:50:25Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Here is the series of posts: > > So you say, it behooves you to go to boss’ party and pretend to enjoy yourself. Yes, this is true. > > Same thing, right? > > Then, someone explains that sure, we’ll do it just enough to keep our jobs, but not enough to get promoted or go high up on the corporate ladder. > > So you immediately start talking about unemployed persons. NON-SEQUITOR ONE. > > But we weren’t talking about unemployed people! We were talking about people who are not 100% motivated. > > And…non-sequitor 2. We are not talking about unemployed people! You are deliberately creating a little strawman in your head and responding to it and it’s more than a little annoying. And you have a habit of doing this in at least one other thread, where we also disagreed…though that time you did eventually stop and read what was actually being said. **Anaamika** -If you’re at a job that has the possibility of advancement. why wouldn’t you want to advance? 😕 And in regard to bringing up unemployment, and you regarding it as a non-sequitur: we are discussing emplyment, so UNemployment is germane to the discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/190 "2011-07-01T19:22:08Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Are you suggesting that I haven’t witnessed exactly that? Because I have. I’m not being snarky. I mean that literally. It’s perfectly reasonable to distinguish between cut fruit that’s being served in a sanitary fasion (with a spoon or tongs) and cut fruit that isn’t (in a bag). > [@](#): > > Are you suggesting that I’ve never eaten fruit salad or have never seen it made or have never made it myself? I’ve never seen a fruit salad that’s only fruit. It’s got sugar or mayonnaise or _something else_ in it. Well then you have some fucking weird-ass fruit salad by you. Because I have never, \*ever \*prepared or eaten or even \*seen \*fruit salad made in this fashion, \*anywhere \*in the U.S., or Ireland, or Scotland, or Japan. Unless you’re thinking of something like a Waldorf salad or ambrosia, but I personally wouldn’t refer to anything like that just as a “fruit salad.” Maybe it’s a dialect thing. Anyway, my point is: you have a perfectly reasonable objection to food being served in an unsanitary fashion that is, to my eyes, made much less logical by your insistence that there’s something magically special about putting cut fruit in a bowl that makes it okay for multiple people to eat bits of the same piece of fruit without grossing you out. Question: How do you feel about trays of sliced vegetables? Assume there’s a tongs for grabbing them. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/191 "2011-07-01T19:23:50Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > **Anaamika** -If you’re at a job that has the possibility of advancement. why wouldn’t you want to advance? 😕 And in regard to bringing up unemployment, and you regarding it as a non-sequitur: we are discussing emplyment, so UNemployment is germane to the discussion. \*\* looks around office, considers others’ jobs \*\* Some of us work at jobs where advancing would mean trading a job we like and are good at for one we hate and suck at. I would seriously consider quitting if I was told I was getting promoted. Umemployment is kind of a non-sequitur in the sense that we were originally discussing giving up personal weekend time to kiss the boss’s ass. While one _might_ be promoted or otherwise advance if one does ass-kiss, it is very rare to get _fired_ for not kissing ass. Losing your job is not the same as not being promoted, right? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/192 "2011-07-01T19:30:34Z")
Dammit, **horseshoe** , everyone was doing such a good job of ignoring him. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/193 "2011-07-01T19:36:48Z")
Hey, you responded to him too! ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/194 "2011-07-01T19:59:15Z")
My junior year in college, the biology club had an end of year picnic and I brought a beautiful fruit salad that took me ages to put together and some rat bastards dumped Everclear into it :mad: One other girl brought brownies, which according to the recipe should have had 1 tablespoon of rum in them. She thought that was nowhere near enough and put in about a cup. The end result looked somewhat like diarrhea even after she baked it for an hour and tasted overwhelmingly of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/195 "2011-07-01T19:59:49Z")
Whoops, I thought this was the Pit thread. Nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/196 "2011-07-01T20:05:07Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Well then you have some fucking weird-ass fruit salad by you. Because I have never, \*ever \*prepared or eaten or even \*seen \*fruit salad made in this fashion, \*anywhere \*in the U.S. Me too. Fruit salad is pieces of fruit, melon and berries cut up into bite sized pieces and mixed together in a bowl. You use a serving spoon to put it on a plate. Sugar on a fruit salad? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/197 "2011-07-01T20:08:13Z")
Exactly. Fruit is sweet enough as it is. The idea of eating fruit coated in sugar is just gaggy to me. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/198 "2011-07-01T20:28:25Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > **Irishman** , I’m by no means religious, but something about your post seems … selfish, somehow. Wait, you cite a poster complaining that wasting food is better than sharing because he doesn’t think fruit should be cut into pieces, and you’re citing _me_ as being selfish? 😕 > [@](#): > > It makes the baby Jesus cry. People have been literally breaking bread together since bread was invented. Baby Jesus can cry all he wants, I don’t want your cooties. And you probably don’t want my cooties. For all you know, I lick my fingers or pick my nose. > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Uh, no it doesn’t. You just cut up a bunch of fruit into bite-size pieces, toss it in a bowl, and mix it up. The only difference is in presentation. Which, I’ll grant you, is a perfectly legitimate distinction, but the fact that you’re bringing up something that doesn’t exist kind of makes your whole complaint sound a little woo-ish. Uh, apples do brown if you expose the interior and don’t do something to protect them. So do bananas. Of course, one thing you can do to protect them is rub them with lemon juice. But it is a definite existing thing. He didn’t make it up. Fruit browns if exposed to air. > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Well then you have some fucking weird-ass fruit salad by you. Because I have never, \*ever \*prepared or eaten or even \*seen \*fruit salad made in this fashion, \*anywhere \*in the U.S., or Ireland, or Scotland, or Japan. Unless you’re thinking of something like a Waldorf salad or ambrosia, but I personally wouldn’t refer to anything like that just as a “fruit salad.” Maybe it’s a dialect thing. I think what he’s seen is cut up fruit mixed with cool-whip. Yes, I have seen that. Otherwise, the cut up fruit is mixed with the fruit juices (i.e. fruit cocktail), or mixed in Jell-o. Though the last probably isn’t called “fruit salad”. But mixing the fruit in fruit juice or cool-whip will cover the fruit and prevent exposure to air, which prevents the browning and slimination. So this is a factual distinction between fruit mixed in a bowl and fruit slices sitting on a tray. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/199 "2011-07-01T20:34:47Z")
> [@ugly ripe tomato](#): > > My junior year in college, the biology club had an end of year picnic and I brought a beautiful fruit salad that took me ages to put together and some rat bastards dumped Everclear into it :mad: > > One other girl brought brownies, which according to the recipe should have had 1 tablespoon of rum in them. She thought that was nowhere near enough and put in about a cup. The end result looked somewhat like diarrhea even after she baked it for an hour and tasted overwhelmingly of Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum. Okay, I LOLd at the diarrhea/Cap’n brownies, but about your fruit salad: may I ask what took so long to prepare it? Since **Guns** and **enipla** and I all think fruit salad = cut/slice fruit + put into bowl, I’m curious what your fruit salad was like, and if it was closer to what the fruit salad = fruit + other stuff camp thinks is right. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877/200 "2011-07-01T20:39:24Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Uh, apples do brown if you expose the interior and don’t do something to protect them. So do bananas. Of course, one thing you can do to protect them is rub them with lemon juice. But it is a definite existing thing. He didn’t make it up. Fruit browns if exposed to air. I didn’t say \*\*Ascenray \*\*made the up chemistry–I’m perfectly aware of the phenomenon and potential tricks for circumventing it. I’m saying that \*making fruit salad \*as I am familiar with the dish doesn’t involve dumping sugar or liquid all over the stuff. IME, it maybe gets an incidental coating with citric juices from other fruits, or otherwise it just slowly browns if it doesn’t get eaten fast enough. (Or you just don’t include fruits like apples.) > [@](#): > > I think what he’s seen is cut up fruit mixed with cool-whip. Yes, I have seen that. Otherwise, the cut up fruit is mixed with the fruit juices (i.e. fruit cocktail), or mixed in Jell-o. And again, that is not a dish that I would refer to as “fruit salad,” so, again again, it may be an issue of dialect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-work-potluck-is-not-a-treat/541877.md?page=11)