Which Retief story was it in which an alien at a diplomatic reception introduced himself to everyone as the dessert for the meal?
Are you sure it was Retief?
In Adams’ The Restaurant at the end of the Universe’, I remember a talking cow offering itself and discussing various cuts… :eek:
The person who told me about this story insisted that it was a Retief story. He knew about the similar scenes in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and in Through the Looking Glass. He was quite definite that it was a Retief story.
I don’t remember any in which Retief does that. The series is one mocking of society after another, and is one of my favorite. I’ll scan the electronic texts I have. Maybe it’s in the story about metal and electric life forms.
I didn’t find any reference to the word dessert with Retief been it. I still think maybe they got the idea from the Retief’s War. Being eaten is mentioned in a lot of the stories, but this one has it being done throughout.
I’ve recently re-read a lot of the Retief stories, and I don’t recall such a scene.
The closest I can think of would be Magnan and possibly Retief dining with an alien diplomat. She mistook the shrimp in the shrimp cocktail for males of her species who had accidentally fallen in and drowned while trying to get a taste of the “pudding” (cocktail sauce).
I’m a little vague on the details because that isn’t one of the stories I re-read. I think the diplomat in question was a Grotian named D’ong, but I’m not sure. She’s the one who taught Magnan to whaffle, perhaps the only useful thing he can do that Retief can’t.