So I’m here at work, and just left my desk for a brief little meeting, and when I returned, there was a bottle labeled “Homemade Bailey’s Irish Cream” (and filled with something that looks pretty much like Irish Cream) on my desk.
No card, no note, no nothin’.
I’ve asked around my immediate vicinity, and nobody’s owning up.
Would you drink it?
Would you drink it NOW and maybe make the rest of the day a little bit more fun? 
I think I’d be a little cautious ingesting something from a wholly unknown source.
Yep. All I have to go on is that it’s most likely someone who works here and I don’t think anyone has it out for me . . .
Most likely I’ll shove it in the back of the fridge and forget about it for three months. But I can’t help wondering if whoever left it (and nobody else around her seems to have gotten one) expects me to know who s/he is based on some past conversation or “in-joke” that I’ve forgotten.
(Of course, who’d go to the trouble of making homemade Bailey’s just for me, based on one conversation?)
Let the bum on the corner try it first. But don’t throw it away. Home-made Irish Cream can be wonderful. Our gifts of the elixer have become legendary among our friends.
There’s a guy at my wife’s work who gives out bottles of his homemade barbecue sauce for gifts. No one actually eats it. I’d be wary of any food item of unknown origin, especially something alcoholic.
So it was YOU . . . ? Well, gee, thanks . . . But I didn’t get YOU anything.
Yes you did. You didn’t comment on the fact that I can’t spell elixir. And I haven’t even had any yet! :smack:
I grew up with a dad who never ate anyone else’s food at potluck events (he’d usually bring something that could constitute an entire meal in itself), and I see myself starting to become one of those people. I’m not sure how happy I am about that.
(He also ate at very few restaurants, because he did a stint as a restaurant inspector; that’s an issue I *don’t * see myself developing anytime soon, which is ironic since there you’re usually dealing with complete strangers cooking and serving your food, whereas at a potluck you can at least look around and see who did the cookin’.)
Well, then, Happy Hollidays to you!
You could pour some in the coffee pot and see if anyone becomes ill.
If they meant well, where’s the card?
Just to gross you out, there was a similar thread which mentioned putting substances produced naturally by the body in a labelled bottle…
Best suggestion so far. 
DRINK IT!
As if someone would leave something on your desk that was harmful.
I HATE that.
Make like you drank it and in 5 minutes dash to the restroom. Whoever idiot is waiting when you come out, that was it.
Well, at least it wasn’t a bottle of homemade salad dressing.
You don’t work in a school, do you?
Say, I made some of that two nights ago.
It was fantastic, but I don’t see sharing it without taking the credit for it. Still, I’d at least try it; Irish Cream, man!
So do you actually notice which people at the potluck don’t take a sampling of different items? (I’m genuinely asking - no snark intended.) About the only thing I notice is whether the item I brought seems to be going quickly or getting ignored/avoided, and maybe which of the people in my vicinity are trying it. But I’m myopic that way. My point is, although I do try to take a little bit of everything that looks good to me at a potluck, I’m wondering if a lot of people will notice if I DO one day become my dad.
I probably wouldn’t notice.
But, that’s not what I hate.
What I hate is the worldview that that represents. . .a worldview where one imagines that there are just tons of things out there waiting to get you, perhaps lurking in the food that “others” brought to a potluck.
I imagine that your dad (and maybe you, if you’re like him) was a guy who was worried about “Bird Flu”.
Yeah, that Bird Flu. . .the media darling that killed about 60 people out of 6 billion worldwide, and killed exactly zero people in the United States.
It’s not exactly “negativity”, but it’s a sort of “fear-negativity” that I find really unappealing.
(I don’t know enough about you to say whether you really exhibit that quality. I’m just saying that that is a quality I don’t like)
I hear you. I actually didn’t worry about Bird Flu (nor did my dad, who passed away in 1996), and generally don’t get alarmist about things like bad spinach, or eating at Taco Bell because of news items.
But WOW, is that my family. When I was a teenager and wanted to get a job (ca.1986), my mom nixed restaurant work because she was afraid I’d get AIDS from touching people’s dirty dishes.
When West Nile became an issue a couple of years back, my sister freaked out that I still walked my dog every morning that summer.
So yes. I hear you.
For my dad and the potluck, however, I don’t think it was a fear that other peoples’ food would make him sick; rather, merely the idea that they may have (unintentionally) done something that he’d consider gross/unsanitary while making it, like dropping something on the floor and then putting it back into the soup, or letting the cat lick the cake spoon.
Same theory, slightly different twist, I guess.
Yeah, I don’t ‘hate’ that exactly, but I do find it sad that someone would be so suspicious or afraid that they couldn’t enjoy food that other people they presumably know would cook for them and others at a gathering.
Maybe I’m just too trusting, but I’ll eat the homemade food that my husband’s students give him for Christmas (he’s an 8th grade teacher) too. I know some teachers who will automatically throw out any food their students give them, which I think is a real shame. While I know there have been cases publicized in the media of kids who have tried to spike a teacher’s coffee and such, I think that’s a rare exception - and the fact that most of my husband’s presents come beautifully made and wrapped, I think, shows that there’s parental involvement in it and I don’t feel that it is unsafe for a second.
In your case, though, auntie em, it is a bit weird that there’s no card or anything and I probably would want to find out who gave me the bottle first, if for no other reason than to thank them (especially if it turned out to be good stuff :)).