[Sca-cooks] idiots

[Elaine Koogler]

Huette von Ahrens wrote:

>--- "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
><adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
>  
>
>>>Per Shakespeare: "Neither a borrower nor a
>>>      
>>>
>>lender
>>    
>>
>>>be."
>>>      
>>>
>>I don't think Shakespeare was speaking of
>>depreciable assets.
>>
>>    
>>
>No, he wasn't.  But it seemed appropriate when
>I wrote it.
>
>I do loan out my equipment to people I know
>and trust.  And occasionally stuff comes back
>ruined.  But in almost every incident, the
>borrowers offered to replace it.  I always tell
>them that it is okay, that it isn't necessary. 
>In my humble opinion, to offer replacement is
>the only honorable way.  With the one person
>who didn't offer replacement, I have crossed
>that person off my list and I will never loan
>anything to that person again.
>
>The two main reasons I have my own equipment in
>such large quantities is because I hate to be
>dependent on someone else's charity and a banquet
>I did where the church initially said I could
>use their equipment, but on the day of the
>banquet decided that it wasn't in their best
>interests to let us use them.  I, fortunately,
>am a long standing member of a church with a
>well equipped kitchen.  I was able to drive
>home and borrow my churches equipment and still
>had enough time to present the banquet at the
>published time.
>
>Many years ago, at a pot luck Christmas party
>for my work, I was put in charge of heating
>up all the hot casseroles using the only heating
>source in the building, a microwave oven.  I
>had no problems with most of the dishs, but
>the last one, a Corningware casserole dish filled
>with enchiladas, was a problem.  There was grease
>all over the glass handles.  I tried to wash
>the handles before nuking the dish, but when
>it was finished heating the handles again were
>awash with grease.  Despite my use of pot
>holders,
>the greasy dish slipped from my hands and fell
>to the floor and shattered.  The lady who made
>the dish was upset and started screaming at me.
>I apologized for the accident and promised her
>that I would replace the casserole.  This was
>on a Friday.  During the weekend, I went and
>purchased another for her and presented it to
>her the first thing Monday morning.  I didn't
>care that the whole thing was an accident.  It
>was the only honorable thing that I could do.
>Six months later, the lady came up to me and
>said that she felt bad about making me buy her
>a new casserole and tried to pay me for it.
>But I refused the payment telling her that
>it wasn't necessary.  I was doing only what
>I felt was the right thing to do.
>
>Huette  
>  
>
Huette, my dear, you are a rarity in this day and age.  I have had 
books, cooking gear and other stuff either completely disappear or be 
returned in such bad shape as to be unuseable again.  I now have 
check-out cards in the books I'm willing to lend out, and refuse to lend 
out those books that are either irreplaceable or too expensive to 
replace.  I don't lend out my cooking gear unless I'm going to be in the 
kitchen myself using it.  That way I can make sure I get everything 
back.  This after I lost a really nice large soup pot that I loaned a 
good friend for a feast.  It disappeared sometime during cleanup, never 
to be seen or heard from again.  The Barony for whom the pot was used 
never even apologized for the loss, never mind replacing it. 

One burned, twice cautious, I guess.

Kiri