"Travis McGee" > wrote in message
...
> On 6/16/2014 2:53 AM, Sqwertz wrote:
>> On Sun, 15 Jun 2014 23:17:25 -0700, Julie Bove wrote:
>>
>>> "Sqwertz" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>> On Sun, 15 Jun 2014 21:54:50 -0700, Cheri wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> "Julie Bove" > wrote in message
>>>>> ...
>>>>>
>>>>>> I was asking about the beef that I bought at Costco. It was just
>>>>>> beef,
>>>>>> salt and pepper. Precooked and presliced. What could that gristle
>>>>>> have
>>>>>> been?
>>>>>
>>>>> It could be gristle.
>>>>
>>>> OTOH, it may have been gristle.
>>>>
>>>> I suppose it never occurred to her (or her family) that she could cut
>>>> it off, eat it, enjoy it, and move on with her life - rather than
>>>> throwing it away or returning it. But I'm sure there were a zillion
>>>> and one reasons WHY she couldn't have done that. So never mind that
>>>> somebody would state the obvious solution to a simple problem.
>>>>
>>> Believe me....
>>
>> I don't. I never did and never will.
>>
>> -sw
>>
>
> This exchange reminds me a lot of "The Peterkin Papers". This was a
> collection of children's stories, written in the 19th century. The story
> was always about some trivial problem that the Peterkin children got
> themselves into. They would try increasingly elaborate solutions, all to
> no avail. Finally someone would say "let's go ask the lady from
> Philadelphia", and off they'd go. The lady would invariably suggest a very
> commonsense solution to the problem, and everyone would be satisfied.
>
> I haven't read these in a very long time, but the one that came to mind
> while reading this was about how one of the Peterkins put salt into a cup
> of coffee accidentally instead of sugar. To try to fix the coffee they
> enlist a chemist, who suggests adding all sorts of stuff to the coffee,
> which, of course, just makes it worse. The Peterkins in despair consult
> the lady from Philadelphia; her advice is to just make another cup of
> coffee. Problem solved.

I do remember that story. And that reminds me of someone I know who was
driving his car. The windshield got more and more fogged up. I kept
telling him to put the defogger on. He was using his hand to do things to
the various controls, none of which was the defogger. He then snapped at
me, "I'm doing a variety of things!" To which I replied, "I can see that.
But why not just put on the defogger, since we know that will work!"