On Wed, 06 Sep 2006 20:07:25 GMT, Margaret Suran
> wrote:
>
>
>What would you do under these circumstances? You invited three other
>couples for dinner and Bridge. You prepared a nice dinner for eight,
>chopped liver with black radish slices, consommé with Fridatten,
>roasted duck with bread dumplings and red cabbage, beer or wine or
>water with lemon slices, dessert, cheese, fruit, you know, the whole deal.
>
<snip story>
>
>The woman continued, "I knew you would not mind".
>
>Well, I did mind. The table was set for eight. There was barely
>enough room for that many. There was no extra chopped liver, I had
>made it from the duck livers and there was just enough for eight
>portions. I had only the eight pieces of duckling, each just enough
>for one person, not enough for more. If everything had not been on
>plates, I might have been able to manage, but there was nothing I
>could do or say.
>
>We crammed two more chairs and settings around and on the table.
>Erich and I gave our dinners to the uninvited guests.
>
>There was enough soup. There was enough dessert. While the rest
>played Bridge after dinner, Erich and I cleaned up, washed dishes and
>scrounged for more food for ourselves.
>
>There was no apology from the invited couple. No "thank you" from the
>uninvited couple. We never invited either couple again, but I feel to
>this day, that there should have been something I could have done.
>
>How would you have handled this?

If they were good friends, I would have scraped all the chopped liver
into a communal bowl, cut the duck into smaller pieces, ordered
Chinese to fill in the gap and never let them forget what they did
because I'd razz them (with a huge smile on my face) at every
possible opportunity.

If they were not good friends, I would have done all the above except
razz them for the rest of their lives, because they would be crossed
off my list of people to socialize with in the future.