In his book Works Well With Others, Ross McCammon mentions a simple test he uses to clarify how he feels about someone.
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He asks two questions:
1. Would I have two beers with this person?
2. Would I allow this person to look after my puppy over a weekend?
The first question sorts out if a person is good company. The second deals with trust.
So, if it's a yes/no, the person's fun but you don't fully trust them; no/yes - they're a bit dull but trustworthy; no/no - dull and dubious.
Yes/yes people are true treasures.
I saw the test on Facebook, so I was yeah-nah about it, until I applied it to friends, family, workmates, acquaintances. It works.
I looked at the comments on the post and bingo! . . . The first was from a woman who didn't drink beer. She was fuming that she had been branded as boring. As a more sober commenter suggested: "Geez, maybe just swap beer for something you like?"
Geez indeed, I'm over people who think they're always being picked on. So, now, I'm going to pick on them. Unless you are a politician or a QAnon shaman, it's highly unlikely that everyone is having a go at you. Most don't even know you. If they did, you wouldn't be on their radar. Ever.
Here's how it goes for me. Stay with me, it's not complicated: I don't drink beer. I like coffee, tea, red wine, and bubbly. So I just swap beer for my preferred beverage.
The second lot I'm going to pick on those who post online comments about recipes. I have no beef with people who offer ideas about how they tweaked a recipe and it worked well. That's helpful. What's not, is when a home cook, let's call him Grumpy Gordon, leaves out a key ingredient (such as salt in a salted caramel slice) because he "doesn't like it" and then reports that the recipe's UTTERLY USELESS.
Thanks for using caps Gordon, and maybe stick to perfecting the idiot sandwich.
Then there are the self-appointed culinary authorities. I came across a few beauties this week while searching for a recipe.
As I'm a glutton for online show-offs, I always read the comments.
The recipe called for, among other things, a cup of jarred pasta sauce.
Mon Dieu! The haughty hounds were unleashed: "Well, you lost me at jarred pasta sauce," Niggly Nigella wrote.
Then, Michelin-Star Matt chimed in: "Actually, I will use my home-made sauce, thank you very much".
Imagine having a beer (or vanilla low-fat milkshake) with one of these funsters? They'd bore a goldfish to death, so there's no way I'd leave a puppy with them.
Here's how it goes in Adaptable Land: You don't like commercial pasta sauce. You prefer the one you made from scratch. Use that. It's OK, and no one needs to know that you are using your superior special sauce.
I made the dish with bog standard pasta sauce and it turned out fab. (*Five stars. Would make again)
My two pups loved it too.
What? I shouldn't give dogs pasta sauce?
Just leave me a reproachful comment, and I'll take it on board over a wine or two.
I really will. Trust me.
deborah.richards@newcastleherald.com.au
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