Old Abraham

Imagine strapping yourself into a chair that can swivel through 180 degrees. Now imagine 21 other people doing the same thing, all spaced around a long platform table. Now imagine being lifted nearly 150 feet (50 metres) into the air by a giant crane.

Now imagine eating dinner while you're up there.

And you thought I was kidding.

List member Tim D. gave me the heads up, and I've put a picture of the experience on my blog. My favorite part, though, is when they lift the grand piano with a second crane to provide some light musical accompaniment with your meal.

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Old Abraham was a poor tailor whose shop was next door to a very fancy and upscale French restaurant. Each day at lunchtime, Abraham would slip outside into the alley behind his shop and munch on his thin black bread and herring sandwich while enjoying the wonderful aromas that came from the fancy French restaurant's kitchen, whose doors were usually open.

One day, Abraham was surprised to receive an invoice from the restaurant for "enjoyment of food." So he went to the restaurant owner and pointed out that he had never bought a thing from him. "That is beside the point, m'sieur," the owner replied. "You are enjoying the food that we work so hard to make, you should be paying for it."

Abraham refused to pay and soon found himself in court, having been sued by the restaurant. The judge asked the restaurant owner to state his case. "Certainment, your honor," the owner began, "Every day, this man comes and sits outside our kitchen and smells OUR food while eating his. It is clear that we are adding value to his poor meal and we should be compensated for it."

The judge turned to Old Abraham and said, "What do you have to say to that?" Old Abraham didn't say anything. He merely stuck his hands in his pocket and rattled a few coins together. The judge asks, "What is the meaning of this?"

Finally Abraham speaks up and says, "I'm paying for the smell of his food with the sound of my money."

[originally seen in the Good, Clean, Funnies List]

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WONDER for YOUR WEEK: What's up with wine lists? Do we really have to be reminded that we have no idea what we're doing every time we go out to eat at a nice restaurant? Why don't they just give us a trigonometry quiz with the menu? (attributed to Jerry Seinfeld)

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