My wife’s sister spent a semester abroad when she was a junior in college.  Ann minored in French and she lived and studied in Besançon, a town south of Paris.  During the months Ann was there, first her parents and then my wife and I visited her.  During our visit, Ann took us to a restaurant that she had been to during the visit with her parents.  Because I could not read French, Ann helped me navigate the menu.  She pointed out an appetizer that her dad had gotten which I decided to try.

When the first round of food was delivered to our table, my selection for an appetizer looked like a 5″x5″ cube of Vaseline with an egg, pieces of ham, celery, and other items suspended within the translucent cube.  I decided to try it, and it tasted an awful lot like… a cube of Vaseline with an egg, pieces of ham, celery, and other items.  Trying not to show visible signs of disdain, I said, “Boy, Ann, this really does not taste that good.”  She then replied, “Yeah, my dad didn’t like it either.”

That is when I learned the value of additional information obtained from a good follow-up question: after finding out what my father-in-law had ordered, I should have asked if he had liked it. Read the rest of this entry »