Today I have suffered an incredible and terrible indignity. Horrible!
I went to a pastors luncheon meeting at the local Golden Corral. Being a buffet, you pay as you enter and then find your seat. As I sat down and looked at the receipt, I could not believe what I saw! It said: “senior lunch discount.”
What? Just what was the girl at the cash register thinking? I happened to see a sign that said discounts for age 60 and over upon notification. So why would I get it? Why would the befuddled visually-challenged young woman behind the register give me this discount without even asking? Even though I had a birthday last week, I am FAR from 60 years old!
So, why do restaurants offer these discounts to older people? I think it is because they think that older folks are shriveling up and wasting away … that they can’t eat nearly so much.
So, my mission was clear. I decided they needed to be punished for their disrespectful indignity. There was one thing to do – eat in such a fashion that they wished I’d never shown up!
Goal accomplished! So take THAT Golden Corral! And train your young women to have better eyes for youth and vigor!
I looked at the stock market prices today – expecting to see a severe drop in Golden Corral values … but it is actually a private company … a poorer private company.
The Word of Randy 
Randy you’re too funny. They’ll be on the lookout for you next time…
Randy, this comment of your seems to be like an RFP, except it may be a RFT Request For Teasing, seeing which of your blog readers can tease you the most.
But in the interest of “Thinking Soberly” I’ll be very, very serious. I can’t help being serious because directly above the comments is a link your last blog post — THINKING SOBERLY–
I looked up vision benefits for Golden Corral employees — my search shows only management gets those benefits. Whose eyes are better, the “young woman behind the register” or yours can be an open question that requires more data.
Now here is the kicker … for you anyways.
Although the Bible does have much too say about overdrinking it also has several things to say about overeating.
49 ” ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.
50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
(Eze 16:49-50 NIV) So don’t go overeating and being “overfed” …
Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.
(Pro 23:20-21 NIV) So I hope you were eating lot’s of healthy stuff, and meat in moderation is fine too according to scripture.
Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” (Tit 1:12 NIV) Then Paul urges Titus to rebuke them “sharply” because the testimony is “true”.
In the Catholic tradition gluttony is considered one of the seven deadly sins. The reason that gluttony is included is because it limits peoples ability to be charitable. I’ll just post part of a wikipedia article.
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The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a classification of objectionable vices (part of Christian ethics) that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians concerning fallen humanity’s tendency to sin. The currently recognized version of the sins are usually given as wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
The Roman Catholic Church divides sin into two categories: venial sins, in which guilt is relatively minor, and the more severe mortal sins. Theologically, a mortal or deadly sin is believed to destroy the life of grace and charity within a person and thus creates the threat of eternal damnation. “Mortal sin, by attacking the vital principle within us – that is, charity – necessitates a new initiative of God’s mercy and a conversion of heart which is normally accomplished [for Catholics] within the setting of the sacrament of reconciliation.”[1]
To Catholics the seven deadly sins do not belong to an additional category of sin. Rather, they are the sins that are seen as the origin (“capital” comes from the Latin caput, head) of the other sins. A “deadly sin” can be either venial or mortal, depending on the situation; but “they are called ‘capital’ because they engender other sins, other vices.”[2]
Beginning in the early 14th century, the popularity of the seven deadly sins as a theme among European artists of the time eventually helped to ingrain them in many areas of Catholic culture and Catholic consciousness in general throughout the world. One means of such ingraining was the creation of the mnemonic “SALIGIA” based on the first letters in Latin of the seven deadly sins: superbia, avaritia, luxuria, invidia, gula, ira, acedia.[3]
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Comment Category: scriptural instruction, very dry humor (maybe), or just plain seriousness, or health, or taking your blog too seriously and commenting on something I should ignore? Gotta run my friend. Best to ya!
In the ultimate irony, I went to Ryan’s yesterday with a small men’s group, including a man in the army who I believe to be in his 30’s — and we all got a “Seniors discount”.
The first time in my life that I can remember getting such a discount. I think the waitress wanted to encourage patronage from some of her favorite diners, or maybe thought by giving us a break in the price that we would slip her a little extra money in her tip. (She was our waitress.)
Doesn’t it appear that the government gives out others money in exchange for a greater likelihood of being reelected?
Jesus gave a parable of someone who was generous with other’s money so that he could gain personally.
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Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions.
2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg–
4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 ” ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied. “The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’
7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’ ” ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied. “He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. (Luk 16:1-8 NIV)
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In this difficult to fully grasp, or fully explain passage … it seems that Jesus made a point about using money to make friends, and maybe he even drew a contrary point that being untrustworthy with a little might make someone untrustworthy with much.
In any case, the waitress(es) (at least in my case) may have been seeking her own gain, rather than strictly following the policy of the company and the company may have perhaps lost a few dollars of profit. I don’t know that anyone tipped her more generously for her behavior. I do know that no one else in our group, expressed any desire to bankrupt Ryans by converting dollars into pounds. [Oh man, you are going to zing me some day from the podium!] gotta run my friend.
Nah Thomas…. she just thought I looked old, because, well… I do look old, because … well, I am old. I’ve always looked older than I actually am. Never in my life has anyone mistaken me for being younger than I am. And, I’m actually only 2 years younger than their senior discount. I would have corrected her if she asked, and did not see the discount until after I had sat down.