This, That, and the Other

The Uber driver showed up in a Nissan Cube, which was weird enough, I thought. But when I asked him to take me to the Plaza Hotel, I can only say that his reaction was one of anger. “Is there a problem?” I asked him.

He scratched his head and then picked up his copy of the local newspaper and pointed to an article about the hotel. “That place is a zoo today. There’s a big conference being held there of the world’s most renowned chefs, and the crowds are crazy. I can barely get within four blocks of the hotel without getting stuck in traffic for hours.”

“Get me as close as you can,” I said. “I’ll walk the rest of the way.”

“Are you some sort of gourmet?” the driver asked me.

I chuckled. “No, I’m more of a gourmand than a legitimate gourmet,” I said.

“What’s the difference between a gourmand and a gourmet?” he asked.

“A lot of people get those two words confused,” I said. “A gourmet is someone who knows a lot about fine food and drink and has refined tastes. He’s sort of an aficionado of high quality or exotic cuisines. A gourmand,” I continued, “refers to someone who is extremely fond of eating and drinking, often to excess. I call myself a gourmand because it sounds more positive than were I to call myself a glutton. But the simple truth is that I just really enjoy eating.”

“Well,” the driver said, “we all have the freedom to enjoy food, don’t we?”

“Yes, and that’s what I keep telling my doctor when he warns me to watch my weight every time I go in for my annual physical exam,” I said.

Written for today’s Three Things Challenge prompt from Di (Pensitivity101), where the three things are “anger,” “paper,” and “hotel.” Also for these daily prompts: Daily Addictions (cube), Ragtag Daily Prompt (scratch), Word of the Day Challenge (barely), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (gourmand), Your Daily World Prompt (legitimate, and The Daily Spur (freedom). Image credit: Georg Emanuel Opiz Der Völler 1804 from Wikimedia Commons.