Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 24, 2023

Oh it is too being sweet!

We have reached a happy compromise. My Janis will only accept the better cut if it is the smaller portion.

It’s patriarchal conditioning inflicted upon daughters and passed on thru generations…what a load of codswallop, eh?

Well, it’s sweet when I do it.

Janis has a smaller body and needs fewer calories, but she exercises more.

Said the lioness to the lion.

Since when does smaller equate to ‘inferior’?

That makes sense to me. Our relationships with our spouses partially date back to our first meeting. We can change anything we agree to as time goes by but we rarely actually do that without a particular reason. Now we each have our unspoken responsibilities; she feeds her dogs and takes them to the vet but I I clean up after them. All social arrangements fall on her; I keep toilet paper supplied. So it goes….

She does it because she loves him — not that hard to understand.

Plus the fact that I burn 2600-2700 calories per day compared to maybe 1500-1600 calorie burn for my wife. Thus my wife insist on giving me a larger portion.

Well, I am the one that keeps the house stocked with her Mich Golden Light…

On the other hand, maybe Arlo has a huge life insurance policy. Double indemnity for death by heart disease.

WHAT’S A CODSWALLOP. WHAT A BLOODY AWFUL WORD!

My wife gives me the bigger portion, I give her the best one.

A Porterhouse steak is basically the same as a T-Bone,. It simply is determined by the size of the smaller cut of meat below the bone. The larger cut is really NY Strip and the smaller piece is Filet Migon. So when she takes the smaller piece of the steak, she got the best part.

Did anyone else have one of those Dad’s that complained at every mealtime that he wasn’t getting the best? Or something else was wrong with the meal? Those were also the days when children at the table did not speak unless requested to speak.

Happens at our house too. Seems to work just fine, we’re both portly.

Condition behavior? Kinda like when a man opens a door for a woman?

If we have a 20 cut of meat, my wife will give me the whole thing, preferring mukimame salad. No, I don’t understand it either.

I always used to give my late husband the largest piece; he used to put half back into my plate, and it eventually went into the garbage, because neither of us had the appetite to eat it.

Sheesh, people… two things:1- Men tend to require more calories than women… that’s science2- It’s just plain polite to give others the better portion than you give yourself… that’s social

It should be ingrained to ALL to be nice to others and to be humble. If everyone thought to keep the best only for themselves, “Me first, always”, society would crumble.

It’s got nothing to do with Karens screeching “Patriarchy!!” B.S. … it’s got to do with being a decent human being and caring for others. Period.

My mom told me several times in her last few years about how, when they were young & struggling, she’d make bacon sandwiches for dinner; she gave him the bacon, and spread bacon grease on hers. She was actually proud of this.

I can’t figure out whether it says more about her that she’d do that for him, or about him that he’d let her………

I just heard a balloon pop.

And it looked like the toughest piece…

My husband simply eats more than I do, so we both get a comfortable meal.

Suddenly, they are boring!

Here, we call it “cooks choice”. If the cook decides to give you their bigger/better piece, so be it.

Kids, relax and enjoy your cartoon.

I generally take the smaller portion of meat, not because I’m being subservient to my wonderful husband, but because I’m 5’6" and 140 lb, and he’s 6’1" and 210 lb. I couldn’t eat as much as he does if I tried, and if he ate only the same amount as I do he’d be constantly hungry. It’s a practical matter, not a political one.

“Always give your best. Then you need never be ashamed.”

Arlo’s having alpha male issues.

Jimmy, yet another of your spy-cam moments at my house.

When I cook steaks ours are about the same size. Gina manages to eat about half of hers & the rest is her lunch later in the week.

My dad was the middle child of nine. He learned early how to share. Growing up, there were six in our family—parents and 4 kids. If we had steak, my mother usually bought one huge sirloin for all of us and divided it up. She told me later in life that it was a struggle to find just the right steak. My father preferred his steak well-done— killed, she called it— while she, my elder sister and brother all wanted theirs rare. My other sister and I usually got the medium pieces. How much anyone got depended on the actual cut of meat that night. We were just happy to have it. A Sunday roast was usually huge because it needed to last the entire week. Midweek, she might grind it and serve it in pasta sauce. By the end of the week we would all be eating just bread and gravy.

Fish, on the other hand, meant trout, and it was almost always plentiful. My mother loved to fish, and in season, the limit for trout was 8 a day. She kept our freezer stocked. (Dad fished, too, but he preferred to grow vegetables.) Both my parents and my brother hunted. Open our freezer and behind the Girl Scout Thin-Mints, you would always find frozen corn and peas, paper-wrapped chunks of venison and ice-filled milk cartons with fish tails sticking out. By the time I left home I never wanted to see another trout, or taste another piece of game.

If one piece of meat is bigger, I give it to my wife because I have a vegetable to fill out my stomach space. She only eats green beans, and only if they’re tender (many I got from the farmers’ market last fall have stronger than usual cell walls).

Conditioned as in “I mustn’t eat too much; must maintain my figure.” Conditioned as in “Men eat and need more than women.”

It’s called…. Weight Control!

And yet, who’s complaining about serving size?

Conditioned, because women have been taught to make sure others are cared for first. It makes us mothers. If the husband or child is enjoying something very much, the woman says, Here, take the rest of mine. I’m full." Whether we are or not.