Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for December 11, 2024

I had a manager who had an engineering phd and a medical degree. He never went to any potlucks. Very smart….

But I love bags of chips!

Just bring a few bottles of wine. This comic is set in the nineties, back then drinking at the office parties was still acceptable.

Not only am I a man, I’m a bachelor. And for our Thanksgiving potluck one year I brought the turkey and ham (neither from the deli section), mashed potatoes (homemade and excellent), gravy and stuffing (not homemade), and cookies if I remember right. Partly because I didn’t trust some of my coworkers to remember to bring stuff, partly because I like to cook. So nuts to their gender stereotypes.

Bags of salad are also typical. That’s what I started bringing after my lasagna was ignored. It was a good one, too.

I can cook, clean, launder, and iron. My wife doesn’t like it when I do. Probably cuz I don’t do things the way she does. Or maybe it’s a threat to job security?

;-D)

One year I brought Reuben Sandwiches. I tried to be different.

Chips pack.

Our choir has a potluck dinner at the end of every semester. This term, sopranos have main dishes, altos have appetizers or desserts, and guys bring fruit, veggies, or side dishes. I’m feeling lucky to be an alto this term. As long as they assign dishes by parts the women will always have the main dish – there just aren’t enough male singers.

I remember when I worked I was only pt, when time to bring pot luck, dishes was interesting.

I thought “side dish” meant the guys left their wives home & brought their girlfriends. Silly me

I’ll usually make devilled eggs for any of these shindigs. They’re super easy and everybody loves them!

We stopped having potlucks a couple of years before COVID, when half the office got food poisoning. Mostly pizza now, occasionally Panera if management contributes.

At office potlucks for the holidays, I brought pies: deep-dish apple, pumpkin, or pecan—usually all three. What I discovered was the women usually wanted pumpkin, the men wanted apple, and the pecan was a niche thing—some people really like it while others don’t. When I bake one, I have to share it, otherwise I’ll eat too much of it.

But theirs a lot of variety with all those bags of chips! :)