|
?:reviewBody
|
-
Some family traditions are inexplicable ... as one bride supposedly found out when she finally thought to question why cutting off the ends of the roast before cooking the meat made for a better result: Setting up housekeeping is a daunting yet satisfying task as the bride strives to create a home for herself and her husband, not just a bare-walls place to live. (Grooms appear to be far less motivated in this regard — if it has a TV, sofa, and refrigerator, they figure it's about as done as it gets.) In creating her nest, it's assumed the bride will make mistakes early on as she finds out the hard way that what looked so easy when Mom was doing it is a bit more difficult on one's own. Burnt dinners and tears go together, but eventually a satisfactory homelife is settled into as major purchases are made, redecoration is accomplished, and traditions established within this new family. Throughout the upheaval, the bride is expected to look to her mother for a living example of how to pull it all together and to rely on her advice. It's upon this assumption this legend rests. Many of the secrets of being a good cook are counterintuitive, and it's easy to adopt an I don't know how this works, I just know it does stance as yet another of Mom's recipes proves to turn out only when certain procedures are rigidly followed. The stage is set, so to speak, for the too big for the pan joke. Often told within the Jewish religion, this tale is a parable for teaching the importance of understanding the whys of religious rituals. It is not enough, says this legend, to perform by rote — if observance is to have value, the reasons behind a tradition have to be appreciated as well as the ritual itself faithfully carried out. What better way to express this concept than by telling a tale of a bride and a trimmed roast? In 2001, the following version of this classic appeared in the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest: This account came to us from a reader in 2005: In 2003 a reader mailed us an especially enjoyable version of the tale: Just to prove it's not only the ladies who fall into the trap of imitating without understanding, we leave you with this bit of humor from 1958: Variations: Sightings: This legend surfaces in a 1994 episode of television's The Commish: Tony Scali asks one of his officers why he makes five copies of each document only to always throw away the fifth and is told That's the way we've always done it. In retaliation, the Commish tells the ends cut off the roast story.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}