Gourmet

There is a hilarious article in the NY Times by a Michael S. Sanders about how universities are upping their dining hall's food quality to compete for admissions. See here.

Great lead quote:

As recently as 10 years ago, a typical campus dining experience was a cafeteria offering overcooked meat, canned vegetables and instant mashed potatoes

Try as many as 2 days ago, Michael. But as sad as the state of this country's newspaper of record is, the redeeming aspect of all of this is that we've got some really good selection criteria out of this article for our 2012 corps. From the article:

“I didn’t apply to Bates, because, well, I ate there, the meal was not very good,” said Lucas Braun, a 17-year-old senior at Westtown School, outside of Philadelphia, who has been accepted at several colleges in the Northeast. “There’s something subliminal from the food you see in the dining hall and the meal they give you that influences your decision.”

Ooh, subliminal. Really, Lucas, subliminal? I asked around some Northeast colleges I know about, and none of them had heard of a Lucas Braun. Of course, I didn't page my contacts at Westchester Community College, or other schools of that ilk like Boston University or Fordham University, so maybe those were the schools the sublime Lucas had gotten into. Of course, I don't really have contacts at those community colleges so I am really guessing here. Lets just say there is a new column on our selection rubric that says "Is this applicant named Lucas Braun?" Answer yes, you aren't getting in; we don't need any of that primadonna BS in our male corps members.

Anyway, my point is this: College cafeterias still suck. I know, because every summer Matt and I have to tour around the various institutes and slum it with corps members to show our support and connection to the mission. I've pretty much got it down to a science where I just fly in about 45 minutes before my Opening Ceremonies speech, phone that tired ol'schtick in like usual, and then I have to rush out because my assistant just had to book me on a flight that leaves, like, you know, 20 minutes ago. The funny thing is none of these institute staff members realize that my charter flight doesn't leave without me. If I'm late they just re-file the flight plan. Whoooppe-do. Most of these staff members are so busy asking for my autograph and trying to have some of my greatness rub off on them that they act like they've never flown charter before.

I've pretty much got Matt doing the overnights and cafeteria meetings. But I've done them enough to know that the food isn't getting better, no matter what Michael Sanders heard. And trust me our institute staff knows this too. Invariably we meet with the institute's Managing Director at the cafeteria and sure enough we load this crap up on our plate like we're not above it all while the MD just gets a salad. "Oh, I ate a big breakfast" she'll say but in reality, the casserole I'm eating was really four separate dishes the night before, and of course the MD knows this, but she wants to see me shovel this crap in for at least one day, since I make her shovel it for the whole summer.

So Matt and I oblige, and then we purge, and rush to our charter where Dean and Deluca - great corporate sponsors of TFA - have our proper meals waiting for us.