Is there a difference between ALL YOU CAN EAT and ALL YOU CARE TO EAT? We've got both options in town. It seems that, for gluttons, all they care to eat will be all they can eat. But for temperate souls, all they can eat will probably be all they care to eat, as well. Because as soon as they're full, they'll stop. I suppose that feeling full isn't the same as truly being full to the top.
MAÎTRE D: And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint.
MR. CREOSOTE: Nah.
MAÎTRE D: Oh, sir, it's only a tiny, little, thin one.
MR. CREOSOTE: Look. I couldn't eat another thing. I'm absolutely stuffed. Bugger off.
MAÎTRE D: Oh, sir, just-- just one.
MR. CREOSOTE: All right. Just one.
Since I'll never actually open this store, I'm going to give away my idea for a restaurant that includes an all-you-can-eat ice cream buffet. This place will have 50 flavors, 50 toppings, whipped cream, the works. Its name: Any Given Sundae. If you steal this idea, please give credit.
*I'm struggling with titles lately. If you've got one for this post, let me know. The Jimmy/Gimme Buffett/Buffet just isn't happening. I was thinking Buffet The Vampire Slayer, but that made no sense at all.
2 comments:
I'm ok with Gimme Buffet. I think it's quite clever, in fact.
"All you care to eat" might have nothing to do with being full: maybe I didn't like the food or the options, maybe I'm watching my calorie intake. "All you care to eat" seems just a way to emphasize that in Buffetland, YOU, the customer, are in control.
It also doesn't have connotations of people gorging themselves on buffet like "all you can eat" sometimes does. Given the "obesity epidemic" (scarequotes intentional) in the US and my upbringing in the more-fat-than-most-regions Midwest (which also has more buffets than most regions), I am usually wary of buffet-style establishments. They don't conjure good images in my head. "All you care to eat" takes the pressure off of eating so much, and thereby sounds nicer to me. It's psychological.
OK, I'm keeping the title.
If there is an obesity epidemic, someone needs to tell the ice cream parlor in town that'll give you the 24-scoop trough of ice cream free if you can down it in an hour. I suppose that's all you care to eat as well... but there's an incentive (a $24.99 refund) to eat yourself sick.
I agree with your point about the psychosemantics of "care." But I still think folks buying the buffet are not planning to graze.
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