Friday, October 23, 2009

What would YOU do?

On the second Friday of the State Fair, one of the museum’s board members brought a Tres Leches cake in for the volunteers as a thank you for all their hard work. The cake was from La Duni.

Unfortunately, the refrigerator was so packed with various volunteer snacks and lunches that the cake was unable to fit inside. So, the cake remained on the museum’s board room table all weekend.

And then for the whole week after that.

By the third – and last – week of the fair, the cake sitting on the table became a running joke among the staff and volunteers. People sitting too close to the box could detect the odor of spoiled milk, and mold had started to grow on one corner. And, yet, the cake did not get thrown away.

Can you tell where this is going?

Last Thursday, I used the restroom just off the boardroom. Once done, I exited and noticed one of the museum’s volunteers sitting at the table eating something with a spoon out of a paper bowl.

Me: “Hi, Ann! How are you?”

Ann: “Okay. This cake, though, is awful.”

And that is when I noticed that Ann was more than halfway through a giant slice of the La Duni Tres Leches.

Ann: “My children eat at La Duni all the time and are constantly raving about the food. This cake doesn’t taste very good to me. In fact, it was so bad that I had to pour a fruit cocktail over the top just to get it down!”

Here is my question: Should I have told Ann that the cake was rancid? Because she was almost finished with her slice, and the damage was already done. I know how to induce vomiting on a dog, but, A) Ann isn’t a dog; and B) I didn’t have any Hydrogen Peroxide handy.

Plus, I was speechless. Ann said the cake tasted bad, but continued to eat it anyway. Why would you do that?!

So, here I am. One week and one day later. Still wondering if I inadvertently killed one of the museum’s volunteers.

Sigh.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Deals:

I think you have a very valid question. Ann deserves to get sick given that she KEPT EATING even though she knew it tasted funny. She could have walked half a block and gotten any number of fried state fair treats. Instead she chose rotten cake.

Yours Truly,

Hints From Knot

P.S. I hope the toilets were working during her shift.

Yer Cuzzin said...

I will never eat anything in your office until you have a taste. I would have told her, the shock perhaps would have sent her hurling.... gad, she must have a bad sniffer to not have NOTICED.

Lia said...

That is so gross. But probably smart that you didn't say anything.

So, which is your museum? I may be out your way sometime in the near future . . .

Auntie Mimi said...

Would somebody please check to be sure that poor volunteer is still alive. I'm still worrying about her!!!

Anonymous said...

Deek! You didn't tell her? Granted, who the *u$@ would eat something that they thought tasted bad, let alone pour fruit cocktail on cake to make it taste better (eww). But seriously, Deek, you should've said something.

By the way, why didn't the cake get thrown out when it started to smell? At what kind of establishment do you work?