Daily thoughts by a guy that doesn't like to think deeply too often!

Friday, November 11, 2005

Donation Request

Earlier this week, a lady came into the Biscuit and requested that we donate some desserts for a group of kids that were doing a fund-raising project this weekend. They wanted a dessert tray for 30 people. I agreed to donate and ended up fixing enough trays to feed 60 people. Tonight, the lady came to pick them up and I asked if it they looked sufficient (secretly knowing that they were more than she expected). She answered with "They look beautiful, but do you have anything without peanuts? One of our members is allergic to peanuts. She can't even be in the same room with a peanut. She's almost died twice- just from being in the same room with a peanut". I suggested that they ask that person to leave the room while they are eating their desserts. Of course I was insulted-- I had worked all day on preparing these trays- if I had known that peanuts were an issue, I would've put more ginger snaps and chocolate chip cookies in the trays.
I don't believe that anyone ever died from sharing a room with a peanut. I think it's a made-up allergy. Although this wasn't the first time I've heard of this-- I used to get it a lot when I was a travel agent. I had clients that wouldn't fly on any airline that served peanuts as snacks. I guess they would just shrivel up and die if they even saw a peanut.
Maybe I'm cold and callous, but I believe in survival of the fittest. Maybe it'd be a good thing if you ate or saw a peanut and it caused you to die. Maybe you were too weak to survive in the first place.
Back when I was a travel agent, I'd have people call to complain that the hotel had put them in a smoking room. I always wanted to say "you don't have to smoke if you don't want to". But instead I'd apologize and spend several hours with the hotel's front desk explaining that they were "allergic" to smoke. It didn't matter that the room had been vacant for several days and that it had been sprayed down with Lysol at least twice a day. The fact that this room was located on a smoking floor of the hotel was enough to set the guest into a rampage.
I guess some people go through life looking for a fight. Personally, I don't care if someone near me eats a plate full of botulism, while taking LSD. Their actions don't effect me.
I think that people have gotten overly sensitive and too much in need of a diagnosis to exist. If your child misbehaves, he must have ADHD and must take drugs to calm him down, if you are an adult and have problems coping with life you must be bi-polar and there's a drug for that. If you don't like being around smoke, tell everyone that you're allergic to it. What doctor ever did a test and determined that someone was allergic to cigarette smoke? I know it can be offensive, but I seriously doubt that it can cause an allergic reaction.
And why is it that 20 years ago, no one was "allergic" to smoke and peanuts? Has science advanced so much that we can now invent new things to be allergic to?
Again I say- survival of the fittest. If your body is too weak to endure sitting next to me as I eat a peanut, you weren't meant to live on this planet that long anyway.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG, I could go on for pages about what you wrote in this blog but I'll stick with the peanut issue. My granddaughter refused to buy the candy I suggested for her "secret pal" because she was afraid the person might be allergic to peanuts. As the "politically correct" Washingtonian she is, this did not surprise me at all. Snacks on planes might now contain ONE peanut with a huge "warning" that this snack might contain peanutS. I've never seen a "peanut attack" but, with the toxic air we breathe every day, how could it be worse?? Why aren't we more concerned with the real polluters on this earth rather than the ONE- peanut-person we might be sitting within 10 rows of on a plane?? I might as well go on with the "second-hand smoke" issue. A girlfriend spent a couple nights in my house this past week (how could a friend make somebody stay in a hotel while her house is being worked on??). Because I smoke in one room of my house, she stood at the doorway with a towel over her face while lecturing me on the evils of smoking (does anyone think I don't KNOW that??) and then went to work and e-mailed several articles on the dangers of smoking and second-hand smoke. This person breathes jet fuel fumes all day long but... Then there's the story of my former cat-sitter who never smoked but lives on oxygen. Her house is surrounded by chest-high weeds, with at least 10 cats and dogs, with a stagnant stream of water and walls covered with moss and mold, BUT she can't enter my house if there's the slightest hint of smoke in the air. God help us with next week's "allergy of the month". I think mine will be to the insensitive souls who try to run my life and it's initials will be "STFU". Thanks for letting me "vent".

6:54 AM

 
Blogger =^..^= Kitty =^..^= said...

I know you were annoyed - the lady should have told you BEFORE you put the trays together. Although I don't have a peanut allergy (I eat waaaaaaaaay to many of them and their alter-ego, peanut butter. However, I have a reaction to broccoli that is very much the same - brings on severe asthmatic-like episodes. I've even had to call 911 on more than one occasion. It's REAL scary.

9:12 AM

 
Blogger Brian said...

But you have to eat the broccoli to get that reaction, right? You don't have reactions from just being in the same room do you, Kitty?

10:56 PM

 

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