Gift Horse

Monday, 7:48 am

By Kate

This is a gift horse I’m not looking in the mouth...but it sure did amuse me.

So I picked the lad up at the airport last night. It was an unexpected flying trip in to Boston and I did it without complaint. The guys were exhausted and it seemed a fair deal rather than having the Dad haul the lad all the way up here and then turn around for the long drive back to his house. At least this way, we’d all get home about the same time.

On the way here, the lad said, “Oh, I have a present for you from Dad in appreciation for coming down to pick me up, but you’ll have to wait until we get home to see what it is.”

Boy, call me surprised.

Once we arrived back at the house, he pulled a box out of his duffle bag and handed it to me. A very attractive presentation box, I might add. The lid said it was a Vigneto Wine Opener from Williams-Sonoma. Inside the box was one of these. (be sure to click around to get the full flavor...).

I looked at the lad and said, “I guess Grandma didn’t like her Christmas present, huh?”

“That’s about it,” he said.

And that cracked me up.

Grandma, in her practical way, told the Dad to take it back home and get some use out of it. She likes her $10 corkscrew and wouldn’t ever use this thing.

The Dad, caught between a rock and hard place, would rather do almost anything than take it back home. Two different ethics at play here. One woman sees it as a practical matter, the other believes one discreetly disposes of a gift that one doesn’t like. But one never returns a gift to the sender. What to do...?

Why...give it to the ex-wife as an appreciation gift for hauling on down to Boston on the spur of the moment. (extremis malis extrema remedia)

Well, the incongruity of the gift sends me into peals of laughter every time I look at the box.

But what the heck. It’s a really cool gizmo, I like it, and it’ll assuredly make each bottle of wine taste just a little bit better from now on.