READ TODAY'S STORIES AND E-EDITION SUBSCRIBE |  CONTACT US |  SIGN IN

Print story only Print story with comments Email Twitter Facebook Pinterest
Lunch time: A moment's pause
Published: 4/24/2012 12:00 AM
Last Modified: 4/24/2012 11:06 AM

I happened across this article from the online magazine Slate, titled “Let’s Do Lunch,” in which the writer Racheal Levy extols the way the French approach the midday meal.

“As much as it pains me to admit that foreigners do things better than us, I have to hand it to them on this issue: The French know how to take a lunch break,” Levy writes.

Levy isn’t talking about the so-called “working lunch” – which, speaking for myself, isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Typically a working lunch for me means that I’m interviewing someone, who gets to eat while I’m taking notes on what he or she is saying.

Her target is the sort of lunch-time activity I and a large number of my colleagues indulge in out of necessity. To quote Levy, we tend to “Eat with a spoon in one hand and a spreadsheet in another, or inhale their sandwiches while in a mad rush to get back to their desks. God forbid anyone stop and enjoy what their lunch tastes like. Savoring food is for the weak.”

She points out that “In California, the state Supreme Court recently ruled that employers need not ensure that workers actually take their lunch breaks.”

Naturally, I came across this piece on a day that I remembered to bring my lunch with me, rather than relying on the Tulsa World’s unofficial commissary (the downtown Arby’s, not to be confused with the “Downton Arby’s,” but I digress) for my noontime meal.

It’s probably a sign of some kind of innate contrariness, but when I bring my lunch, I rarely eat at my desk – even on those occasions when I probably should, because deadlines wait for no one. Granted, when I do finally get around to eating, I do so at one of the entertainingly teetering tables in the paper’s break room, but still – it’s as close to an oasis of calm within the bustle of the newsroom as one can get.

At least, as long as no one decides to swipe what I brought from the communal fridge…..



Reader Comments


To post comments on tulsaworld.com, you must be an active Tulsa World print or digital subscriber and signed into your account.

ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

Subscribe to this blog


Archive

 
James D. Watts Jr's Blog Archive:

2/2013  1/2013  12/2012  11/2012  10/2012  9/2012  
8/2012  7/2012  6/2012  5/2012  4/2012  3/2012  
2/2012  1/2012  12/2011  11/2011  10/2011  9/2011  
8/2011  7/2011  6/2011  5/2011  4/2011  3/2011  
2/2011  1/2011  12/2010  11/2010  10/2010  9/2010  
8/2010  7/2010  6/2010  5/2010  4/2010  3/2010  
2/2010  1/2010  12/2009  11/2009  10/2009  9/2009  
8/2009  7/2009  6/2009  5/2009  4/2009  3/2009  
2/2009  1/2009  12/2008  11/2008  10/2008  9/2008  
8/2008  7/2008  6/2008  5/2008  4/2008  








Home | Contact Us | Search | Subscribe | Customer Service | About | Advertise | Privacy
Copyright © 2013, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.