Ice cream party update
A lot of people have been asking about the ice cream. The ice cream does not arrive until September. In the meantime, the FAQ contains such awesome sentences as "What if I don't want to host a block party," "DO NOT touch the dry ice with bare hands," "How many cartons of ice cream will I receive and how big are they," and "I have some neighbors who are lactose intolerant. Is there any flexibility with the ice cream?"
Aside from the details, there's one important thing to note here. When the ice cream does arrive, I feel I have to share it with my neighbors in my building. There's no requirement to do so, but I watch enough My Name Is Earl. I know what goes on.
Plus, I recently experienced an act of ice cream karma and would enjoy another. After I brought ice cream to a coworker's going away potluck, most of the ice cream was left over, and the host brought it back to work. He wasn't too concerned what happened with it then. Despite multiple opportunities to take it home, even on days when I mistakenly thought I had no ice cream in my freezer, I did not.
Because, as I've explained here or elsewhere before, doing so would be breaking the rules of the potluck. In medieval times, the knights of the court — wearing their helmets or "pots" on their heads — would gather their food before great battles against armies and dragons and eat it together on the round table. They would share and share alike as they would soon share the triumphs and sorrows of the battlefield. All were expected to contribute to the meal as they would contribute to the battle. If they did not give food, and instead only took from what others gave, they would be cursed. Their luck would be ruined. A dragon would eat them.
So instead we add a random Friday ice cream break. The two cartons were empty in 20 minutes. People were happy and volunteered to do it again in the future. It's all community building! If only I could give ice cream to our readers. It would totally speed the process. Coconutwork Journalism. Network Neapolitan. Cookies 'n' cream … 'n' community.
But this work talk brings me to my other point. If you don't work for a major national news organization, perhaps you can join the ice cream industry's follow-up contest, "Dibs: Quest for a Cooler Workplace."
Tell them what you're doing to make your workplace "cooler," and you could win a freezer full of ice cream for a month.
They give you 228 containers of Dibs and a "bunker-style" freezer rental. The highlights from the official rules are many: "Grand Prize winner must receive permission from his/her company or employer to have the freezer on company property…. Standard electricity rate charges will apply, and are the responsibility of the company. … Winner will receive two subsequent deliveries of Edy's Dibs ice cream snacks… If the freezer is not empty, it will be filled to capacity and winner will forfeit any containers of Edy's Dibs ice cream snacks that do not fit into the freezer at that time."
