The Powers of Persuasion

Tonight, I ate dinner with my parents, my little sister, Katie, and her boyfriend, Eric. We had pork chops, rice, peas, and corn. About halfway through, Katie noticed that Eric only had rice on his plate.

"What are you doing," she asked, her eyes flicking subtly upward.

"Eating," he replied.

Eric is a man of many words.

"Why aren't you eating rice or peas," she asked.

"I will," he said, "I just like eating one thing at a time."

"That's stupid," she said, turning to me an expectant look in her eye. She wanted me to side with her.

"Katie," I said, "If you want somebody to do something, you need to be more convincing. Telling somebody that they are stupid will never convert them to your cause."

She gave me an angry look.

Turning away, I said, "Eric, you might think that you only like to eat one thing at a time, but I guarantee that every chef on the Food Network would disagree with you, as one of life's real treasures is discovering new culinary combinations of flavor, texture, and color. Do yourself a favor and watch the movie Ratatouille, especially the scene where Patton Oswalt describes the beauty of mixing flavor combinations by comparing them with fireworks."

A minute later, Eric was mixing peas and corn into his rice.