i can be a fairly ritual creature. back at occ it was my ritual to go to the student cafeteria everyday and get a cup of vegetable soup between classes. this one day i was a little hungrier than usual, and decided to investigate my options on the "bowl" size of soup, which cost $.50 more. i picked up the bowl.. and knew something was not quite right. i grabbed a cup while still hanging onto my bowl and made my way over to the water dispenser, looking around to see if anyone was watching me. i filled my bowl and poured the contents into the cup... which yielded this fact: they held exactly the same amount. precisely. to the rim. emboldened by my scientific discovery i made my way to the counter where i spoke to a professional representative of the cafeteria, the cashier.
i explained my dilemma. i demonstrated it, much to my pride, without spilling a drop. i finished up with "... so you can see, even though the bowl costs more, they're actually the same size." she looked at me with older, bored eyes and said without a trace of irony: "yeah, but it's different when there's soup in it." i said, "excuse me?" and she kindly repeated it.
i saw the futility of arguing with her. i thanked her, for she had enlightened me. she had just explained to me how much of the world worked- bits that had previously been a mystery to me. these days whenever i am told that i need to obtain a form from the department that just sent me here or told that there's just no way they can bring fruit salad with that dinner i just smile and think yeah, but it's different when there's soup in it.