Sunday, July 6, 2014

The Twenty-one Thousand Dollar Dinner

There is a Chinese restaurant I drive by somewhat regularly.  It opened shortly before I was in college, just across the main campus entrance.  We ordered it.  We picked it up.  It was delicious.   We ordered it more.  We ate lots more.  It remained delicious.   It was a staple in our family cuisine for several years.

Segue to one of my family friends, my college president.  My mother worked for him and he also had found that the Chinese restaurant across from the college was quite tasty.  He also ordered it frequently.

One week he went on a business trip.   He got somewhere and needed to do something like rent a car or put a credit card down for a hotel room and found his card declined.  He called the credit card company and about that time, got a call from that very delicious Chinese restaurant.   They had accidentally charged him $21,000 for his meal instead of $21.  They were exceptionally apologetic, and they were trying to reverse the charge they discovered from the day before.

This was back before all-electronic charge points.  This was way before credit fraud monitoring we have now.   I suspect the charge would have been denied today, but twenty-some years ago it was an interesting day for that restaurant and my college president.

The Big Boy Update:  He was driving around a little plastic car this morning and told his sister, "I need to get gas."   With the recent purchase of our electric car, I'm wondering if this is the last generation that will know and use that phrase regularly.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We went to the pool this morning.  Before we went, my daughter wanted to dress herself.   She put on...wait for it...seven pair of underpants, her bathing suit and then a swim diaper on top of it all.

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