The no sales clause

I came in yesterday at lunch with tuna salad. You know, a mix of tuna, mayo, relish, onions, celery and the like, all in a blob (that sounds so appetizing, doesn't it?) which you can put on bread for a sandwich, eat on a bed of lettuce, or dip crackers in for your easy lunchtime enjoyment. I told everyone, "I bought tuna salad, but I'm not selling it to you. I'm only telling you it's there if you want any."

I said it that way on purpose. Joe Cosgriff used to say it just that way.

Me Grandma Cosgriff, Lord love her, used to pry her guests with cookies and candies, coffee and snacks and so forth, as they would sit visiting. And Joe would invariably bark, displaying his classic impatience, "Don't sell them on it! It's there if they want it." And he meant it in two ways. Don't make guests feel obliged, but also that they were welcome to whatever he or she had just the same.

Somewhat conversely though, if you and he were the only two sitting at the kitchen table, he would roll out a litany of what was available. There's coffee, milk's in the fridge, and there's cookies in the jar and there's some hard candy in a bowl and even sandwich fixins if you care for it. "But I'm not sellin' ya on it. It's there if you want," he would add at the end.

What exactly the difference was between how he put it and me Grams did, I'm not sure. Yet I did and do agree with his final point. Be a good host. Just don't sell it.