They Have to Break a Few Eggs

A few years ago, at the end of a happy dinner in an atmospheric Paris restaurant, of the twelve or so at the table half wanted a cheese course, and the others wanted to go directly to dessert. It was late, even for Paris, and I knew that one of us was getting up early the next morning. As the waiter disappeared to collect the cheese cart, I leaned over to my friend and suggested that since half of us wanted dessert and half of us wanted cheese, perhaps the smart thing to do was to have the cheese course and the dessert course at the same time.

He thought about this for a moment. “It would be nice, yes,” he said. “But of course it is impossible.”