Surfeit!

February 13th, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 0

The other day The Global Times reported on an incident at Kunming airport, in Southwest Yunnan province, China.

Four travelers on a business trip purchased 30 kilos (about 66 lbs) of oranges for CNY 50 (about USD 8). Nicely priced. Might as well take some home. 66 lbs.

But at the airport they were asked to pony up money for excess baggage: CNY 300 (about USD 47). Apparently this was “more than they could afford,” so they declined the offer.

Now, I, dense as I am, would have cut my losses and dumped said fruit in the trash. Sunk cost. But this quartet, led by a Mr. Wang, was sharper than your faithful blogger. So guess what they did?

Yup, in the next 30 minutes, they decided to eat all of the said citrus delicacies. All 66 lbs. That’s about 16.5 lbs per person. Your average orange weighs about 0.3 lbs. That means those gentlemen consumed about 55 oranges apiece!

Wang:

We just stood there and ate the whole thing up. It took about 20-30 minutes.”

Soon they had ulcers in their mouths, reported The Global Times.

Confessed Wang:

We never want to have any oranges again.”

But Wang and his collaborators can’t beat what a good lady did at Beijing Capital International Airport a few years ago. Ms. Zhao was coming in on an international flight and forgot to stash a 700 ml bottle of Rémy Martin XO Excellence she had purchased at a Duty Free store into her checked luggage. So she tried to hand carry it on her domestic flight from Beijing to Wenzhou. Nope, said security: only 100 ml of liquid allowed in one’s carry on.

But her 700-ml-bottle had set her back about USD 200. So she, too, did what Wang and gang did: she consumed the entire bottle. On the spot. All 700 ml of the good stuff.

According to the South China Morning Post, Ms. Zhao was found rolling on the floor by her boarding gate, yelling and screaming.

The cops picked her up:

She was so drunk … she couldn’t even stand up herself. We took her to a room in a wheelchair so she could rest.”

She is said to have recovered completely. Her new ticket to get home will probably cost her more than what she spent on said bottle of spirits. So, hopefully, she’s learnt something from this dangerous exercise.

Yes, yes, it sucks to have to dump expensive liquor down the drain, but it sucks worse to die of alcohol poisoning.

Yes, yes, maximize value and all that. But at some point there is a diminishing return that comes from such maximizations. Especially with regard to food.

Have you found honey?
Eat only what you need,
That you not have it in excess and vomit it.
Proverbs 25:16

Nope, the Bible doesn’t care for excess consumption of food. Note at all. In no uncertain terms, it decries this overdosing on food, lest one suffer its side-effects.

In fact, God warns his people that such a focus on food and the stomach is earthly and temporal and not directed towards God.

Food is for the stomach
and the stomach is for food,
but God will do away with both of them.
Yet the body is not for immorality,
but for the Lord ….
1 Corinthians 6:13

For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking,
but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17

Overconsumption ain’t good for us. Moderate consumption of food, therefore, is another facet of being Christlike.

SOURCES:
The Global Times; South China Morning Post