dining out and dining in

Taste

www.outlineschicago.com

Eater's Digest

"I asked how much, and she re-

sponded, "Only two fifty.' I thought that it was a great deal, so I told her, Just add it to my tab."

"Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-

by rick karlin Marces and it was $285.00. I remembered that that month I had

GETTING BACK AT NEEDLESSMARK-UP

I have no idea whether the story that follows is true (but, I wouldn't doubt it). It came to me over the Internet and may well be an urban myth. The truth isn't important here, this is a great story and the recipe's pretty good too. Thanks to Mrs. Rosenburg for forwarding the e-mail.

"My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas and decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to try The Neiman-Marcus Cookie. It was so excellent that I asked the waitress if the chef would give me the recipe. The waitress said, with a small frown, I'm afraid not, but you can buy the recipe."

Ann Sather

Taste Guide

only spent $9.95 for the two salads at lunch and about $20.00 for scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, I saw an entry that read Cookie Recipe-$250.00.

"I felt that amount was outra geous, so I called Neiman's accounting department and told them that the waitress said it was two-fifty, which I took to mean two dollars and fifty cents not two hundred and fifty dollars. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge. The woman I spoke to would not refund my money because, according to her, "What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe. We absolutely will not refund your money."

"I threatened to refer them to the Better Business Bureau and the State Attorney General Office for engaging in fraud. I was basically told, 'Do what you want, doesn't matter, we're not refunding your money

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"I tried to think of a way I could convince her of my view of the situation. When I realized that this woman wasn't going to budge, I told her 'Okay, you folks got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250.00 worth of fun."

"I informed her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an e-mail account got a free copy of the $250 cookie recipe from Neiman Marcus. She replied, 'I wish you wouldn't do that."

"I said, "You should have thought of that before you ripped me off!" and slammed down the phone.

"So here it is! Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250 for this and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to get another penny from this recipe."

NEIMAN MARCUS COOKIES 2 cups butter cups flour 2 cups brown sugar 2 tsp. soda 1 tsp. salt 2 cups sugar

18 oz. Hershey Bar (grated) 5 cups blended oatmeal 4 eggs 24 oz. chocolate chips 2 tsp. baking powder 2 cups brown sugar 2 tsp. vanilla 1 tsp. salt

3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender

to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies. Recipe may be reduced by half easily. Let's see how long this takes to get around the Internet!

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The Wockner Wire

by Rex Wockner

Gag me with a topic

I'm inundated with gay marriage news. If I'm tired of the topic, I can only imagine how straight people feel.

Vermont is fixing to set up apartheid marriage-hey'll grant gay couples every right of marriage but not call it marriage. Apartheid marriage is better than nothing for gay Vermonters but let's not pretend it will be separate-but-equal. Vermont cannot force the feds to let Vermont gay couples file joint tax returns, bring their foreign lovers to live with them, etc. In the European nations that have separate-but-equal gay-marriage laws, they are national laws that do create equality in the areas of immigration, taxation and such.

Then there's California where I predict voters are going to approve the Knight Initiative (Proposition 22) on March 7. This will prohibit gay marriage in California and ban recognition in California of gay marriages performed elsewhere. An impressive array of Democratic and Republican politicians are against Prop. 22 but the breeder masses seem to want to protect the "institution of marriage" from some radical homo hijacking.

Often the masses are ahead of the politicians but this time it's the other way around. I recently moderated a forum of candidates for San Diego mayor and the city's next likely mayor, Republican Peter Q. Davis, bluntly stated that gays should be able to get married. I think more often than not, one's gay-marriage position is a function of one's willingness or ability to engage in independent thinking. Davis can and does, his main opponents can't or won't. Because if you sit down and cogitate on it for 15 seconds, you realize letting gays get married affects nobody except the gays who get married. Not letting us get married is just the exercise of old-fashioned bigotry.

Thirdly, the presidential candidates can't stop yapping about the topic. The Democrats and Donald Trump want to go the Vermont path "separate-but-equal" domestic partnership. The Republicans want to ignore and hate us. Speaking Feb. 8 in South Carolina, even our best-hope Republican, John McCain, said, "It's a lifestyle I don't approve of."

I guess 50 state domestic-partnership laws combined with federal legislation to recognize those partnerships as the equivalent of marriage would be a start. Who among you would like to focus on lobbying the Alabama and Mississippi legislatures and the nauseating U.S. Congress?

Finally, Mr. John McCain, what the hell is a gay "lifestyle?" Is the three hours a week I spend having sex with my only sexual partner my "lifestyle?" Or are you referring to something else. And if so, what? My lifestyle consists of working, sleeping, eating, walking, exercising, reading, seeing movies, talking with friends, travel, and spending time at the beach, in the mountains, in the desert and in Mexico (which is 15 miles from my house). Which part of this is the "gay lifestyle" part?

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OUTLINES Feb. 23, 2000 Page 21

I did go to a gay bar four times in the past year, all four times on a Sunday afternoon, three times in San Diego and once in San Francisco. I went to a gay bathhouse once in the past five years and ended up talking to someone I knew the whole time I was there. Occasionally when I'm up late writing letters to clueless presidential candidates, I log onto AOL and put some "M4M" chat room in a background window and see if anyone talks to me. Is this the "gay lifestyle" you're referring to? This less than one percent of my existence? Do me a favor next time, John. Think before you shoot off your mouth.

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