"Are you servant here?" I ask.
Family food, in my experience, invariably turns into lowest common denominator fare: unless you have servants, there is a limit to how many different meals you can make, how many conflicting tastes you can accommodate, in a single evening.
Unless you have servants, there is an inclination toward panic when guests drop by, invited or not.
For example, travelling with a vast amount of luggage – steamer trunks, secretaires and suitcases – was once an infallible memorandum about status, since you needed servants to do the lugging and the humping.
If you were truly public servants, you'd broadcast a debate about that.
JULIE: You're still a servant, you scared little squaddie, you're still a servant.
If you were rich and had servants, you could have stays laced in the back (in the squeezing-the-breath-out-to-get-back-an-18-inch-waist style of Mammy and Scarlett O'Hara).
A Bengali wedding ceremony still requires the groom to tell his mother: "I will bring you a servant".
Why didn't you have your servants perform that rite for you?" View Article By Alan Burdick By Larissa MacFarquhar By Phil Klay By Amanda Petrusich.
When you're surrounded by people who are your servants, you can't help but feel godlike.
