The Lunchentach Report: The Meaning of Lunch

Some of you may have noticed that your lunch was different yesterday. Something was missing? Maybe you were craving a Lunch Report that failed to deliver? Like opening the refrigerator in the vain hope that there may be a goody waiting, even though no one in your family (domestic system, whatever) has gone grocery shopping in ages and you know you devoured any goodies in the fridge just the night before?

Well, the Editor of TLR was so deep in thought yesterday that, shamefully, she forgot about lunch altogether. Ironically, what made her forget lunch were her reflective thoughts about lunch itself and what it means to us as individuals, communities, men, women, professionals, non-professionals, and, most importantly, as Americans.

As some of you may already know, "lunch" is an abbreviated form of “Lunchentach,” which, according to an 1850 definition in the OED, meant a meal that was “inserted” between two more substantial meals. For those without an 1850 edition of the OED, Wikipedia’s elucidation of lunch is just as enlightening: “originally intended as a vehicle in which working classes could escape their jobs and purchase alcoholic beverages;” “employees and schools usually provide a lunch break in the middle of the day;” “lunch can function as a form of entertainment . . .” So, according to the authorities, lunch is primarily a “break” or a “diversion” from the rest of the day (even cricket test matches—hardly a form of labor—provide for prolonged lunch breaks).

Yet in most parts of America, lunch (or “Zmittag” as Swiss-Germans like Federer might say), like vacation, is a dying art form. The corporate ranks (memorialized in the movie Wall Street with the line “lunch is for wimps”) are in large part to blame but others have contributed as well. Have you contributed?

Today, I had for lunch:

**A footlong hoagie stuffed with remorse and peppered with shame, because I know I always scurry to the cafeteria, nab my budget meal and run back to my desk without so much as looking up from my environmentally friendly cardboard tray.

**A glass of carbonated regret (I let it sit out a little bit so the regretting bubbles would not give me the hiccups) for every time a colleague or friend has suggested lunch and I have declined in order for a conference call, hair cut or visit to the gym to take priority.

Cost: my pride, which well exceeds my daily $3 budget for lunch.

We're all to blame for the loss of lunch ("LoL" (not to be confused with "LOL," a puerile email or text acronym that boasts an offensive use of ALL CAPS)) in America. Every time you give priority to that meeting , that errand, that hair appointment, that asocial instinct, etc, instead of breaking bread (or sneaking alcohol) with your fellow humankind, you have contributed to LoL in America. Despite government's efforts (let's leave this as a bipartisan issue and not bring up Obama's school lunch plan) to legislate lunch, lunch starts within, within each one of us.

Labor Day weekend is fast approaching. On Labor Day we take a break from labor and reflect on work, this year both the presence and, for a great many, the absence, of work. But maybe every day, even if just for an hour, can be Labor Day (Labor Hour?) and offer the same opportunity to separate ourselves from the rhythym of our labor and work, break bread with friends and maybe even sneak some hooch.

The Editor and Staff of TLR would like to wish you all a wonderful Labor Day weekend filled with long leisurely lunchentachs.