"You're Not Even Close": How a Catch-Phrase Is Born

At Timberline Lodge yesterday, a woman from New Zealand gestured at the poorly illuminated lunch buffet and asked, "Do you have any notion of what that is?"

I assessed the situation. "It looks like it might be sauteed mushrooms on cornbread."

"You're not even close," the nearby chef said. "It's braised elk on potato focaccia."

For some reason, my nephew and niece found this exchange vastly amusing. And "you're not even close" has now turned into our favorite catch-phrase.

Regarding this graphic for the Sears grill, it is a real one. One hopes the ad is not even close to what the execs were really looking for.

Addendum: I did take a little bit of the braised elk. My first bite revealed a large mushroom. So I was close!