“‘There’ll be wine, won’t there?’
‘Look at the table.’ Small individual milk-bottles
stood by every place. ‘Didn’t you read your invitiation? An American
blue-plate lunch in honour of our great American allies.’
‘Blue-plate?‘
‘Surely you know what a blue-plate is, man? They
shove the whole meal at you under your nose, already dished up on your
plate—roast turkey, cranberry sauce, sausages and carrots and French
fried. I can’t bear French fried, but there’s no pick and choose with a
bue-plate.’
‘No pick and choose?’
‘You eat what you’re given. That’s democracy, man.’”
—Graham Greene, Our Man in Havana, 1958.