I don’t care how good a dinner party is, it is always good to have a plan in place to leave gracefully.
The all time leader in this category is my buddy Phil Rose. His classic line is:
Peggy is getting cranky
Of course Peggy is his wife who never gets cranky. Phil inspired a comfort food menu of mine that is probably leader in the clubhouse for complements. The menu centers on an upscale meatloaf that is really good:
Another really popular exit strategy centers around the line:
We have to go ransom the kids from the babysitter
There are several variations to this one such as: “Gotta go, the kids are with the in-laws”. As the kids get older the line becomes: “We have to leave the kids are Home Alone.”
There are also some bad strategies.
My line of: “We have to go, I have an early tee time in the morning” has gotten me in a lot of trouble. We did have one supper clubber that left with the pronouncement of: “We are leaving, my wife is getting drunk”. My guess is that this faux pas was instrumental to the divorce that followed a few years later.
A little planning is a good idea for any social event. With supper clubs the expression “Too much of a good things” occasionally comes into play and it great to have an exit strategy
If you know of other great exit lines, please leave them in the comments below and I will follow up with a future blog.