Back to the future
"A friend of mine picked me up recently in her new BMW," writes Alfred Hoyle of Rotorua. "As she pressed the button on the dash to start the engine she exclaimed, 'Look at this, a push-button start! What will they think of next?'. I hesitated before telling her that when I was a youth my Model A Ford had a push-button start, only difference it was on the floor and you thumped it with your foot."
The abridged version
"I miss the days when you didn't have to read someone's life story in a recipe book before you got to the actual recipe," writes a home cook. "We'd just gotten back from our vacation in ... [whole paragraph about their holiday] exhausted, we arrived home to find nothing but some sad-looking lemons and ... [detailed paragraph of everything in the cupboard] I'd heard about making ... from ... [history of every cooking show watched and what was cooked] so I decided to try ... [description of failed attempt at making recipe] the second time I tried it, I used ... [detailed description of second time] this recipe is really great because ... [everything author likes about the recipe] my picky kids even loved it, they said ... [detailed conversation between kid and parent about recipe] anyway, I hope you enjoy ... [paragraph about how much author wants you to enjoy recipe and can't wait to hear what you think]."
