If there's anything that my life experiences have taught me, it's that sharing is one of the most important and rewarding interactions one life force can have with another. Sharing thoughts and feelings, stories, energy, good times and bad. Oh yeah, and sharing food.
See, the thing about food is that one person, at some point down the line in the processing and production of said food, has likely paid for it in some fashion. One of the most common is paying money to a bar or other establishment for a plate of fries, never mind the migrant slave worker who pulled the pesticide-laden potato out of the ground, or the guy working in the back of the bar for minimum wage slicing potatoes and frying them up, or the waitress (or waiter, but hopefully waitress) who brought the fries out to the table. See, I would rather not contribute my hard-earned money to that colossal waste of resources, but damn, I sure would like some fries. So, how do you convince someone that sharing fries is not only good for the environment, but is also good clean fun, despite the fact that they paid for it and you didn't? I'll show you.
"Dude, mind if I bust in on those fries?"
See what I did there? No? Let me break it down for you.
"Dude..." puts us on equal footing. Despite my superior intellect, I'm hip to your jive. We're all just dudes here.
"...mind if I..." puts the onus of negation on you. If you say yes, then you're sweet, dude. If you say no, then you're not cool. You can augment that effect by acting hurt if they say no.
"...bust in on..." is the verb of choice here. It acknowledges that what I am doing is jarring and rude, but it does not apologize. It states in no uncertain terms that I'm gonna eat some of those fries, and you're gonna let me.
"...those fries?" is obviously determined by the medium here. It might be 'some chips and salsa' or 'that pizza'. However, I've found that if the subject is 'your girlfriend', then should not use the techniques described here. You probably won't get the answer you're looking for.
