Lines you’ll hear around my family – Besides the aforementioned “Didn’t used to be” there are several things that my family likes to say. I don’t mean the children, I mean my brothers and I and our respective spouses. Sometimes my mother will join in on the jokes but my father is a bit too dry and religious to participate in some of our misbehavior. We will pounce anyone who accidently makes a comment deserving “Can I have some tea?” and “What time is it?” I suspect most bloggers are too young to remember the Eddie Murphy routines that inspired those lines. Another popular one was inspired by a long-ago Thanksgiving dinner with my grandparents. Holidays were the only time my grandmother could drink wine around others (instead of in hiding like she usually did) and she always went too far with her intake. Whenever we had holiday meals at my grandparents we were served duck because it was one of my grandmother’s favorite foods (venison was always served at my other grandparents’). There was also turkey or ham for everyone else because nobody else liked the duck. At this one meal my father politely offered to eat some of the duck so his mother’s feelings wouldn’t be hurt. Very tipsy, she kept asking about the quality of the duck. “Is your meat tender?” She asked so much that the adults were giggling and one of the children innocently repeated the accidental double-entendre. Although that grandmother is long gone, it is a tradition to ask others “Is your meat tender” whenever they least expect it. I come from a family of smart-mouths.