Insane Food

They draw the line at casseroles; there have been none. But people are bringing the Complete and Total Loser and his father ridiculous amounts of food since his mother died Tuesday at 80.

Crudites, which, if you're as ignorant as the Loser was until just a few years ago, are just cut up vegetables. 
Lasagna. A comfort food. Warm, soft, yielding, filling. 

Shepard's Pie, which is something no one with a personality would ever eat. 
Cookies, of course. Soups. Rotisserie chicken. And yesterday the parents of the Loser's sister-in-law brought a comically huge ham. It's the size of an entire pig. And the Loser and his family have never been fans of the meat, which they find salty and associate with forced Easter dinners with people they weren't even related to.

The Loser has seen comedians include descriptions of food brought after deaths as part of their stand up routines. They joke about grief and its relationship to hunger. He's laughed at this, but he gets the point of the food bearers. The attempt to nourish others is a direct way of helping, and it seems appropriate when the female head of a household—traditionally the one who cooks—dies.

Meanwhile, the Loser's father, 91, eats the food, as does the Loser. Except the ham.