An Indiantown man was arrested and charged with assault after he allegedly threw a steaming-hot sweet potato pie at his girlfriend’s face on Thanksgiving. I’ve been saying this for years, but there’s nothing “sweet” about a potato pie.
On Thanksgiving, Christopher Ford, 46, went to his home on the 8400 block of Southeast Fern Street. When he got home he asked for something to eat, according to the report.
But Ford was upset with the meal his girlfriend fixed for him and they got into an argument in the kitchen. While arguing, Ford picked up the sweet potato pie his girlfriend had recently removed from the oven and slammed it into her face, according to the report.
It’s times like these I treasure the brilliant cooking skills of my girlfriend. Who knows what I’d do if she served me a burned plate of tofu and rice…
I found this post disturbing. The underlying story isn’t about poor cooking; it’s about abuse and control.
A man shoved an oven-hot item in a woman’s face. By making light of the issue and joking about what you would do if your girlfriend’s cooking skills weren’t up to snuff, you — inadvertently, I’m sure — reinforced an often repeated misconception that victims of abuse are to blame for their abuser’s actions.
The joke was tasteless and inappropriate. I hope you see that and have more discretion in the future.
Mara,
I had hoped that by way of an obviously lame joke, the readers of this post would become privy to the ridiculousness of the actions of the offender. I am nothing if not a devout practitioner of love for any and all things, and a model for self-control. BUT, I can see why, even inadvertently, this may have raised some red flags, and I’ll do my best to temper the flames on my sordid scope of idiotic world events from here on out.
-Ryan J. Prado
There’s also nothing sweet about domestic violence, and that us what this post was about. What is most upsetting is that you didn’t see it in the first place.
I’ve been thinking about why some dark humor works and why I thought yours didn’t. Maybe it’s that the pie may be ridiculous, but the shoving it in her face was not. Your joke was about the shoving in the face, which reinforces the stomach-churning logic of the perp in the original story. Sarah Silverman sometimes gets away with jokes like that, but even then just barely, and just as often they’re too disturbing to be funny.
Anyway, thanks for your message.