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Every year, a different directorate is reponsible for hosting the Christmas party. The first year I was here, 2001, it was my directorate's responsibility. The first order of business was ensuring that it wasn't just a Christmas party, but a Holiday party. We chose a non-denominational theme: snow. I was responsible for the decorations. No one but me realized that the decided-upon palette of "snow" colours - blue, white, and silver - had any other sort of symbolism tied to them. But I digress. My directorate managed to pull off the first really successful Holiday party the Institute had ever seen. Good food, decent music, affordable ticket prices, and free booze (because we couldn't be bothered to apply for a liquor licence.

Fast forward to the year 2004.

Apparently, in three short years, the purchasing power of $10.00 has dropped dramatically. A more conspiracy-theory-oriented blogger might blame the tanking American economy and Dubya for this. I do not. Unfortunately, monkey man can shoulder no blame for the utter crapfest that was today's Christmas party: whitebread sandwiches, Doritos, and carrot and celery sticks served as the main course; wine from a box, rationed into thimble-sized servings and going for $2.00 a "glass"; a talent show that consisted of the same woman singing 8 different Elizabethan carols to really get the party started; and a zydeco band that couldn't pay people to dance to them. Combined with inappropriately dressed attention whores who used the occasion to relive their bra-burning days and don tank tops and short shorts, it is no surprise that my poor friend Marsha is currently turning green in the office beside mine.

Other things we could have done with $10.00:
Gone to an afternoon matinée
Gone to a decent Indian or Moroccan buffet
Given the money to a foodbank (if today's menu is any indication, that money can buy a hell of a lot of Wonderbread)
Pooled the cash to rent out a McDonald's PlayLand and have some real fun
Invested in some high-yield mutual funds and enjoyed a superior party in about 15 years' time

Wow. that was worse than ours! Bummer!

"whitebread sandwiches, Doritos, and carrot and celery sticks served as the main course; wine from a box"

Mmm.

So wait - you had to pay or chip in $10 to attend? and a glass of boxed wine was EXTRA? Are you kidding me?!

You only had to pay $7.00 for the bad food if you bought your ticket in the first three days they were on sale. The boxed wine was extra. I can only assume the money is going to a fund to help people recover from the impending methanol-induced blindness. I didn't partake, but from all accounts, it was anti-freeze.
The party is still going on....at 3:35. I can hear the music from my office. Very distracting when trying to learn about RSS feeds...