A University of Missouri employee’s attempt at enlivening a staff newsletter with a dash of gallows humor has turned out to be a recipe for trouble.
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A University of Missouri employee’s attempt at enlivening a staff newsletter with a dash of gallows humor has turned out to be a recipe for trouble.
David Kubiak, a care coordinator for the surgical department of Missouri’s School of Medicine, submitted instructions for “Kung Pao Kitten” to an internal newsletter that is sent to some 90 employees. The ingredient list for the dish, one of two “Recipes of the Month” in the “Staff Spotlight,” substituted boneless kitten meat for the chicken breast that gives its name to the classic Sichuan dish Kung Pao chicken.
A spokesman for the school, Rich Gleba, assured the Columbia Daily Tribune that the recipe was not intended to be taken seriously. But not everyone could stomach the thought of kitten halves being chunked, marinated, and mixed with water chestnuts and peanuts. A disclaimer under the recipe, “No animals were hurt in the making of this Spotlight,” had apparently failed to amuse at least one reader.
An anonymous letter of complaint to the Tribune called the recipe “extremely offensive, discriminatory, tasteless, and not something that should have been distributed in a professional environment.”
The surgical department seconded that sentiment in a formal statement, and said that Mr. Kubiak had apologized soon after the recipe appeared. No one was saying whether the author of the recipe or the staff members who published it were being disciplined for the joke.
Mr. Gleba was answering questions for Mr. Kubiak, who seemed to be following the type of wisdom that might be found in a fortune cookie: “A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you’re in deep water.” —Don Troop
Kitten photo by André Karwath aka Aka (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons
