Free? Yeah right...

So I learned (again) one of life's lessons yesterday. This particular lesson has been on my mind for a while now beginning a few weeks back when we read a little about an anthropologist named Mauss in one of my classes. He wrote this book called "The Gift" where he argues that there is no such thing as a free gift. Which kind of goes along with the presumption that nothing in life is free. Which goes along with my story.
As some of you might know, yesterday Denny's was giving away "free" grand slams from 6-2. So some friends and I decided it would be fun to wake up before six and get us some free brekkist. We woke up about a quarter to six, picked up some other friends, and went along our merry way. We were hoping that the old equation of free food + college students= crazyness wouldn't apply here and of course we were wrong. Much to our dismay and surprise, there were hundreds of people in line for their "free" food. The line was so long that you knew people had to be standing there for a few hours. So we drove over to the Denny's in Orem. Same thing. It was ridiculous. We all decided that we would just pay for our food and went on over to IHOP but of course, there was a line there too. This was mostly due to that fact that they only had two waiters on staff at the time and the diner was full. So we decided enough was enough and went to McDonald's. And sure enough, right after we got there, the place filled up like mad.
The moral of the story? There is no such thing as a free meal. If you have to wait in line at early hours of the morning for two pancakes, two eggs, and your choice of meat then it really isn't worth it.