Pepper

Frank Bruni's column today gets at a very interesting question:

What's up with the fresh pepper served by waiters at restaurants?

How do you know if you want pepper until you taste your food? Why pepper and not salt or oregano or something else? How did this start? When?

I guess I first started noticing it 8-10 years ago. It's probably gone on longer since I'm hardly the first to notice these kinds of things. At first, I had them put pepper on my salads and other stuff because I felt like I was supposed to or something. I always feel like a novice doing anything that seems to require a touch of class or decorum. Then I was just like, I don't want any damn pepper. And if I do, can't I just put it on there myself.

Anyway, it's annoying as hell and I wish it would stop.