Doswell Dad Morey Strickland claims that the gallon of Wal-Mart milk in the fridge has not gone bad, despite the claims to the contrary by daughters Anne and Caitlin and wife Martha.
“Even though it is as of today exactly 15 days past the date, the milk is perfectly drinkable.” Says Strickland. “The date on the carton is what is known as the ‘sell-by’ date, not the date it spoils. Milk does not just automatically spoil on the sell-by date.”
Daughters Anne and Caitlin disagree. “Ew,” says Anne, age 14, “Nothing can be good 15 days after the date. Dad just won’t admit his milk has gone bad.”
Wife Martha says she has to “side with the girls” on this one. “Morey gets all wound up about sell-by dates. Well, dating milk is not an exact science, and it is probable that gallon has gone bad by now. But Morey will never admit that.”
A simple twist of the cap and a quick sniff could go a long way toward judging the suspect milk, only no one in the family will do it. “I refuse to sniff the milk out of principle,” says Morey. “While I only use it in my coffee I will happily drink the milk any time. It is patently ridiculous to sniff milk to determine its freshness when I can look at the date and tell. And I know that milk is still fresh as the day it was purchased – for $3.99, I might add. Until the women in this family pay for their own milk they can darn well use the date on the carton to determine freshness.”
Meanwhile, the gallon of milk is going to remain in the Strickland family fridge, because Morey refuses to verify its freshness and the girls refuse to touch it. “That milk can curdle into fetid cottage cheese before I’ll do anything with it,” says Martha. “Morey is so in love with his precious gallon of milk let him deal with it.”
