A Meal By Any Other Name

When I was kid, my family was best friends with the Hinton family, who lived just next door. Proximity aside, they also had two daughters the same ages as my sister and me. To me, the Hintons were nearly perfect — with the exception of one major character flaw: They called lunch “dinner” and dinner “supper.”

As a child, I was confounded by this quirk. Up to that point, mealtimes had adhered to strict definitions and dishes. For example, a PB&J was OK for lunch, but not for dinner.

Switching the names of the last two meals of the day raised so many questions — If you call lunch “dinner,” is it OK to eat a PB&J then? What does the word “meal” even mean, anyway? And whose job is it to create such social constructs?

Thus began my first existential crisis. Dramatic, I know, but I was 6! It was 1989 — 15 years before brunch, America’s most beloved made-up-meal, skyrocketed to celebrity status.

Today, many argue that brunch has become our culture’s most important meal. Others suggest that “linner,” an emerging meal trend that takes place between lunch and dinner, will soon be the new brunch.

While a concept such as linner, or “dunch” as it is also called, would have made 6-year-old Sunny’s mind melt, adult Sunny embraces it.

So, who’s up for linner this weekend?

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