The Mineral Springs Dining Club

“Have a picnic at the slightest excuse.”

“Picknicky is a tickling word, like persnickety or peakedy, and the Oxford Pocket Dictionary says that it may be used to express the desire we have, especially in good weather, to “indulge in a pleasure excursion including an outdoor meal.” I agree. I feel picknicky at the very sound of it. Italian and French dictionaries stipulate a few more conditions about picknick-ing (the Petit Larousse, for instance, says that a pique-nique is a meal which everyone helps pay for), but there is one firm mutual requirement: any picnic must be eaten outdoors, al fresco, en plein air. I agree with this, as a serious disciple of the art of eating and drinking under trees, on rocks and logs, beside brooks, in and on dunes of both beach and desert, and even in caves. There is a subtle yet blunt difference though, between a true picnic and a meal eaten, no matter how delightfully, in the fresh air. A true picnic must be carried away from human dwellings, and it must be kept simple....A True picnic must have a certain amount of hazard about it: rough ground, stones, ants - It must be eaten, too, in the company of at least one or a great many.”