There’s this episode of “I Love Lucy” where they get trapped in a cabin up on top of some Swiss mountain. Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred. They’re sitting around and apparently they’ve been snowed in because it’s cold and they can’t leave. They’ve got nothing to eat. They’re starving. And Lucy, she realizes that she never did finish her sandwich when they were hiking their way up the mountain. She was enjoying the view, looking out across the Alps, being the star and such. Lucy was so into all that, the experience of being on top of the mountain and the majestic beauty and all, that she didn’t want to finish the sandwich. The rest ate every bit, but Lucy was full up and put the rest away before they headed back.
So then they end up snowed in and trapped in that old cabin, bawling, moaning, it’s all a good laugh. I’m sure you know what I mean. Now remember that the sandwich, it’s sitting right in her sack, still wrapped in cellophane. We know this because her eyes light up when someone mentions the sandwiches and how they wished they’d hung onto those old sandwiches, even a little, just to survive. So she reaches for her pack, opens it, and pulls out the sandwich. This is a revelation you understand. But then the rest of the gang’s getting excitable because they hear the cellophane crackling and wouldn’t you know it they smell the darn thing! Cheese, they exclaim, I smell cheese. So they get to hunting down the smell thinking it’s a mouse or something and sure enough, Lucy’s caught. She’s got herself the most gorgeous gosh darn thing they’ve ever seen.
And what was funny, I never got it, was that even if I’d just ate, full of steak and potatoes and green beans from the top of a TV tray or whatever, I wanted that sandwich. I weren’t the least bit hungry but watching Lucy bring out that fuzzy gray sandwich made me wish I was right there, stealing all that gorgeous stale ham, cheese, and bread for myself and letting Lucy, Ricky, Ethel, and Fred starve right there in the cabin way up in the Swiss Alps because they’re television people and they can’t die, right? The worst they can do is bawl and moan, it’s all a good laugh.