Spoiled bad, not the hip bad or the moral judgment. You know the one– Where you take a sip of putrid milk, gag and spit it out then offer it to your loved one and ask if it tastes bad to them.

Or you smell something God-awful and you asked your friend if that smells bad to them. Does a bad smell need a confirmation?

I pulled some pepperonis out of the freezer yesterday. They were brown when they were frozen. They were still brown when they defrosted. Pepperonis aren’t supposed to be brown. Did that make them bad? Maybe I could still eat them so I took them to work. But they didn’t look right. And they didn’t smell right.

I didn’t ask my coworkers to arrive at a consensus. I saved them until I got home and checked the packaging. They were supposed to be eaten by September 2012.

I think the pepperonis went bad.

But I haven’t thrown them away.

Maybe it isn’t whether or not the food has spoiled, but about wasting the food. Or maybe we value our social connections and like to share even our misery and suffering.

But I’m waiting for my husband to get home to ask him.