brown-bagging

[victor steinbok]

OED entries for "brown-bag" (n. and v.), "brown-bagging" (n. and adj.)
and "brown-bagger" are somewhat limited. For one, there is a vast
difference between brown-bagging booze and brown-bagging lunch. In
fact, "brown-bag lunch" has acquired a fairly recent association with
lunch-time seminars. One interesting aspect is that conference
"brown-bag lunches" often have a distinction with school brown-bag
lunches in that the former is supplied to the participants by the
organizers (sometimes free, sometimes buy-in).

Whatever the case, today we get an interesting report (well,
technically, not today) that draws a new parallel between brown-bagged
booze and brown-bag lunches:

http://goo.gl/9Ptsi
> Chicago School Bans Students Packing Lunch to 'Protect' Against Unhealthful Food Choices
>
> I would have bet anything that the story below would come out of San Francisco, but I would have been incorrect. Via The Faculty Lounge, I see that at least one public school in Chicago has decided that parents are so lousy at packing nutritious lunches for their kids that it has made eating the food served in the school cafeteria mandatory. That is to say, even if you want to bring a brown-bag lunch, you are not allowed to do so.
> According to the Chicago Tribune, Elsa Carmona, principal of Little Village Academy, says the policy is intended to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices. Carmona created the policy six years ago after watching students drink soda and eat chips for lunch. Lunch policies in Chicago public schools are reportedly left to the judgment of each school principal.

VS-)

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