This is the latest in a series of reports on my friend - a sportswriter for a Very Important Paper - who is now in Beijing covering the Olympics. Read about her long flight to China, and how the Chinese deal with water bottles at security.

My pal isn’t the only one covering the Olympics for her Very Important Newspaper, and one night all the colleagues decided to get together for dinner.

So where did they decide to go? A Chinese restaurant (you may have seen that one coming).

Anyway, as you may have heard, real Chinese food is a bit different from the take-out variety, but by all accounts, the meal was very good, and my friend enjoyed her chicken.

Except…except…the plate was garnished with the chicken’s head.

Pal was not completely delighted with this decorative touch. However, one of her colleagues had a different take:

“Personally, I thought the chicken had a proud look on his face, knowing he had served this great news organization from across the sea.” — Writer for Very Important Newspaper

Reminds me of the time I attended a family meal at a splendid lodge in Wyoming, and one of the youngsters in the party — upon being served a whole trout — spent most of the meal practicing ventriloquism with Mr. Fish’s head.