HAMBURGERS-AND ICE CREAM FOR DESSERT

Hamburgers, mashed potatoes, peas, and ice cream for dessert is certainly an all-American regime. But even if it happens to be your own favorite menu, the folks here--especially the teacher who maintains that foreigners eat things like spaghetti and bananas because ""those people haven't anything better""--are so blatantly silly that you won't be able to help siding with Bill and Sally. Naturally it's these two who save the whole family from starving when marooned on a desert island by teaching the grown-ups to eat fruit and fish and even crabs. The moral, whether you apply it to food tastes or parochialism in general, is heavy enough to induce heartburn. Yet the didacticism is so ingenous that it can be swallowed painlessly.