When Rebecca arrived in New Zealand from Nottingham in England, she and her family were invited to a Christmas party at a neighbor’s house. Bring a plate she was told, and, thinking her hosts must be having a very big party if they expected to run out of plates, she obligingly brought four. Empty ones! When she arrived she was embarrassed to discover that bring a plate meant bring a contribution to the food. Fortunately she had some flowers with her to cover her confusion.