A foolproof conversation starter

🥝 Today’s tip: Try an unexpected kind of fruit.

It’s really hard to come up with anything interesting to say over dinner when you and your kids have been in the same building staring at screens all day, or when the only new thing on the horizon is a vaccine appointment. But rather than just stare at each other blankly over your next meal or social zoom, try this tip from Catherine Newman: Buy a social fruit.

Newman writes in Cup of Jo, “Whenever someone is shopping or ordering groceries online, I say, ‘Oh, and get some social fruit.’ This means something fancy and shareable — a pomegranate, a pomelo, a regular grapefruit, or even one of those enormous four-dollar tangerines advertised on the back of the New Yorker…Whatever the fruit, we peel and distribute it, and it’s delicious, but also — in a good way — kind of involved and involving.” Discuss the day’s juicy novelty with the people you live with, and who knows what else will come up. The stakes are low, and the returns are sure to be, in one way or another, flavorful.

💡 More from Forge on having great conversations:

How to Talk About Something Besides the Pandemic
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Control a Conversation Without Saying Much at All
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3 Ways to Rescue a Conversation
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