I was doing my payday shopping at the Costco and was amazed to see Al Yeganeh's face looking at me from a box. He calls himself the Soup Man; Seinfeld fans know him as the real-life soup kitchen owner who inspired the "Soup Nazi" character. I was surprised to learn that he has soup kitchens all over the northeast and is selling packaged soups all over the country.
Well, I bought a 15 oz. box of turkey chili and brought it home (almost eight bucks!). Back at the ranch, I had to surf over to YouTube to see if I could find any clips from that Seinfeld episode to put me in a proper frame of mind to appreciate the soup.
Instead I found this clip of the real Soup Man. The New York City Fox affiliate sent over a chirpy blonde reporterette for a live remote from his new location on Trinity Place downtown. In the first segment he almost seems reasonable in his protest against the reporter's carelessness (she went behind the counter and touched his ladle!), and I love it when he responds to the reporter's comment about how the interview will giving his restaurant publicity for opening day. "You are getting publicity your own self. I am giving you publicity!" Things get a bit more heated in the second segment. No one appreciates a perfectionist.
I am happy to report that the turkey chili was delicious and that, despite the fact that I stuck my finger in to see if it was hot enough, no one smacked my hand, scolded me, or snatched my soup away. Perhaps soup in a box is the solution for those of us who lack the self-discipline to be worthy of soup from one of his stores. When I brought the box into the house, I thought of that phrase from the Latin Mass: Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbum, et sanabitur anima mea. ("Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but say the word, and my spirit shall be healed.") Which could be paraphrased and modified a bit to mean, "Al, I am not worthy that your soup should enter under my roof, but say the word, and my stomach shall be fed."
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