Legalized Sandwiches In Massachusetts

Finally some good news. In what may become one of the landmark judicial rulings of the new century, Judge Jeffery Locke of Worcester Mass has settled a dispute between Panera Bread Company and Qdoba Mexican Grill. At stake was the clause in the Panera lease that permitted them the exclusive right to serve sandwiches at the White City Shopping Center. They saw the new Qdoba Mexican restaurant as a violation.

So Judge Locke cleared it up:

"A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos, and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans," Locke wrote in a decision released last week.

During the trial various experts gave testimony on behalf of the lowly burrito.

Among them was Cambridge chef Chris Schlesinger, who said in an affidavit, "I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian."

And, thanks to George W. Bush's appointment of sensible judges to the Supreme Court like Roberts and Alito - what may be his greatest (and only?) legacy - we can have confidence that such absurd, expansionist definitions of the sandwich will be struck down by higher courts, and traditional values will prevail.

A sandwich is between a slice of bread and another slice of bread.

[Via Opinion Journal's Best of the Web]