Later I came in to get a cup of coffee and noticed that one muffin was gone, another was intact, and the third had been molested. The top had been torn off and broken into a few parts, and two of those parts remained, sitting next to the muffin.
Clearly someone wanted to moderate her (I assume it's a woman) consumption of muffin but not to eschew muffins altogether. We do it, so many of us. I see women (sometimes me!) sitting in cafes with their muffins on a plate before them, breaking off bits at a time.
Do we somehow think this means we eat less? Or that we will restrain ourselves after a bite or two? Or do some of us think we will appear more feminine, more...delicate...if we take just this little bit at a time, as if we can't possibly shove the whole thing into our mouths because we have such little stomachs, such delicate constitutions?
I always think of mice when I see the remains or in fact the operation of breaking off bits.
Oh, by the way, I took one of those pieces torn from the top and ate it.