Lazy Susan

We were seven, sitting at a big round table at Da Dong our favourite Beijing duck restaurant. As the dishes glided slowly & elegantly round the table on the lazy susan and I started wondering...did the Chinese invent the lazy susan or as they call it - 玻璃 转盘 (bō li zhuàn pán) - rather boringly - 'glass turntable' ? If so, it's definitely up there with gunpowder and paper since the bō li zhuàn pán is a critical component of enjoying shared-food-meals such as Chinese.


But lazy susan sounds so North American - and who was Susan? Someone so lazy that she found it easier to invent a thick cut, heavy duty, glass disc sitting on top of a precision ball bearing turntable rather than pass the yams when her kids asked at the dinner table?



As we discussed it, I thought about the tens of thousands of restaurants throughout China and all those big round tables and all those lazy susans and wondered how many serious accidents had occurred that involved lazy susans? Just think of that heavy glass platter whizzing around too fast and flying off the turntable..decapitating all in its path. How many had died over the years, victims of the rogue lazy susan?


Harry was intrigued and immediately hit Google on his return home. This is where the internet comes into it's own. A few keystrokes & you will get more information about lazy susans than you ever wanted or thought existed..and you will probably find some weirdo that runs a web site dedicated to the subject.



No terminal accidents, but he did find the 2002 case of the Perri family v Furama Restaurant heard in Cook County Court, Illinois. A waitress had placed a pot of tea on the lazy susan, apparently unbeknown to the family. Later, the lazy susan was spun and the pot of tea flew off scalding the family's young child. They claimed the restaurant was negligent but lost their case. Not a happy story, but it sets a precedent...we are each responsible for the actions of our own lazy susan.



P.S. The Jewish World Review dates the lazy susan to a 1917 advert in Vanity Fair, but claims the turntable-with-food-on-it goes back to the 1700s. And Susan was a common term when referring to a waitress. I still think it was the Chinese.