Mario at the Thanksgiving dinner where Joelle first meets the family

texture · B.S. 2001, the last pre-Subsidized Thanksgiving; recalled by Joelle

• When: "That last pre-Subsidized Thanksgiving" (Nov 2001), at the Headmaster's House; recalled by Joelle.
• What: At the dinner where Joelle first meets the Incandenzas, Avril and Dr. Incandenza take turns cutting up Mario's salmon; Mario — stunted, complexly deformed, constantly grinning — reaches for the salad and falls out of his chair (helped up amid hilarity), plunges his special fork into Himself's twice-baked-potato cityscape to applause, has his continuously running snout wiped by Hal, and flaps pathetically at the tabletop in imitation when the boys plead for Kahlua.