Lunch

Despite Jamie Oliver's best intentions, the obstacles to making healthy homemade school lunches are still daunting: busy working parents, limited food budgets, picky kids, the temptations of processed foods at every turn. Yet the solution, for some lunch-packing parents, might be as simple as finding the right container: trading in the American brown bag for the Japanese bento box. With a long history in Japan and variations in Korea, India, and the Philippines, the multi-compartment bento box is not new, but in recent years it has gained popularity as a lunch box among health-conscious parents.

WASHINGTON - During his day off in Washington, Charlie Manuel ate lunch and dinner with his daughter, Julie, who works in the city. She was able to take an extra hour for lunch, but only because of her dad's stature. "Her boss said it was OK as long as I get him World Series tickets," Manuel said. How many times do you think Manuel has been asked to do that favor? - Matt Gelb

If you want to get ahead in corporate America, you have to answer this question correctly: Do you eat lunch, or do you crush lunch? What do I mean by crush , you ask? I'm not referring to physical flattening, as of a cardboard box. I'm talking about complete domination - the way an NBA franchise might crush a girls' junior varsity squad. Crushing lunch is one of the most important skills in the corporate workplace. If you can high-five, fist-pump, and lunch-crush, you are going to do big things in this world.

Almost every working day, a secretary for Montgomery County's two Republican commissioners calls a restaurant near the Norristown courthouse to ask about the daily luncheon specials. Orders are placed, a box filled with lunches is delivered, and four high- ranking county officials share a quiet lunch behind closed doors. Taxpayers pick up the tab. Last year, the lunch bills totaled $5,587, according to county records released yesterday by Democratic minority Commissioner Rita C. Banning.

Crunch. Munch. Slurp. Crunch. Munch. Slurp. What's that? It's the guy at the next desk having lunch. The number of folks who have taken to dining al desko is causing some new problems in the workplace. A co-worker who doesn't wipe up her spilled soup in the microwave is as irritating as the guy who never replaces the paper in the copy machine. And the smell of frozen flounder florentine is as noxious to some as now- banned cigarette smoke used to be to many.

A REPRESENTATIVE of the city slipped a little surprise under the windshield wiper of my car when it was parked in the shadow of the Convention Center on 13th Street near Arch the other day. I received my first parking ticket. I had carefully weighed my decision to back into that spot in a one-hour parking zone. After the first quarter clicked and the little arrow on the meter granted me 15 minutes, I glanced at the parking lot next to me. Should I stay at the metered spot and have to interrupt lunch with my friend Kia to dash back to feed the hungry machine, I wondered?

I peered at the itinerary clipped onto my handlebars and read the name: "Abbaye de Pontleroy. " In front of us, the sign read "Ferm?. " "Strike two," my husband said, getting back onto his bike. We had left Montrichard that morning, planning to tour some of the Loire Valley's lesser-known castles. It was late September, after the high season - still good for biking but not, apparently, for smaller tourist destinations. First a ch?teau and now the abbey: both closed. To make matters worse, after four hours of cycling, we still hadn't found lunch.

Bensalem's relay team thought it had time. The four boys who made up the first team to represent the school in a Penn Relays Championship of America 4x100 race had the best of intentions when they left Franklin Field for a lunch of fruit salad, pizza and baked ziti - carbohydrates and hydration - just a few blocks away. The relays were running about a half hour behind schedule anyway. When they were done warming up and pinning bibs to their blue spandex tops, they reached the race area just in time to hear the gun go off and see their competitors race without them.

Brian Brennan, 17, is a straight-A student at Springfield High School, where his schedule includes five advanced-placement courses as well as orchestra and choir. The grueling routine requires the senior to attend classes from 7:44 a.m. through 2:25 p.m. without a break, not even a lunch period. It's a high-pressure pace that he willingly accepts, Brennan said, to be among the school's academic elite and to be a freshman in the University of Pennsylvania's Class of 1995. "I see lunch as a waste.

A review partner and I enjoyed breakfast and lunch at the Down Home Diner recently. That might not seem unusual except that we ate both meals without moving an inch from our booth. Confused? Hang in there. I'll try to explain. The diner occupies a corner of the recently renovated Reading Terminal Market. We arrived at 11:30 a.m. on a Tuesday, hoping to beat the market's usual noonday crowd. We were ready - read hungry here - for lunch. Our server, a waif with a wistful smile, handed us a plastic-covered menu with lunch on one side, breakfast on the other.

Rush to return part of their pay WASHINGTON - A day after President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said they would return 5 percent of their pay to the Treasury, several other senior administration officials said they, too, would give back part of their salaries, in the spirit of government spending cuts. Secretary of State John Kerry, the richest cabinet member; Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; and Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said they would voluntarily reduce their pay and donate it to nonprofit agencies.

PENN STATE football coach Bill O'Brien will participate in a coaches caravan tour starting April 30, when there will be an evening reception in Philadelphia. O'Brien and other PSU coaches will make stops in 12 locations over 2 weeks. "We had a great turnout of Penn State alumni and fans during the coaches caravan last year and I enjoyed meeting so many people who have great pride and passion for Penn State," O'Brien said in a statement. "It's important for me to get around Pennsylvania and other areas where we have a lot of alumni and give them a chance to get to know me and to hear from them.

If you want to get ahead in corporate America, you have to answer this question correctly: Do you eat lunch, or do you crush lunch? What do I mean by crush , you ask? I'm not referring to physical flattening, as of a cardboard box. I'm talking about complete domination - the way an NBA franchise might crush a girls' junior varsity squad. Crushing lunch is one of the most important skills in the corporate workplace. If you can high-five, fist-pump, and lunch-crush, you are going to do big things in this world.

Chef Eric Ripert is stepping away from his affiliation with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and its 10 Arts restaurant after nearly five years. He said a project in New York affiliated with his famed Le Bernardin required too much of his time. Ripert did say he will maintain his apartment next door at the Residences at the Ritz-Carlton. Sous chef Nathan Volz, who manages 10 Arts' day-to-day operation, will continue to run the kitchen while Miguel Hernandez, the hotel's assistant food-and-beverage director, oversees the dining room.

WASHINGTON - Three weeks after the election, Mitt Romney made it to the White House. For about 90 minutes. After an odd arrival in which a man rushed his SUV and ended up getting arrested by the Secret Service. It wasn't the start of a term as Romney had envisioned. But it was, at least, all on good terms with the man who defeated him, President Obama. Over a private lunch Thursday, Obama and Romney had white turkey chili, Southwestern grilled chicken salad, and - from the reports of it - the kind of conversation that never happens during a campaign.

WASHINGTON - Mitt Romney will have lunch Thursday at the White House with President Obama in the private dining room, a show of bipartisanship three weeks after the conclusion of a tough, sometimes nasty, election season. The meeting, their first since the final presidential debate Oct. 22 in Florida, comes amid the increasingly antagonistic negotiations between the White House and Congress to avert the looming fiscal cliff. Media will not be allowed at the private lunch, press secretary Jay Carney said in a brief statement Wednesday morning.

Four-year-old Frank Iguodala's palate is a sensitive thing. When savory bread pudding with butternut squash arrives on his lunch plate instead of his favorite, chicken nuggets, the hesitation is one of a discerning critic. Teacher Melissa McMenamin encourages the Friends School Haverford student to taste. One small bite follows another. Then a pause . . . . "It's a little bit great," Frank said. Chalk up another one for Chef Allie Hauptman, the tattooed, bandana-wearing former prep cook at a gourmet hot dog restaurant who is helping to lead the Delaware County school in a new culinary direction.

Adapted from a recent online discussion. Question: My brother and his now-fiancee "ruined" my wedding day by (her) causing a huge scene at my reception. We never received apologies, and have heard they're telling people we exaggerated what happened that day, and that we're just as much to blame (completely false). Since then, my brother became engaged to this wretched woman, and now wants me to help him prep for his big day. We haven't spoken much since my wedding. I can't get over that they won't even acknowledge wrongdoing.

One of the most entertaining days for me last football season came on Nov. 4. Not because I didn't have to travel to a Penn State football game (the Nittany Lions were off that week), but for the fact that I sat in on a lunch conversation between Joe Posnanski and Bill Lyon, with the topic being Joe Paterno. Posnanski was accumulating information for his book on the Penn State coach. Lyon, the highly decorated former Inquirer columnist and longtime regular on the Penn State beat, wrote about Paterno for more than 30 years.

WHAT'S a local who sticks around the sticky city to do if he or she is jonesing for a fancy meal? Sit outside: Pick a place with sidewalk tables, which typically aren't reserved. "If outdoor seating is there, the wait is never that long," said Val Safran, co-owner of Lolita, Barbuzzo and Jamoner. Go early - or late: "In Philadelphia, everybody likes to eat between 6:30 and 8, so if you're flexible, you can always get in," said Yin. Keep at it: OpenTable's Scott Jampol keeps tabs on summertime business.