My own potluck disaster had nothing to do with the quality of the food. One summer during college, I hosted a picnic at my parents' house, to which I asked everyone to bring a side dish to pass (I was grilling the meat). The first guest brought a potato salad. As did the second ... as did the third. From that point forward, it got very exciting - we began betting on whether each next guest would bring a potato salad. And they did. Every single one of them. Ellen