Are such efforts worth while to achieve so transient a work of art as a dinner? (Marie Louise Ritz, Cesar Ritz: Host to the World, p. 285 – giving an account of the attention to detail that the General Manager, Victor Rey, supervized for one memorable dinner).

Very much like Dewey’s idea of an experience. In fact, he uses the example of a meal in his chapter, “Having an Experience”:

There is that meal in a Paris restaurant of which one says “that was an experience” (Art as Experience, p. 37).

How appropriate! Mrs. Ritz is writing about the Hôtel Ritz in Paris (Both Dewey’s book and Mrs. Ritz’s book were also published in 1938). But it doesn’t end there.

What about …

• Listening to music (Steve Jobs and the iPod);
• Waiting in line at the bank;
• Waiting at the hospital;
• Booking a room via a mobile app;
• The list goes on and on …