Questions to Ponder

What does it mean to "dine out on a story?" (People, primarily British, use this phrase all the time but without saying precisely what they mean. According to the OED, the phrase "dined out on" means to be given hospitality at dinner partly or chiefly for the sake of one's conversation or knowledge about [a specific incident or topic, etc.]. ) Does a person gain something from having a good story to tell? What are stories worth? Do those people with good stories to tell have some sort of social advantage over those who don't? Does this social advantage translate into economic gain? (Can one translate everything into economic terms -- or, rather, can such unquantifiables be quantified? It's a side question but I think a crucial one.)

For me the question was first raised in college or soon thereafter, when talking to friends about really horrible dating experiences. As bad as things ever got, we could always salvage what we called Anecdotal Value from the episode. The date with the cheap guy who frowned at me for ordering the blue cheese dressing after the waiter said it was an extra fifty cents? No second date but the first had positive Anecdotal Value. Did I dine out on the story? No, but my friends enjoy it and I enjoy telling it. It had some kind of value, but what? More than fifty cents certainly.....