Janet and I have been married for nearly a year (legally, for a year and four days), and have for 357 days not ceased to wonder who might have given us the beautiful WMF salad tongs and knife sharpener. This is my last effort to try to identify the giver in order to be able to express our thanks… if you read this, please e-mail me!
Yesterday, I took a Syrian visitor for dinner. He’s a respectable professor I’d place in his late forties who speaks several languages (at least Russian and English) and has spent some time living both in the US and in the Soviet Union. We somehow came to talking about marriage and having children, and he mentioned he was one of 11 children, and has four of his own. His family is apparently about average in Syria. I said that today, two children are about average in Switzerland, and he said he thought not marrying and having children was extremely selfish. Then he corrected himself and said he’d go farther and call that behavior a crime against society, because the perpetrator is enjoying all the benefits of society without contributing to its continuation.
And here I’d thought it was a crime against society that Starbucks no longer offers a venti-sized tea for the tall price if I decide to only use one teabag instead of two. Now they charge that extra franc, but the barista is obliged to give me the second tea bag. I told her a buck for a teabag was definitely the most expensive teabag I’d ever bought - I didn’t tell her it changes my perception of Starbucks from a place where I can get a big mug of tea for a decent price to a place where I can get a big mug of tea. And that will greatly alter how I feel about stepping inside.
Now, I have this wonderful pre-opened Tazo Chai teabag I’m selling to the highest bidder…