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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (61069)	10/4/2002 1:16:10 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

<<You are not justifying iconoclasts, you are describing sociopaths.......>> Here's a little anecdote that's sort of on topic. Rather like one of Jewel's stories. During lunch with a friend last week, I had occasion to tell him that I had begin leaving my napkin on the table rather than putting it on my lap, which is the standard. I worked my way into that decision over the last few months during which I have been on this sashimi kick/diet. I've been going out for a sashimi lunch most days, usually alone. I take a book when I eat out alone but the mind wanders. And engages in the weirdest activities. It was during this period that I came to decide to quit the silly practice of putting my napkin on my lap. For years now I've thought it was a silly practice. One can often, perhaps usually, get through a meal without using a napkin. The standard practice of placing it on one's lap was originally intended to catch food that fell on the lap. It was also a convenient place to find it when it was needed. In practice though, both are silly. At least for me. More often than not, the napkin slides off my lap onto the floor where it is not readily available if needed. As for catching food, it would defy the laws of physics for food to fall onto my lap. Were it to fall, it would fall either on the table or on my chest, unless I sat really far from the table, which I don't. So putting my napkin on my lap is silly and I've stopped doing it. I just leave it where whoever set the table put it. Neo, I hope you're not finding this too scandalous. Now, I wasn't born in a barn, as my mother used to say, so I recognize that I am violating the standard of behavior. Even a rebel like me doesn't do such things cavalierly. If I were truly libertine, I would tuck my napkin in my collar to protect the front of my shirt which too often falls victim to drips., such being the nature of soy sauce. I can't quite bring myself to do that. But I'll be damned if I'm going to keep putting my napkin in my lap. Maybe I can work myself up to the bib approach, but probably not. There are limits to how feral I'm prepared to have fellow diners think me and limits to how much I'm willing to discommode them by my ill manners. But I consider it in my best interests to suffer the blame, if any, for my ill manners in exchange for having my napkin accessible to me when needed, given that the standard is really quite silly. Do you really think me a sociopath? <g>