First of all, carbonated beverages always taste better in glass than they do in plastic. They lose their crispness in the latter. The first ice-cold Schlug, right after you open the bottle, suffers a particularly depressing fate in a plastic bottle, for the water inside it invariably lacks tastes warmer and flatter. More than that, though, there's the feel of the glass Gerolsteiner bottle itself. To paraphrase Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, "I've grown accustomed to its shape." The ritual of twisting the cap off, taking a drink, then twisting it back on has become as much a sine qua non of my teaching as the way I use the whiteboard. When it became my turn to pay today, the checker asked me the standard, "How are you doing today?" My reply, in my best imitation of Peter Finch: "I'm mad as hell!"
A Crushing Blow
First of all, carbonated beverages always taste better in glass than they do in plastic. They lose their crispness in the latter. The first ice-cold Schlug, right after you open the bottle, suffers a particularly depressing fate in a plastic bottle, for the water inside it invariably lacks tastes warmer and flatter. More than that, though, there's the feel of the glass Gerolsteiner bottle itself. To paraphrase Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, "I've grown accustomed to its shape." The ritual of twisting the cap off, taking a drink, then twisting it back on has become as much a sine qua non of my teaching as the way I use the whiteboard. When it became my turn to pay today, the checker asked me the standard, "How are you doing today?" My reply, in my best imitation of Peter Finch: "I'm mad as hell!"
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Remembering the Earthquake
I've been doing a bad job of commemorating special occasions lately. Or maybe I'm doing a good job of not expending too much energy thinking about…
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The Best Sort of Mimicry
Skylar was given the assignment, on short notice, to write a "list" poem for her Literature class. Because it's due tomorrow and she has already been…
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Poet, Pragmatist
When I picked Skylar up from school on Monday, she excitedly reported that she had won the district-wide poetry contest for her grade level. This…
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- 16 comments
-
Remembering the Earthquake
I've been doing a bad job of commemorating special occasions lately. Or maybe I'm doing a good job of not expending too much energy thinking about…
-
The Best Sort of Mimicry
Skylar was given the assignment, on short notice, to write a "list" poem for her Literature class. Because it's due tomorrow and she has already been…
-
Poet, Pragmatist
When I picked Skylar up from school on Monday, she excitedly reported that she had won the district-wide poetry contest for her grade level. This…
