No Coffee For You

When you eat in the dining car, they seat you at tables with other folks. Mostly it must be a pragmatic way to maximize the number of people they feed, but it's also a good part of the experience. Talking face to face with strangers across a clean white tablecloth is what eating in the dining car is all about.

So we had breakfast on the morning of the second day with a couple who wandered into the dining car late. Actually, they had already eaten. (They brought snacks and things along.) And they were only travelling a short way. But they wanted to sit and relax in the dining car while they were on the train. So they came in late for coffee and juice.

Seating them was quite an ordeal. There were blind, you see, and the train was rocking from side to side. The attendant lead one of them to the table and the other followed behind. They were all three holding hand to arm.

Sit on your left, the attendant commanded as she turned around.

So he sat down in the seat to his left -- right on top of a man sitting across the aisle from us.

No! Your other left, the attendant said without a hint of an apology. At that point she was, you see, looking back down the aisle at them, and she had meant her own left.

After a substantial amount of shifting and squeezing (the woman barely fit in the seat), the two of them got settled. We introduced ourselves, and they immediately launched into an hour-long string of bad jokes and puns mixed with otherwise normal conversation and periodic efforts to call friends on their cell phones. We were mostly done with our meal, but we stayed and sat and talked with them. And we chuckled at their jokes.

After an hour or so had gone by, a waiter came up and silently cleared our plates away, and he took their cups and glasses, too. They had not finished drinking their coffee and juice.

Well, I wasn't finished with my coffee, one of them said.

The waiter responded immediately, We are closed. CLOSED! I'll put your coffee in a paper cup!

We sat in stunned silence and eventually got up and went back to our seats.

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Amtrak Texas Eagle, northbound to Chicago
11:42:31 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

The Empty Public Domain

John Robb talks about Dave Winer talking about the issues raised recently by Lessig:

... we finally have the means to extend access to the public domain to everybody through the Internet, and we are finding it empty.

4:55:58 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Lost Liberties

The times have changed. One by one the lessons we learned in school fall, post 9-11.

The attorney general decides that due process is only due to those whom he decides it is due.

The Librarian of Congress decides you can't object to regulations restricting online webcasting unless you were party to their making. (And Doc is not impressed.)

3:45:05 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []