Touché. I suppose I was assuming the writer was not so affected, but of course I have no basis to make that assumption. I apologize.
No, that’s a fail for obvious reasons – you can’t bring those with you. Any fool can see you can bring a straw with you, and easily too.
Thank you for providing a perfect, and correct, analogy. In point of fact, I have lived this scenario, let me explain. A few years ago I attended an international conference in Beijing. Many of the attendees were Westerners. Of those, some chose never to venture outside the hotel for their meals, and they were supplied with forks and knives at the hotel restaurants, which catered to international guests. Some of us did choose to eat at local establishments though. I hope it won’t surprise you that a local restaurant in Beijing is unlikely to offer Western-style silverware as a matter of course, some places had a few settings, but in some the choice was chopsticks or nothing. Of people venturing to local restaurants, some were adept with chopsticks. Of the remainder, some did bring their own silverware. And finally, some didn’t bring silverware, weren’t adept with chopsticks, and made a fuss when the restaurant wasn’t able to supply them with Western silverware. I witnessed this on a couple of occasions.
Would you say the restaurant was out of line for not accommodating their needs?
Oh, and since you were making guesses as to my mental state – no, I did not find it annoying that restaurants in Beijing supply only chopsticks.
I’m sure you’re right, more’s the pity. But of course I’m not in favor of that kind of policing so if you’re trying to attribute that position to me, you’re in error.
By the way, I do acknowledge that there’s a legitimate gripe, having to do with the fact that in the past (and really, still, in most areas) straws were so ubiquitous as to be expected, and now we’re in a transition to a time when maybe that won’t be so. I’m sure the first time someone who has a physical need for one encounters a situation where it was reasonable in the past to assume a straw would be provided, and now it’s not, that would suck (damn, these puns are literally writing themselves, I only caught that one on proofreading). But I expect that there wouldn’t often be a second time. Is there some reason to believe that this problem wouldn’t self-correct, and pretty quickly too? (To go back to the Beijing restaurant analogy, I have no quarrel with the attendees who were brought up short on their first ever visit to a local restaurant. I do have a problem with those who did so repeatedly, though.)
My word. I stand (semi-) corrected. I say “semi” because the quote is masterfully vague as befits a politician. I wouldn’t really expect anything to come of it, then again sometimes it seems like the primary raison d’être of the UK is to provide someone who can be even sillier than the USA.
Yes, and see reply above. Their point was at least made in the spirit of conversation and not point-scoring, though.
My point exactly!
As regards momentary lapses, all I can say is that in years of using them, I’ve never had this problem. I’m not freakishly focused, either. We don’t worry about using, say, porcelain mugs, which also touch our teeth, so I’m not sure why we’d worry about hard straws unduly.
