ChopSticks

Those of you who drink iced tea recognize these as the chopsticks we use in lieu of ice tea spoons. They are very efficient stirrers, and while once in a while a customer mistakes it for a straw in their glass, most people find them pretty handy at the job. So handy that the 20 you see in the jar above are the survivors of the 250 we started out with two years ago... Where have they all disappeared to? Well, certainly a few have broken and a few more probably got inadvertently thrown away. A few I have actually given to people who have asked; just recently a regular asked me if he could have one to use at home. I lent another half dozen to a fellow last year to use as bookmarks for a rare book he was displaying during the wildlife show, and despite many phone calls, I never got those back. The craziest example happened last night - the ice tea drinker told the busgirl that he wanted a chop for his stick...then he proceeded to walk out with it, waving it at me as he left, saying he was taking it with him. I asked him why he was doing that and he said, well, it came with his ice tea so he was taking it home...hmmm...you gotta wonder, if we used regular ice tea spoons, would he claim that too? And why not just take the plate and the place mat and the creamer, all those things that "come with" the meal?

People. They're not just in Kansas anymore.