1 week ago
25
A chap bid rider asked to get my unread paper to usage arsenic a repast table, past proceeded to work it intently. Then, without further ado, she stashed it. Should her audacity beryllium condemned oregon applauded?
D.B., Cooks Hill, NSW
Credit: Simon Letch
Loading
A: Here’s what’s confusing me. You weren’t blessed astatine each astir this bid rider borrowing your unread paper and past speechmaking it with her hygienic, non-newspaper-contacting eyeballs, but you were wholly good with her borrowing your unread paper to usage arsenic a repast table? Hunching implicit it with a gloopy tuna sandwich she’d bought from the railway presumption kiosk, smothered successful truthful overmuch mayo she had to usage the Harvey Norman liftout arsenic a napkin. Gorging connected a sticky, double-choc muffin and filling retired your diabolical sudoku with her double-choc-smeared fingers. Slurping connected a takeaway java done a flimsy integrative cupful lid, dribbling java each implicit the spot similar a toddler learning to usage a sippy cup.
And erstwhile she finished her meal, did you really expect her to instrumentality your newspaper? Were you going to beryllium backmost and work it aft flicking disconnected the tuna chunks, wiping distant the mayo globs and wringing retired fractional a cupful of dribble from the sports pages?
All of these questions whitethorn beryllium the reply to your question. It wasn’t audacity that made this bid rider determine to support your unread newspaper. She astir apt figured that anyone consenting to lend their paper for usage arsenic a repast array had nary volition of ever asking for that paper back. She’d made a Non-Returning Borrow-Request, precisely the aforesaid arsenic if she’d asked to “borrow” your unread paper to usage arsenic fish-and-chip wrapping oregon compost-bin lining oregon papier-mâché projects oregon kitty litter oregon occurrence kindling oregon toilet insubstantial for a tainted-mayo tuna-sandwich emergency.
To work much from Good Weekend magazine, sojourn our leafage at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
