Fake News.
Apparently it isn’t the Romans who have a good sense of humor. It’s Barb.
Starting over. The Romans may indeed have a sense of humor, but one shouldn’t conclude that based solely upon the placement of packets of Nescafé instant coffee in a hotel room with no means of boiling water. They didn’t do that.
It was Barb.
It was she who pointed out the packets “over on the desk”. It was she who mentioned that there was no way of boiling water. It was she who observed that “it’s not so bad” (Rainman reference) when it’s made with cold tap water.
Just the facts.
It wasn’t until I was reading to her that last work of fiction I’d posted that she said “oh, no. I brought the coffee.”
Of course she did. She’s a smart cookie and hates leaving to chance the supply of caffeine. True, there is a Roman transit strike today. But we didn’t know that until this morning. There could have been a dozen other reasons why the drug (caffeine) dealer’s might not be on the corner when Barb needed an early morning fix – so she’s prepared! BYOC.
Speaking only for myself, I lay the blame for this misunderstanding – and myriad others – upon my personal Babelfish. (Those of you who are familiar with Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will get my reference. The rest of you: get familiar! I started with the fourth book of the trilogy, but you can begin with the first to save time.)
Barb speaks Spaghetti, with a slight Blonde Inflection. My brain is hardwired for Waffle, weighted for Obvious Inference. You know, the Venus/Mars thing.
So when one is in a hotel room, where one often finds hotel-supplied instant coffee & tea, and one awakens in the morning – the customary time of day for consuming said hotel-supplied Instant coffee – and one is informed that there are instant coffee packets “over on the desk” – where one generally finds the hotel-supplied instant coffee packets, one whose OS is Waffle/OI might conclude that the presence of hotel-supplied instant coffee packets is typical and that, perhaps, the housekeeping staff removed the electric water boiling device for cleaning/repair/replacement and neglected to return it. So one might make a joke about such an oversight.
Especially when ones Babelfish neglected to point out that some things get Lost In Translation, and a fuller rendition of the Blondespeak Utterance might have been “there wasn’t any coffee in the room, but I brought some so, you’re welcome.”
Thus spake Barbathustra, upon hearing my recitation of the aforementioned Roman sense of humor.
Stupid Babelfish.
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“This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”
B & B 