oranges and lemons

I've noticed that a lot of bloggers write about their day to make it, and them, sound important. On my way to my one-woman show in The Hague, or, Just back from Rio, where I was mobbed, or, The gamboretti were excellent -- much better than they were on my last Italian tour in 05.

Or it could be that these people lead truly important lives. I don't know. I do know that my days don't look like that.

Going to talk about an interesting -- as opposed to important; it's not important at all -- philosophical concept today. The eleventh orange. This has nothing to do with Christian history (The Ulster Code). But have you noticed how your mind goes when you are rooting through the tub of bargain oranges (this also works for ears of corn) to make up the dozen for 1.99? First one is easy. Second one too. Third one is trickier -- you reject one before finding another round full one. Then fourth and fifth and so on. Round about nine or ten it gets tougher to choose. You've picked through a lot of oranges now, and you want good ones. The eleventh good orange is almost impossible to find. You've invested all this time in oranges, you want a really worthwhile one. You weigh them in your hand. You smell them. Hmm. After five minutes of figuring, you make your choice. And breathe a sigh of relief. There. Almost done. It's taken the morning, but it's worth it.

Oddly, the very last orange is easy. Only one more to go -- how about that one? And you take it without even checking to see if it's rotten.
Funny, isn't it?

You know, I sort of lied at the opening to this blog. Today is a bit out of the common run for me. I am actually off to the airport later this morning. I shall climb onto a plane which will land me to a different airport an hour or so later. Day after tomorrow I'll be doing it again, backwards, landing at my airport and driving home.

I am almost certain that they will not be serving gamboretti on my flights. Salted pretzel snacks, maybe. These will not be better than the ones on my last flight; they'll be about the same. I plan to bring a piece or two of fruit to tide me over.