1419 The power of one

Friday night we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Abigail's (restaurant in Lakeside) with two other couples. There is a rumor that building is held together by the grape vines, but I don't put much stock in that--I think it is the wall paper. We'd all been looking forward to the Abigail's great perch dinners. One of the men, an expert on China who teaches in the foreign service and recently returned from two weeks in Japan, provided us interesting details on China's economy (it's the size of Italy's) and its growth (growing at a phenomenal rate, and in a few years the average income may hit $800 a year). Someone asked him what would replace the current government if that could happen, and sadly he replied, another totalitarian government because that's what China has always had.

On our walk home, my husband mused, "That was certainly a reasonable meal," and then he stopped and thought about it. He knew we couldn't both eat for $14.00, perch dinners plus dessert. So he headed back to the restaurant, flagged down the swamped hostess and had her refigure the bill. The waitress had dropped a one someplace, and the bill was off by $10.00.