A Meeting Of Minds, Sharing A Smoke

I can never manage to finish reading the newspaper at Starbucks, whether it's eight in the morning or eleven at night. Sometimes I don't even get to start reading the paper at all. This morning I lucked out and was joined by Doug, New York Times in hand, and we each got to skim read the first section before Petr (That's the correct spelling. He's from the Czech Republic) showed up and the conversation soon wandered off in the direction of the latest Bush foibles in the Iran Iraq quagmire.

This photograph was taken a week or so ago, and the still unread part of the paper was sitting on the table along with my cigarettes. I'd gone there for my evening cup of coffee, and the young lady at the next table needed a light. I never see guys asking a woman for a light, but sometimes it seems like a lot of women never carry a lighter in their purse. I guess it would seem to be too forward to be hitting guys up for a smoke, but a light is a great opening gambit for meeting a fellow. That's probably why some men who don't smoke always have a lighter on hand, just in case.

Any way, we chatted awhile but nothing jelled. The magic just wasn't there. It might have had something to do with the fact that I was old enough to be her grandfather or it might have been something else. I went home with my half a cup of coffee where I finished catching up on the news.