Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Silent Lunch of the Rising Sun!
We would have titled this post "Oh Monz Darling Clementine" to honor the oranges Monz had with his special combo lunch. Combo because it was half from home (carrots, apples and the aforementioned clementines), half sweet chile chicken sandwich from the CSC. But we couldn't after reading this stunning article about a Japanese phenomena of young men locking themselves in their rooms and never coming out, except maybe a secret midnight run to the Japanese version of 7-11 for "lunch." The travel editor has been to Japan twice and knows what these lunches are like: wedges of rice with a small hole scooped out and replaced with veggies, fish, or the like, all surrounded by seaweed leafs. As tragic as the story is, we here at myl do think that the United States should also have these friends-for-hire to gently coax self-willed shutins out of their rooms. In fact, we are old enough to remember 1-800-two-oh-two-oh-two-oh-two (there was a bouncy jingle that went along with that), which sold something of a similar vibe. The social editor even called once in the wee hours and just lurked in the 8-per-room chat room. It was an amazing community. Most of the callers knew each other. The SE's presence was acknolwedged gently and his "I'm going to lurk a bit since I'm new" plan was warmy accepted. The group kinda commiserated over life's hardships. One was a woman who got pregnant and had a kid far too soon. There was comic relief, as some prankster "lept" into the room, shouted some jibberish and "lept" out, apparently trying to stay one step ahead of the 1-800-202-0202 monitors who might banish him. The SE left the conversation and hung up, feeling an intense combination of melencholy, saddness and hope for themselves and the world. Then 900 lines took over (1-800-202-0202 was ridiculously cheap by 900 number standards).
We would have titled this post "Oh Monz Darling Clementine" to honor the oranges Monz had with his special combo lunch. Combo because it was half from home (carrots, apples and the aforementioned clementines), half sweet chile chicken sandwich from the CSC. But we couldn't after reading this stunning article about a Japanese phenomena of young men locking themselves in their rooms and never coming out, except maybe a secret midnight run to the Japanese version of 7-11 for "lunch." The travel editor has been to Japan twice and knows what these lunches are like: wedges of rice with a small hole scooped out and replaced with veggies, fish, or the like, all surrounded by seaweed leafs. As tragic as the story is, we here at myl do think that the United States should also have these friends-for-hire to gently coax self-willed shutins out of their rooms. In fact, we are old enough to remember 1-800-two-oh-two-oh-two-oh-two (there was a bouncy jingle that went along with that), which sold something of a similar vibe. The social editor even called once in the wee hours and just lurked in the 8-per-room chat room. It was an amazing community. Most of the callers knew each other. The SE's presence was acknolwedged gently and his "I'm going to lurk a bit since I'm new" plan was warmy accepted. The group kinda commiserated over life's hardships. One was a woman who got pregnant and had a kid far too soon. There was comic relief, as some prankster "lept" into the room, shouted some jibberish and "lept" out, apparently trying to stay one step ahead of the 1-800-202-0202 monitors who might banish him. The SE left the conversation and hung up, feeling an intense combination of melencholy, saddness and hope for themselves and the world. Then 900 lines took over (1-800-202-0202 was ridiculously cheap by 900 number standards).
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