If you read our last newsletter, you’d have read my a short bit about my desire to “lead you astray.” That is, I desire to take you away, for just a moment, from the sanctioned places you might be led by the nose to visit, the ones that lead to cultural dead-ends, the “best of ancient Rome according to just about anyone” lists that appear only slightly modified on thousands of web sites—archaeological sites so old you can gawk at them without ever wondering about how the earth changed because of their existence. They’re just cute. Or big.
I also want you to be exposed to deviant thoughts occasionally while you travel. Thoughts that vary from the commonly agreed upon lies of the rich and influential, politicians and talk show hosts. Deviant thoughts are like bitterness of the coffee that is fixed with either sugar, or, in a Caffè corretto, a drop or two of liquor—deviant adjuncts, at least in my country, which balance the brew.
So I shall begin by speaking of coffee and deviancy then. While idiot Republicans in the US try to tear the last shred of the social contract to bits so that welfare and government largess can be completely focused on large corporations where the money is least needed, their sharpened fangs biting into the last program that really works for humans on the right and on the left—Medicare—I’d like to lead you astray by introducing you to deviant thoughts on coffee and, hold on to your hats, income redistribution, albeit on a voluntary and tiny scale.
I’m talking about “Il caffè sospeso” which translates to “coffee in suspense”. You see, in Naples years ago folks would order two coffees and drink one. The left-over money would be thrown into a pot for the poor, who could walk in the door and inquire if there was any money in it so they could have a coffee. I had forgotten about caffè sospeso for a long time, and a few years ago asked some Naples travel gurus about it. They had never heard of it. A pity it’s gone out of style, like many easy habits that mitigate the horrors of not having enough in a dog-eat-dog world.
(I was reminded of this deviant habit by a link in The Top Bloggers in Italy Daily which thoughtful travelers might like to read. The article: Have you ever ordered a coffee in suspense?)
While we were cooking and surveying Nuraghi in Sardinia, we learned of another cultural deviancy. We liked to go from store to store in our small village with many stores and talk to the merchants. It turns out folks hated us for it. You were supposed to pick a store and go to it no matter what. ONE vegetable market. ONE butcher.
Why? Well, the number of thriving stores that existed without the cutthroat competition we suffer in the US was truly astounding. Families were willing to make a modest amount of money by peacefully coexisting with other merchants who vowed not to try to put them out of business. Consumers were willing to pay a little more for products that weren’t discounted so that these many families could make a modest sum. The social contract seemed to work very well.
Leading you astray, leading you away from things that only serve to confirm the popular politics of your unchosen country of birth is part of my job, as I see it. So the blog has a new category called, oddly enough, “leading you astray.” I’ll get to some destinations later. Sign up for the newsletter (free! free!) for more (and you can read last week’s, in case you’re just curious and yellow.)