REPLY TO ABOVE

Dear Hotelier,

I perfectly agree with you. Since you are a hotelier I am reminded by association, of a fourth ‘R’. You know that the habit of reading while eating is usually frowned upon by stern mothers and wise wives. It is bad manner and bad for the digestion. But people continue to consume their morning quota of news along with breakfast; alphabet soups continue to be served to the tiny tots in a not particularly shy effort to mix education with a meal; and apples and oranges continue to be eaten to the accompaniment of minor problems in simple arithmetic concerning the money dad has to shell out if he buys three dozens of the one at an unheard of price and two dozens of the other of a slightly more reasonable price. Which is more eggheads and indigent poets still make use of napkins cuffs and table-covers to jot down formulas and pharses born or sudden inspiration. The eateries in the United States and therefore not being particularly original in offering to clients a king of education without tears by way of table mats covered with all sorts of information, authentic let me hope, on subjects varying from the United Nations to the solar system. Literary activity at a restaurant table is normally restricted to a prolonged and often baffing study of the menu while exercise of the thinking and reflective appartus is encouraged generally by tardy waiters and inefficient service. However a chap may as well learn a thing or two about the Food and Agricultural Organization and the moons of Jupiter while struggling with a steak or stirring his coffee. If it will help the noble cause of education there is nothing wrong in adding to the three ‘R’s fourth—Restauranting. But it must be hoped he would be learners will not come to prefer a cafe to a school. I think this meets your requirements.

Yours faithfully,

Professor.