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I have said in another entry that I dislike the American habit of eating anything, anytime, anywhere. I didn't know that people ate out of designated areas: Olin Library has just started a campaign to avoid that. I have seen screen savers with ants and roaches eating a book spilled with coke.

And now I get an email asking graduate students if we want a job in a food patrol. That is the way they call it. Food patrol.

Let's see. I don't doubt that the library needs that. I don't want rats and the like eating the crumbs that other students leave lying about. But I'm so surprised at the behaviour of my fellow students. Does it take that long to go to the Libe Cafe and eat your sandwich there or what? The fact that there is no space in Libe Cafe is NOT an excuse. Yesterday there weren't any seats in Libe, so I took my sandwich and walked fifty steps to Willard Straight Hall; not exactly a marathon. My suspicion is that people don't eat their lunches at their laptop because they don't have time to take a break, but that their oral fixation or their gluttony is too strong and they are taking sweeties.

My suggestion is that they take the food patrol to Ithaca's kindergartens and teach the wee kids some manners before they're grown and it's too late. Please.