He drove his German car made of Swedish steel and interior of Argentine leather
to a gasoline station, where he filled up with Arab oil shipped in a Liberian tanker
and bought two French tires, composed of rubber from Sri Lanka.
At home, he dropped off his Moroccan briefcase, hung up his Scottish tweed
wool coat, removed his Italian shoes and Egyptian cotton shirt, then donned
a Hong Kong robe and matching slippers from Taiwan.
More comfortable now, he poured a cup of hot Brazilian coffee into an
English coffee mug, set a Mexican place mat on an Irish linen tablecloth
atop a Danish table varnished with linseed oil from India.
Then he filled his Austrian pipe with Turkish tobacco, lit it, and picked up
a Japanese ballpoint pen, with which he wrote a letter to his congressman
demanding to know why the United States has an unfavorable balance of trade.
"Only In America"
From the book, Dear Abby's "Keepers"
Special letters, essays, and poems
(1992)
Abigail Van Buren
(1918-2013)
American Advice columnist
and radio show host
No comments:
Post a Comment