I am a profligate lender of books. This fact may to some extent explain why I tend to acquire so many, since it means that I have to own 3 or 4 copies of If on a winter's night a traveler or Ada to guarantee that I will have one on hand at a crucial moment. I agree with C.S. Lewis on almost nothing else, but we do share this:

"I don't see why there shouldn't be books in Heaven. But you will find that your library in Heaven contains only some of the books you had on earth." "Which?" I asked. "The ones you gave away or lent." "I hope the lent ones won't still have alll the borrowers' dirty thumb marks," said I. "Oh yes they will," said he. "But just as the wounds of the martyrs will have turned into beauties, so you will find that the thumb-marks have turned into beautiful illuminated capitals or exquisite marginal woodcuts."

On the roadside diner news group I follow, there's been a discussion recently about how much diner items should cost. Since pancakes have been a matter of discussion here as well, let me bring up the issue here. How much should pancakes cost?

The background to my thinking is that pancakes are probably a profit center for most diners. Although they're usually cheap, they're also extremely cheap to make. Just as pizzerias are extremely profitable because the only expensive item in pizza is cheese, so diners are able to make large margins on orders of pancakes. After all, what are pancakes but cheeseless pizzas, with egg? I suspect, as a result, that restaurants have unusual latitude in terms of pricing the things. They are not, like steakhouses, driven to high prices by ingredient cost. That same point makes me extremely cognizant of how pancake houses try to drive up your average spend on pancakes without overly disturbing their ingredient costs. Like my propensity to order things I know the restaurant can't make out of spite, the knowledge that the restaurant is making a high profit off of me is a little bothersome. And yet, I love having pancakes out.

To make myself feel better, I have rules of thumb. Pancakes with fake syrup should cost $4.50. $5.50 with fake syrup and meat, and $7.50 with maple syrup and meat. I'm willing to also pay in the environs of $7.50 for some sort of special pancake - or even more with fresh fruits, as at the delightful, if overpriced, Sarabeth's ($12.50, for the excellent Lemon and Ricotta pancakes, with real maple syrup). Anything higher than those limits, and I'll walk out and good looking for alternative pancakes.

Any thoughts about "correct" prices? Does anyone still live in a $3.00 pancake area?