On one my trips to Syria when I was a kid, my parents decided that it was time for me to learn some independence. They sent me down to the corner store with 25 Syrian pounds, and told me to buy some gum. I didn't speak arabic, but the Syrian shopkeepers (in the right parts of Damascus) speak pidgin armenian. I asked the man for one candy, whose wrapper was displayed on a plastic sheet, and he said "mafi." (none, in Arabic). I asked for another. "Mafi" again. And another. Mafi, Mafi, Mafi. So finally I blurted out, "so what do you have?". And he pointed to a small, thick, chocolate bar puzzlingly made in Egypt and tasting of soap.

Of course, this was soviet Syria. And it was like that everywhere in that country. The shops didn't have anything, and if you got anything at all out of the shopkeeper, even if it wasn't what you wanted, complaining wasn't in the cards. I've run into Soviet style shops even here in America. There is an exceptionally inexpensive diner in Wilmington, Delaware which sticks particularly in my mind. The inimitable owner isn't especially concerned with what you ordered. You'll get (and take) whatever the cook thinks you deserve.

All this comes to mind as I sit here taking a break from billing (I am having a busy week of it at work) eating a delicious rice and spicy potato concoction I ordered off our internet food ordering system from a local restaurant. The restaurant has me in a bind. The food is excellent - delicious middle eastern fare. But they have not once sent me what I ordered, or anything close. Take tonight, for example. I might be eating rice and potatoes. I ordered, and have the email to prove it, bulghur and lentils. My dessert turned out to be baklava rather than namoura, and I have meat filled grape leaves with yogurt sauce rather than cold rice and onion filled grape leaves. One day I'm going in there to ask them if they're doing this for fun.

But, the dilemma. I'd still rather eat the wrong thing from there than the right thing from elswhere. So I don't complain. And wonder who eats potato with rice.

In Jones v. Bock, decided today, Chief Justice Roberts writes (for the court):

After assaulting a guard, [John Walton] was sanctioned with an indefinite "upper slot" restriction.(6)

6: An upper slot restriction limits the inamte to receiving food and paperwork via the lower slot of the cell door. ... Presumably, this is less desirable than access through the upper slot; the record does not reveal how effective this particular sanction is in discocuraging assaults on staff.