Sunday, August 23, 2015

Dirty Cup Part II


Seems like I'm not the only one who believes in crusty tea cups. Julian, a follower of this blog, says disgusting habits like mine are traditional in Asia--and here reprinted with his permission is his own "dirty cup" story: 

About your "dirty" cup: it happens that the tea residue on teapots is traditional in Asia, and supposedly adds to the flavor. So, once upon a time, in my rolling stone years, I carried with me a little green porcelain teapot that I stole from my mother and that I never washed. It got nice and brown on the inside. I brewed tea very strong and drank a lot and had my little rituals. 

When I left England to start a new job at Oakland University, my little pot, broken and mended several times, but still nicely brown on the inside, made its second trans-Atlantic voyage and sat on my new office's bookshelf. And then I came in to work one day and the sweet mid-Western woman who was the department secretary had taken pity on the new twenty-something male instructor with the beard and odd habits, and scrubbed his filthy teapot!! It's never been the same since. In fact, I disposed of it a few years ago after yet another break. It never acquired the same patina. 

As for the secretary, we became good friends. She was about 10 years older than I. The former department head, who had hired me en passant, so to speak, as he left, had been a bit irascible and she missed him. So when I started writing very biting letters to various people, she really enjoyed typing them up. Then we would keep them for a day, and write something a bit more more subtle (and polite). She was the one I miss most there when I left. I even forgave the clean teapot, although for the rest of my life, I have never had one as good. 

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