Did you know Peter Hitchens has a blog? I very much enjoyed
this post --which connects "victimless crimes" and the decline of courtesy to the collapse of imagination, while rambling through the Moscow Metro and other sites of interest:
While travelling on the Metro (Moscow's magnificent underground railway system) I used to hold the heavy steel and glass swing doors open for people behind me - for a bit. Then I noticed that they looked at me strangely, as if they thought I was playing a trick and was planning to let the door swing back into their faces at the last moment (which is exactly what they did think, I later found out).
One even exclaimed, in tones of amazement "You're obviously not a Russian person".
That brought back a memory from 20 years ago. My parents came to visit me in Madrid, and my dad gave up his seat for a woman on a crowded subway. She was incredulous. Why did you do that? There could be only one explanation, and Dad provided it:
Soy extranjero.
(I'm a foreigner.) Everyone within hearing laughed.
