Reader Going the Extra Mile

For the newspaper a bag X-ray at the East Mall entry, body scan and escalators to the 3rd floor. Starbucks gave the orientation, a little island in this case on the passageway whose seductions the serious reader must by some means decline. Coconut Island on the left no need wincing. Some little astonishment was overcome at the extent of the undifferentiated lure across the tiled floor — what did it take to manage a sense of individual style and attainment here between the offerings of the little stage-sets? On the slingshot return a split banner in a window shared a couple of mouth-watering getaway locations: Hello Dubrovnik/Istanbul. (Well, the old fortifications in either case did make for a logical pairing.) In the store mags were easy to find; newspapers more challenging. Follow the girl snaking through the piles to a cashier who had laid across his counter a single Jak Post in a sheaf of half a dozen other newspapers. In Indonesia the era of print media was well and truly past. Toxic glue in a boarded corner by the escalator again where a uniformed handsome boy stood guard armed with walking-talkie. Down four levels — including Upper Ground — and escorted across the roadways by other uniformed and helmeted lads who stopped highly polished cars with their little table-tennis racket signs. Another X-ray of the bag and body for the West Mall, “Sorry”from one of the older Security chaps who knew it was not tall Western gentlemen in fine panamas presenting concerns. Journal awaited just around the corner, on this occasion the girl at the counter missing the entry and thereby the fanfare was lost. Wifi at Journal today needed "Morrill" for username & "Franklin" password. A "Y" added to the name on the chit was perfectly forgivable: PAVLEY — same lad as yesterday, when he had immediately got it right. Chinese representation in the chairs was less evident today, though as lunch hour approached the proportion was beginning to be restored. Vape clouds that were produced outside the window in the garden seating created the effect of London fogs, Turner waterscapes and Christmas on television; magicians in the early perioid of TV had never benefited from such cover for their routines. The mall took a toll of pretenders, particularly young naifs. Exhortation for local food was carried in the chief article in the Jak Post today. A large part of the continuing incidence of malnutrition and stunting in RI was due to the ignorance of indigenous food-processing knowledge, the report suggested. The "ancestors used to learn from nature. Such skills have disappeared now," the specialist lamented.