Free music

Belinda is looking for a new mobile phone which has decent music playing capabilities.

...

Victoria: Nokia's CWM comes with a year of free music downloads.

Belinda: Not exactly free. I heard they build the cost of the music fees into the cost of the handset.

Victoria: Most young people expect music to be free. Except in Japan.

Belinda: Japanese will pay for music downloads?

Victoria: I asked a group of 15 Japanese students, "Do you pay for music or download it for free?" And all of them said, "I pay," "I pay," "I pay."

Belinda: They must be rich.

Victoria: And then, after class, I'm chatting with one of them and she tells me privately, "None of us actually pay for music. They all just told you they did. They download for free, same as people in other countries."

Belinda: Honne and tatemae!

...

Dessert

Ha, hot buttered potatoes. They were delish.

Why are we listening to Irish music?

My mother was Irish. A country whose biggest export is their people. And I like songs with a story. Same as I like pictures with a story.

Put on some Bach.

All form, no content? But OK. No one will go snooty if you play Bach, I guess.

Is there dessert?

Why not? Life’s too short for bad wine. And as Ernestine Ulmer said, "Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first."

I think Erma Bombeck put it a shade more dramatically, "Seize the moment. Remember those women on Titanic who waved off the dessert cart."

Ooh, I like that.

She was good with titles too. Family - The Ties that Bind... and Gag! Or, I Lost Everything in the Post-Natal Depression. And, The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank.

Chocolate?

I could. Good people often do bad things.

Know what you mean. “The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.”