Cocktail sticks

You might notice in Holland that if you order a white beer - a Hoogarden or Witte beer - they will put in a slice of lemon with an upside-down plastic cocktail stick to squash the lemon.

You fish out the stick and turn it around to squash the lemon, then dry your fingers on your pants.

I've asked barpersons why they put the stick upside-down, but they invariably look dumb and say it's standard. Like a lot of things in Holland that are done because they're standard.

I got the same answer from the otherwise attractive waitress at Panama the other day, when I went to see a Lake Montgomery gig. It's the standard way, she said.

To her credit she asked the boss, and then told me he knows why.

The dishevelled Panama boss came over and explained that some years back, a woman had lifted her glass to take a drink, and the sharp end of the cocktail stick popped her eye out. She consequently sued the bar, who claimed that they had put the cocktail stick in upside down, and that she was at fault for turning it around.

Since then bars in Holland always place the cocktail stick sharp-end down.

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