Giovanni da Col

Turns and returns

[H]e wanted the barman to replenish his rum-glass. Crump came from behind the bar, seventyish, in a waiter’s white jacket. . . . “Yes, General,” he said. “Similar, sir? Very good, sir.” “I’m always telling him,” said an ancient with the humpty-dumpty head of Sibelius, “about that use of the word. It’s common among barmen and landlords. They say you can’t have the same again. But it is, in fact, precisely the same again that one wants. One doesn’t want anything similar. You deal in words, Enderby. You’re a writer. What’s your view of the matter?”