Photo: dpa/Hauke-Christian Dittrich
»What is a human being/ If his time’s gain, his greatest good/ is only sleep and food? A beast, nothing more./ Surely he who created us with such power of thinking/ To look ahead and backwards did not give us/ The ability and divine reason/ That it should mold within us unused.” Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, already knew this .
The time of gluttony and firecrackers is over, everyone should have caught up on enough sleep after extensive partying and sleepless nights. Whether everyone is ready to reactivate their thinking cells and use them sensibly remains to be seen. The fact is, it’s not a party without straws. Especially essential for cocktails. Reason enough for Americans to declare January 3rd National Drinking Straw Day. Why this day of all days? Because a US citizen named Marvin C. Stone is said to have registered the patent for it. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia, who, thousands of years before the “turning point” with the birth of Christ, melted drinking straws made of gold and precious stones that were more culturally and artistic and did not distort the taste of the drink like our paper, cardboard ones, pressed from plastic and elastane, just knew not yet copyrights. Our disposable items are also not necessarily sustainable. No “saving straws” against climate change. By the way, a saying from the time of “Christian seafaring” when the poor wretches hired by the agents of rich merchant families like the Fuggers couldn’t swim and even a raft made of straw wouldn’t have saved them from drowning in an emergency.
But back to Hamlet: “To be truly great means/ Not to move without a great object,/ But to defend a straw yourself,/ When honor is at stake…” Shakespeare’s heroes are pitiful and horrified when human lives are sacrificed for revenge “Meanwhile, I see with shame/ The approaching death of twenty thousand men,/ Who are just a cricket, a phantom of fame/ Going to the grave like going to bed.”
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