whatever makes you smile

a few months ago i read the book a gentleman in moscow by amor towles.  i have mentioned before how much i liked the book.  but i was reminded of it again today as i waited in line at my local post office. in the book, towles uses the expression ‘potted palm’ repeatedly. and every time he did, it made me smile. i can’t explain why, perhaps the alliteration, or perhaps a subconscious association of potted palms with gentile settings in tropical climates. whatever it was, it made me smile. so today, while waiting my turn at the post office, i eyed two large and mostly ignored potted palms at the end of a corridor. potted palms! i thought. i don’t know if stealing a potted palm leaf from the post office constitutes a felony theft of government property but if so, i am newly a felon. but a felon who has just given herself the opportunity to use the phrase “potted palms” half a dozen times, and who is smiling.

schefflera leaf (australian ivy palm)