I’ve just come back from a trip to buy groceries. Now, it’s a faster process than in Iceland, because I can read all of the labels and signs. The checkout, on the other hand, is surprisingly similar to my Icelandic experience.

I can’t understand what the clerks are saying to me.

I find myself responding by rote, based on what part of the transaction we are at. It is astonishing. Some of this comes from people who are speaking English as a second language. I don’t begrudge them the incomprehensibility of their speech. I’ve been there myself and understand. But the majority of them are native speakers who mumble. Would it really kill them to open their mouth when speaking? I know they can speak loudly; I’ve heard them on their cellphones. I just want to be able to understand what they are saying when I check out.

I was looking for something else and stumbled across the Twins Days festival, in which thousands of twins descend on this one town in Ohio. In the photo gallery, was this photo of triplets. I just loved the guys’ shirts.

To save you from having to click on it to make it larger, the shirts say, “Ladies, there’s plenty of me to go around.” I don’t know them at all, but that’s just brilliant.