"You are right, of course. I had not fully considered ... question. I shall strive to be a proper patriot henceforth."
"Follow Winston Smith, and make sure your unpatrioticd response gets eradicated from all archives,"
Whatsisname of 1984! I was just trying to think of that last night.
Last December, an American came to visit us. I asked whether the situation back home in regard to free speech had gotten as bad as it looked from this side of the pond. She said that, yeah, sometimes when people criticized the government, someone would silently jab a finger toward the ceiling light fixture as in, "Remember we may be bugged." In a humorous way, of course.
Is this a widespread joke, as she thought, or just something in her circles?
Best Donna Richoux
An American living in the Netherlands