From Snails in Bottles to Nails in Law Library Canteens
Keen readers of the Daily Mirror ((No not that Daily Mirror – the one from Colombo ))will have smiled at the following story:
Nail-biting lunch
By S. S. Selvanayagam
A senior lawyer claimed that he underwent a traumatic experience at the Colombo Law Library canteen while he was having his lunch.
He ordered a plate of rice with vegetables and sat down at a table close to the main counter of the canteen. A little later one of the waiters brought him a plate of rice with vegetables.
As he was partaking of the food, to his astonishment and shock, he found himself biting into something hard.
When he removed the hard object from his mouth, he saw that it was an iron nail about one inch in length. He immediately showed it to the other three lawyers seated at the table who were also having their lunch which they had ordered from the same canteen.
They were stunned by the sight of the iron nail which was in his plate of rice. The concerned lawyer had lodged a complaint with the Colombo Law Library Secretary urging an immediate inquiry and to take appropriate action to ensure that such incidents are not allowed to be repeated.
Funny, I never associated law libraries with eating in any form.
Ah, but libraries of all stripes are now courting clients with Starbucks coffee bars and such like. No bad thing, perhaps.
Ahem. Great Library. Osgoode Hall, Toronto. Restaurant adjacent thereto.
It’s not part of the GL but it’s within a stone’s throw. Once upon a time it was a short enough walk even for the judiciary, although they had a raised seating area did they not?
The judges had a separate table at the south end of the dining room in Osgoode Hall. It wasn’t elevated. It was just that the judges thought it was.