Flashback time! I was taking Gigi for a walk in the stroller this morning when I noticed that someone had left a beer can on the side of the road. "Swine," I thought, reaching over to pick it up, "blighting our neighborhood." I figured I'd just drop it in the recycling bin at home...but then I thought, how would it look, walking around with a beer can in my hand or the cup holder, before noon, out with the baby?

And for a moment, I was back in the Baltics, my friends. Oh yes, where there is no such thing as an "open container law," where gin and tonic is sold in cans as a soft drink. Really, I once saw a lady in my prior home city drinking a canned G&T (which in and of itself is an abomination) at eight in the morning...walking her kid to school. Jesus wept.

In the end, I decided that civic pride trumped personal dignity. I put the can in the stroller basket and headed for home.