{"id":9637,"date":"2009-10-10T10:46:53","date_gmt":"2009-10-10T14:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9637"},"modified":"2010-07-02T23:27:06","modified_gmt":"2010-07-03T03:27:06","slug":"a-most-unusual-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9637","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;a most unusual conversation&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Chocolates<\/strong><br \/>\n<i>by Lewis Simpson<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Once some people were visiting Chekhov.<br \/>\nWhile they made remarks about his genius<br \/>\nthe Master fidgeted. Finally<br \/>\nhe said, &#8220;Do you like chocolates?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They were astonished, and silent.<br \/>\nHe repeated the question,<br \/>\nwhereupon one lady plucked up her courage<br \/>\nand murmured shyly, &#8220;Yes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Tell me,&#8221; he said, leaning forward,<br \/>\nlight glinting from his spectacles,<br \/>\n&#8220;what kind? The light, sweet chocolate<br \/>\nor the dark, bitter kind?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The conversation became general<br \/>\nThey spoke of cherry centers,<br \/>\nof almonds and Brazil nuts.<br \/>\nLosing their inhibitions<br \/>\nthey interrupted one another.<br \/>\nFor people may not know what they think<br \/>\nabout politics in the Balkans,<br \/>\nor the vexed question of men and women,<\/p>\n<p>but everyone has a definite opinion<br \/>\nabout the flavor of shredded coconut.<br \/>\nFinally someone spoke of chocolates filled with liqueur,<br \/>\nand everyone, even the author of Uncle Vanya,<br \/>\nwas at a loss for words.<\/p>\n<p>As they were leaving he stood by the door<br \/>\nand took their hands.<\/p>\n<p>In the coach returning to Petersburg<br \/>\nthey agreed that it had been a most<br \/>\nunusual conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chocolates by Lewis Simpson Once some people were visiting Chekhov. While they made remarks about his genius the Master fidgeted. Finally he said, &#8220;Do you like chocolates?&#8221; They were astonished, and silent. He repeated the question, whereupon one lady plucked &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=9637\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[194],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9637"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15274,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9637\/revisions\/15274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}