Illustrated back cover
                                                                                                     The Yellow Book, Volume I, April 1894
                                                                                                     London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane

I realize, of course, that you've probably been caught in tight quarters with handsome champagne-soaked Frenchmen and vengeful teens in school uniforms more times than you can count.  In a way it gives me comfort, knowing I'm not the first.  

Nevertheless, returning to my predicament with Pam and Didier [See below, "Kitchen Talk"] I found myself asking the question, "what would a normal, sensible person do?"

A few obvious choices promptly came to mind:

1.  Surrender to the natural and inevitable flow of Life; let go and trust the process as the ever present Now plays out around you.
2.  Fight back.  Shout louder than those two incorrigible miscreants.  You're older.  It's your kitchen.
3.  Wait for Dinah and someone with an old banjo.  

I very much doubt, however, if you will be able to guess what I ended up deciding to do.