We feel like it's tea time again. We want our property back.

What shall we do at our tea party?" Daddy asked. "Do we sing and read poems like you do at Grammy's?"

"We can just talk. I can tell you about what's been happening at school. You can tell me about your work or what you did when you were a little boy. You know. Things that matter.

The proper, wise balancing of one's whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.

Tea was the great arbiter of many things, and for Pastaddams, his morning cup meant the difference between expressing rational thought and succumbing to the ineptitude that occupied recesses of his dormant mind. Merely having the cup in his hand facilitated the flow of ideas, and upon tea, the great nourishment of the tailor’s life, rested all his claims to rational dependence.

It shows the powerful effects of growing up in this country. They have come from a place with a different orientation toward education.

We never realized ... we'd have an assessment boom. There's people being bled to death.