merci_beaucoup epitome of incomprehensibility I returned the cans and plastic bottles to the grocery store today for a total of $5.60. A strange encounter proceeded it: while I was walking my bike along the sidewalk under the strip mall's awning (trying to avoid the traffic and sporadic raindrops), I saw a woman sitting at the sidewalk's edge, drinking from a beer can, with two boys playing around her. Two more cans were on the ground in front of her. I asked, "Are these empty? Can I take them? I'm taking cans to the grocery store." She seemed okay with that, so I overturned them to let the remaining drops out while I tied a shoe. Then I shook them out again before putting them in my large Dollarama bag. "Merci beaucoup," I said, though there was no apparent reason to switch to French. "Bonne journée." She nodded appreciatively. I felt that I had been nice, though why did I feel that way? Was I offering her kindness somehow by treating her as an equal instead of looking at her scornfully (voicing judgment like "Stop drinking around your kids! Go and do something 'productive'!")? Or was I just robbing someone poorer than me of twenty potential cents?? 250705 ... e_o_i For accuracy's sake: I had that conversation before reaching the strip mall. It was at the curb around the optometrist's office, which is a rectangle building unattached to anything, as far as I remember. I don't know why I'd gotten off my bike at that point. Maybe just because I saw the beer cans and had the idea of picking them up. The things I do don't always make sense to me. 250705 what's it to you? who go blather from