“All is vanity in man…”
          On all major holidays, I purchase four corsages; One each for my mother, grandmothers, and a grandaunt.  I always go to the same florist to have them done. This florist is horribly overpriced, but I have a particular reason for going there.  When I show up at the counter and tell the lady I would like four corsages, she asks what kind I would like.  Every time I offer the same reply, “Something understated.”  She makes several suggestions and I pick whichever one seems to appeal to me that day.  No matter which one I pick the lady always says the same thing, “Oh, Mr. Pieper; you have such good taste!" This compliment massages my narcissism enough to persuade me to pay half again what I would at the florist on the other side of town. 

 
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Quote of the day:
“O vanity! you are the lever by means of which Archimedes wished to lift the earth!”
          ~Mikhail Lermontov

 
And now, for your moment of zen: