Quote of the Month... July 2003

To return to the apprentice sushi master: his education seems a matter of passive observation. The young man cleans the dishes, mops the kitchen floor, bows to the clients, fetches ingredients, and in the meantime follows from the corners of his eyes, without ever asking a question, everything that the sushi masters are doing. For no less than three years he watches them without being allowed to make actual sushi for the patrons of the restaurant--an extreme case of exposure without practice. He is waiting for the day on which he will be invited to make his first sushi, which he will do with remarkable dexterity.

--Frans de Waal, The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections of a Primatologist, Prologue