Reverse Culture Shock

I’m glad that some Londoners get their missing property back. The Tube’s trove of lost and found items (false teeth, fish, cell phones…) implies that goods that go missing on the Underground aren’t gone — just lost.

If only the same were true above ground. When I lost track of my phone in Whole Foods, I never saw it again. The stroller I left outside my daughter’s nursery school disappeared quickly while I nipped in to pick her up. And the wallet I left in my purse by the Starbucks on Notting Hill Gate went missing for good.

But maybe people are a bit more honest deep down, on the Tube.