Chopsticks

“Hashi,” I said.

“What?” said Joan, looking up from her Teriyaki chicken.

“In Japan they call them ‘hashi’.”

“Well, you certainly are a font of useful information,” said Joan, barely hiding the sarcasm in her voice.

As I applied my ‘chopsticks’ to a slice of sashimi, someone at the table behind us began to cough.

I looked around as he retched, then started to go red in the face.

Standing up, I grasped both hands around his lower abdomen and thrust upward. He coughed up the bone.

“And that,” I said to Joan. “Is what’s known as the ‘Heimlich maneuver’."