Breakfast and its Discontents

This morning at work, when I bemoaned the absence of poppy-seed bagels in our staff breakfast basket, I was told "tough titty." An ugly and somewhat scheudenfraude-ish expression, "tough titty" never fails to conjure, in my mind at least, a mental image of Salvador Dali's memorable painting Premonition of Civil War.

Indeed, one wonders how many heads would have rolled if Franco or La Pasionaria had been denied their usual early morning repast during the Spanish conflict. Only the brave Buenaventura Durruti would have said "Here, my friend. Take half of my breakfast sandwich. It is only a stale blueberry muffin but I want you to have it." And that, of course, is the toughest tit of all.