Meals on wheels

摘要

Nothing Should Surprise us anymore. Yet you'd have thought that Little Green Men had landed a spaceship at the Richard J. Daley Center and planted their Martian flag on the Chicago Picasso. No more dining cars! Soon, no more long-distance trains! The world is ending! It calls to mind a magazine writer, Thomas Frank, who has a habit of starting his long articles by saving, "If such-and-such is true, then..." and launching into his thesis. I usually say to myself, "No, Tom, such-and-such is not true, so everything you are about to tell me is BS." That's the case with the reaction to Amtrak's announcement that for sleeping-car passengers starting June 1, it would substitute free boxed meals for full dining-car service on the Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited and Chicago-New York City Lake Shore Limited.