Napkins???

A friend arranged a huge home-made luncheon for the women employees in her office last week in commemoration of International Women's Day. She made a lovely buffet, as she tells the story, that includes several piles of napkins of various hues and designs that volunteers had brought in for the occasion. She noticed that many of the Bosnian guests were carefully keeping greasy tidbits off their napkins and were picking up extra napkins and putting them in their purses.

She had spotted a cultural phenomenon.

It seems that napkin-collecting is a pretty big thing for Bosnian women. Or girls. At least two women in the office confessed that yes, they too collected the paper products. One said she had a huge box of them and loved every one of her precious napkins, especially the delicate little thin ones.

She gave her away during the war to a young girl in the neighborhood -- but still misses them.

"You don't know how beautiful those things were," the other woman said. "They're so delicate you can see through them. You can damage them in a second."