Getting the whole story

I have another office kitchen story. I told a story in August last year about needing to get the other side of a story when I couldn't figure out why someone kept turning off the alert on the microwave ovens. There was a good reason for doing that.

Now, I was just in the kitchen as someone was making coffee. She is Japanese and I enjoy talking with her about different traditions in Japan and how they differ from similar things we do here in the United States (like Japanese students eating Kit-Kat bars before a big test). Today, she was making a pot of coffee in our big Bunn-O-Matic machine (similar to the one pictured here) and she had just finished pushing the basket holding the grounds into the machine and hitting the switch to start the process. Then, she clapped her hands three times and started to walk away. I thought this must be some Japanese tradition - clapping your hands for good luck or to make it work faster. Maybe it was a general tradition for making any food or beverage.

Luckily, I didn't just let my imagination run away and decided to ask her about the "tradition." She said, "No. The bag was leaking and I got grounds all over my hands. I was clapping to clean the loose grounds off my hands." Well, there you are. No ancient tradition. No wish for good luck. Just a practical matter. I guess I'm glad I asked and didn't start a false story about it. But it sounded so interesting when I explained it to myself. Maybe I should start the tradition.