«It’s a long time since a man has asked me for my phone number”; I joked to the owner of a café in Nyon on Monday. I was out and about in the town in the afternoon and had stopped for a hot chocolate. This was the first day of the easing of restrictions in Switzerland. Restaurants and cafés are now allowed to open but are also obliged to ask customers for their contact details. The café owner knows me quite well so he didn’t need to ask my name, just my number.
Back in the 80’s there was a great little American sitcom television series called “Cheers”. Its main theme song “Where every body knows your name” was also the show’s catchphrase. The show was set in a bar in Boston and featured the lives of both the patrons and the employees of the bar. When one of the...