From The Sunday Times Magazine via Google Books [London], 29 January 1984, 53-54. Copyright © Times Newspapers Limited 1984. Reprinted by permission of Times Newspapers Limited. Conducted Winter 1983/84.
The temperature is 10 below zero. But inside the local restaurant in Syracuse, New York, the air conditioner is running and the silverware is ice cold. Raymond Carver shivers and asks the waitress to warm his coffee. “Sure thing, honey,” she says, dumping the contents of the old cup on to his half-eaten lunch. He looks down at his pastrami sandwich. It is submerged in black coffee. “Gee,” he says, “I’ve never seen anyone do that before.”
