2025-04-24
6 分钟The Economist Hello, Alok Jha here.
I host Babbage, our science and tech podcast.
Welcome to Editors' Picks.
Here's an article handpicked from the latest edition of The Economist, read aloud.
I thought you might enjoy it.
When Monica Lewinsky, once an intern at the White House,
was cajoled into a lunch date by Linda Tripp,
a colleague wearing a wire,
she was met by FBI agents and taken to a room in Washington's Ritz Carlton Hotel to be interrogated.
What seemed like an innocent lunch date was one of the first steps towards a presidential impeachment.
Yet one of the more remarkable aspects of the story is that even lowly workers took lunch in a restaurant back in those days.
The clearly delineated lunch break has fallen out of favour in these more pressured times.
Knocking off for a midday meal could now be perceived as a sign of idleness.
What was once called a lunch hour is now more likely to consist of a sandwich al disco.
According to a study by the Hartman Group, a market research firm,
62% of American office workers regularly eat at their workstations.
Some will mourn the decline of cyberitic three-course affairs with wine,
perhaps book-ended with cocktails and a cigar,
once these feasts regularly punctuated the working day for the likes of bankers,
lawyers and journalists.