I ran to the grocery store on Friday for beer, and it was a MADHOUSE. People crowded the aisles (well, the beer aisle was clear, which was nice - usually it's full of elderly men spending 20 minutes picking out the ONE can of beer they're going to buy), the lines reached the back of the store - you could barely move. I finally got home, checked out the Hong Kong news, and it turns out that people were madly buying up all of the salt (iodine), bananas (potassium) and rice (just 'cause) in town in response to the threat of radiation.
But Friday afternoon I had to meet a friend at Starbucks. When I got there it was packed. No seats, a line of about fifty people snaking around the restaurant and down the stairs - again, you couldn't even move.
I thought "Great - some jerk has started a rumor that coffee protects you from radiation and now there won't be coffee in Hong Kong for weeks." But I'm a cynical ass. From 4:30-5:30 on Friday Starbucks was donating all profits to aid for Japan. And I'm even more of an ass for seeing the long line, being too lazy to wait, and buying a Nescafe at 7-11 instead.
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