Thing To Do Today: negotiate.

 The base-line is that slices of cake should all be the same size. 

If they're not, then there has to be a reason: the larger slice goes to the winner, or the visitor, or the hardest-working.

This belief in fairness runs deep into our consciousness and deeply through our language. A lord (who gets his own way) earns his privilege (the word lord means loaf-giver).

So we negotiate all the time: be a good boy, and you can have some ice cream. 

We even negotiate with ourselves: I'll do an hour's revision and then I'll watch TV.

We even, Heaven help us, negotiate with God: if you'll let her get better I'll give up gambling.

It can get very odd indeed.

But it's better than trying to get your own way by using a machete, after all.

Thing To Do Today: negotiate. The Latin word negōtīāre means to do business, from nec, not, and ōtium, leisure.