One reader responds to a post on the MindMatters blog which lists what Bill and Melinda Gates served Chinese president Hu Jintao for dinner Tuesday night by comparing the reception to former American president Nixon's visit to China in 1972, in preparation for which Chinese premier Zhou Enlai had a vast array of seafood plucked from the Yellow Sea.

“Nixon ate a ton and a half of abalone but our president only gets fowl and flounder, prawns and whatnot,” the reader notes. “For one this shows that Americans don't know how to properly play host and don't understand our 5000-year-old civilization's etiquette. Secondly, one can see from this how easygoing our country's leaders are, willing to go to people's homes and eat such informal stuff.” [zh]