Tea for Two

Like many her age, the young nun Satou had an irrepressible curiosity: the less she knew about a thing, the more she wanted to try it. Thus she had elected to use multithreading to improve performance in her log processing utility, despite master Banzen's cautions.

Banzen reviewed her code, then invited the nun to discuss his findings during the morning tea break.

When Satou had seated herself in the master’s tea room, Banzen picked up an empty bowl with his left hand while his right hand took a ladle of boiling-hot water from the pot and poured it directly onto Satou’s tatami mat. Satou yelped in surprise, leaping from the floor to avoid being scalded. The master calmly set the bowl in the center of the spreading puddle as his right hand beat the puddle with a whisk. Then his left hand reached for a bamboo scoop and began to spoon green tea powder into the dry bowl.

“Now,” said Banzen. “Let us discuss race conditions.”

Qi’s commentary

But first, sit down and come in.

Qi’s poem

Flowing from my brush
Glowing on my screen
Four lines readable in any order
The essence of thread safety