The Booker for Banville and all the tea in China

This year's Man Booker Prize was won by Irishman John Banville for his novel The Sea, according to The Times of London. He beat out finalists Julian Barnes (odds-on favorite for his Arthur & George), Sebastian Barry (A Long Long Way), Zadie Smith (On Beauty), Ali Smith (The Accidental) and Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go). If you're curious about the winner and finalists, try the links here.

And what goes better with a good Booker book than a nice cup of tea? The New York Times reports that China's tea exports are threatening the economies of smaller (and what isn't smaller than China, for Heaven's sake?), poorer countries like Sri Lanka and Kenya. Seems they want to hop back on that big tea trolley and become the driving force in pushing dried green leaves again. This, even though the younger generation in China prefers Coke and Sprite to tea. Go fig'ya . . .