At Leshko's, I demanded a table for four, even though we were three.
He prided himself on handling difficult personalities, like a verbally abusive film executive who demanded a table one crowded New Year's Eve.
Yet regardless of locale, typing text into a laptop, personal organizer or e-mail device still requires a traditional keyboard; in many cases, it demands a table to support the keyboard, and generally both hands to type.
Recalling first-hand the 1968 Vietnam peace talks in Paris, held up for two months over how to seat the Vietcong, he demanded a table that would seat nine people only, not including the Bosnian Serbs.
But when one agent-turned-manager arrived more than an hour late with an entourage (including uninvited guests) and discovered that the only remaining spaces at the table were next to a clutch of junior publicists, he refused to join the party and demanded a private table.
The movement in Canada has gone through a seismic shift with a generation of indigenous activists demanding a seat at the table.
Still, Mr. Ferris expressed some concern about the meeting, saying, "Someone demanding a right at the table because of their homosexuality -- that's what bothers me".
As the biggest non-euro country hoping to sign the pact, Poland is demanding a seat at the table in the system of eurozone summits that is part of the new regime, while France is leading the resistance.
Since then the threat of roving strikes has won the attendants pay hikes at three airlines, including an 11% raise at US Airways, where management came to the table demanding a 5% cut in pay and benefits.
What is really at stake is power: new groups demanding a seat at the table, claiming a right to redefine what it means to be an American.
