We use these square melamine plates most of the time, but the dishes we have that I love are from a discontinued line called ... I forget, American something. They're all black and white, and the salad plates are either the Statue of Liberty or the Chrysler Building. The dinner plates are either Metropolis (you have to click the link to it on that page), or a 1959 Cadillac or Amelia Earhart's plate. I love them. The mugs are Victorian brownstones.

Favorite mug is a Star Trek mug from Pfaltzgraf. It was from a pattern they designed for one of the movies. Aside from just being cool, it's a lovely design and it's big enough to make a two-bag cup of tea.

This is my current mug. I needed something hard to damage at work.

Favorite mug is my "Forget princess, I want to be a vampire!" mug that a Buffista set me! But my favorite tea cup is currently one of my fortune-telling ones.

I have 3 mugs that I tend to use the most, all on the large side. In cold weather I can wrap both hands around them to warm my fingers. The one I'm using right now is corporate swag but I like it because it's a bright, cheery orange. You can see a bit of the mug here [link] .

My favorite mug at work is a black oversized one that Getty Pictures send me by way of thanks for sending them thousands of $ in licensing business (along with a free iPod Nano that unfortunately didn't survive the washing machine).

But my all-time favorite was a golden stein-style mug neighbors brought me from a trip to Windsor, Canada when I was a kid. Dr. Pepper would continue fizzing for 30 minutes in that mug for some reason.

Do you have a favourite mug/coffee/tea cup?

I got JZ this Sally mug and it's super pleasing to hold and drink from. The shape of the lip, and balance in the hand is excellent.

When my mother kicks it (because if she dies before my father I suspect he won't care to keep them) my sister and I split a shitload of plates. Part of me resists buying anymore in anticipation of this event that I hope is many decades in the future. But there are multiple sets, many of which predate my birth. Some are lovely, some are...something, but all of them are emotionally important to me, through the ones she bought when my father was posted in Moscow--she's diligent about taking advantage of postings.

Unfortunately neither my sister nor I want her jewelry. So our closest (in terms of interaction) cousin I think gets most of it.

Wow, that's a cool pattern, Amy. I'm not used to plates with that representative a picture on the plates I eat off of. Personally I never made it past colours. My mother stopped at floral. Imagine coming over to my home and eating off these: [link] . Except I can't seat more than three, so only bring a date, no kids. Or just your favourite kid.

Tom, are you working in Nairobi?

I love that set of dishes. I would still like to get some of the other designs, although we don't need that many. But I use it both for daily or for fancy, so.