Whether the policy is sound or not isn't really something Ilde would dispute - she can't drink enough to compare it for herself, she gets drunk quickly and it burns through her fast - but it is familiar. The fact she doesn't seem to register Jules' coping mechanism of choice is almost more telling of the environment she comes from than if she had taken note of it; somebody else's potential alcoholism is like background noise.

So: "Eating is one thing," she says, mildly - she's still watching Jules, but that's because that's how lipreading works. One day, someone's going to dramatically turn away from her mid-argument and the effect will be utterly ruined by her inability to follow anything said after that. "There's nothing in New York but corruption and prey. Sometimes they make it pretty."