READING II In Moscow the next morning. I join the queue at McDonald's just off Pushkin Street. The Moscow McDonald's is by far the biggest fast food outlet in the world. serving 70,000 customers a day on weekends. Normally there are about 1.500 people in line and it can take them an hour to reach the counters. In the queue I meet Boris and Nataly Smmov and their 4-year-old daughter. Irina. Boris, 37, is an electronics 9 engineer. Nataly. 34. a teacher by profession is now a fulltime housewife. Nataly speaks better English but her husband is more outspoken. l offer to take them to the dollars-only Pizza Hut just down the road. There's a long queue for tak pizzas at the "roubles" section. but in the dollar secten at noon only three tables are taken. The Smirnovs have never been in an empty restaurant. They are stunned Irina jumps around as her parents order her some ice cream. The smimovs thank me profusely for buying them a meal at such a nice restaurant. I tell them I find the discrimination offensive. Those who can only pay in roubles line up for hours. Those who can afford dollars can walk into empty restaurants The pizzas for both l sets of patrons come from the same kitchen. In South Africa they call it aparthed in Moscow it's lack of hard currency. We can assume that the wr ter a. was told to leave the queue b. preferred an outspoken person c. had been waiting for an hour before he met the Smirnovs was not a resident of Moscow 2 The Smirnovs, upon entering Puza Hut, was stunned because a they arrived exactly at noon b. they were used to crowded pizza restaurants