The lowly dustpan has a great name in Portuguese: Pá! It requires the exclamation point, I think, since it sounds like a sound effect: Pah! Pow! Pop! Piu!

In an antiques shop we encountered a remarkable dustpan: made of silver, intended to catch the crumbs swept from the table cloth after a meal. A distinctive, civilized solution to a common need. I say bring back table-top dustpan-brush sets! They don’t have to be sterling silver. But they could be decorative, in a better category than the plastic ones sold for use sweeping the floor.