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The Neanderthal (so named because of his skull measurements) was a year ahead of me in high school. He hosted me as a prospie at his college and did more than anyone to talk me into going there. In any case, he's an avid biker and used to ride all around the city. Once, he was biking through Cabrini-Green--at that time the worst neighbourhood in Chicago (and, thus, one of the worst in the nation)--when a cruiser pulled up behind him. The cop asked, "Do you know where you are?" He said he had a rough idea. The cop gave him the shortest directions out of the ghetto and said, "I'll follow you all the way."
I told this story to a former co-worker who liked to take Shank's pony anywhere and everywhere in the city. He said, "Yeah, I've heard that lots of times. Do you know where you are, white boy?". This is something like the reaction I sometimes get when checking out at ethnic groceries--the clerks can't quite believe that I really intended to buy what I did. Like that time at the gift shop that the woman flipped through the pages of my Chinese calendar to show me that, actually, it's in Chinese. "Is that okay?" Um, that's the whole reason I'm buying it so, yeah, that's okay. As you may have guessed from my previous posts, this still amuses me every time.
It happened again at the Korean grocery on Sunday. I put a package of songphyeng, a snack I buy every time I'm in Koreatown, on the belt and she picked it up and explained what they were. When I asked if she had Paykseycwu by the box, she immediately directed an employee to fetch one, but then, as I was paying, said, "If you don't like the wine, bring it back and we'll give you something else." I smiled and assured her that we like Paykseycwu very much and had no intention of returning it. Then she threw in a set of Korean drinking cups for free.
(She didn't question my natto purchase. Perhaps even she didn't know what it was?)
Has this ever happened to the rest of you? Have you ever had a checkout clerk turn to you with concerned look and ascertain that, yes, you know what it is you're buying and, yes, you have every intention of consuming it or otherwise putting it to its proper use?
I told this story to a former co-worker who liked to take Shank's pony anywhere and everywhere in the city. He said, "Yeah, I've heard that lots of times. Do you know where you are, white boy?". This is something like the reaction I sometimes get when checking out at ethnic groceries--the clerks can't quite believe that I really intended to buy what I did. Like that time at the gift shop that the woman flipped through the pages of my Chinese calendar to show me that, actually, it's in Chinese. "Is that okay?" Um, that's the whole reason I'm buying it so, yeah, that's okay. As you may have guessed from my previous posts, this still amuses me every time.
It happened again at the Korean grocery on Sunday. I put a package of songphyeng, a snack I buy every time I'm in Koreatown, on the belt and she picked it up and explained what they were. When I asked if she had Paykseycwu by the box, she immediately directed an employee to fetch one, but then, as I was paying, said, "If you don't like the wine, bring it back and we'll give you something else." I smiled and assured her that we like Paykseycwu very much and had no intention of returning it. Then she threw in a set of Korean drinking cups for free.
(She didn't question my natto purchase. Perhaps even she didn't know what it was?)
Has this ever happened to the rest of you? Have you ever had a checkout clerk turn to you with concerned look and ascertain that, yes, you know what it is you're buying and, yes, you have every intention of consuming it or otherwise putting it to its proper use?