On 07 Dec 2003 14:16:32 GMT, (PENMART01) wrote:

(Curly Sue) writes:

Mark Thorson wrote:

zxcvbob wrote:

Now imagine you are at some ethnic market or another and are trying
to pick out some weird kind of produce you're never seen before...

They don't have carrots in China?

I have been told by one Chinese young lady that carrots are not used
in Chinese cooking and therefore they are not liked very much.

*One* uncorroborative opinon is not very convincing.


That's what the rest of my post was about!

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Curly Sue wrote:

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 02:31:32 GMT, Mark Thorson

They don't have carrots in China?

I have been told by one Chinese young lady that carrots are not used
in Chinese cooking and therefore they are not liked very much.

I wish someone would tell my Chinese food place. Whenever they get
the chance, they load up the food with those carrot leaf shapes.
Grrrr.

nancy

They were taking forever to decide which ones they wanted.

I detect zen mantra. Ohmmmmmm.....

Becca

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 09:57:24 -0500, Nancy Young
wrote:

Curly Sue wrote:

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 02:31:32 GMT, Mark Thorson

They don't have carrots in China?

I have been told by one Chinese young lady that carrots are not used
in Chinese cooking and therefore they are not liked very much.

I wish someone would tell my Chinese food place. Whenever they get
the chance, they load up the food with those carrot leaf shapes.
Grrrr.

nancy

They probably say the same thing about parsley on American plates!

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

in article , levelwave at
wrote on 12/6/03 11:46 PM:

Mark Thorson wrote:

Today I was annoyed by two elderly Chinese ladies picking carrots.
They were taking forever to decide which ones they wanted.


What does the age, race and sex of the customer have to do with the
story?... Not that I care of course... but some ladies here (and I'm not
mentioning any names - Curly Sue) obviously have a *major* problem with
it...

~john!


He's telling a story.
We weren't there, he was. He is describing the scene.
A good story teller provides details so that you can visualize it the way he
witnessed it. Ever read Hemingway? Faulkner? It takes them 3 paragraphs to
describe the evening air. But when you finish reading those 3 paragraphs,
you can almost SMELL it, they described it so vividly.

By providing the detail that they were elderly, chinese ladies, you
immediately get a visual in your mind. If he had just said "two people",
the story wouldn't have been as interesting to read.

I don't really choose carrots, they come in bags of 1, 2 or 5 lbs around
here. When I buy 1 or 2 from a loose bin, there aren't many to choose from,
and I actually usually go for really thick ones, i find they are sweeter, or
at least, they taste better to me.

(Curly Sue) wrote in
:

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 02:31:32 GMT, Mark Thorson
wrote:

zxcvbob wrote:

Now imagine you are at some ethnic market or another and are
trying to pick out some weird kind of produce you're never seen
before...

They don't have carrots in China?

I have been told by one Chinese young lady that carrots are not
used in Chinese cooking and therefore they are not liked very
much.

However, they are used in Chinese restaurants, in place of what, my
guess is lotus root.

We don't know *why* the ladies were buying carrots.

--
"The problem with the French is they have no
word for entrepreneur."

attributed to George W. Bush by Tony Blair
via Baroness Williams

zxcvbob wrote in message ...
levelwave wrote:
Mark Thorson wrote:

Today I was annoyed by two elderly Chinese ladies picking carrots.
They were taking forever to decide which ones they wanted.



What does the age, race and sex of the customer have to do with the
story?... Not that I care of course... but some ladies here (and I'm not
mentioning any names - Curly Sue) obviously have a *major* problem with
it...

~john!


It provides some details to the characters, and a context. It could have
just as easily been any other age, race, or sex -- but it wasn't.

This is pretty much the same "explanation" a poster in another group
gave when he was accused of being anti-Semitic for calling somone
a "lying Jew".


If the
story bothers you, substitute "two persons" for for two elderly Chinese
women. (But then what does *two* have to do with it? Why couldn't it have
been 3?)


Best regards,
Bob

Curly Sue wrote:

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 09:57:24 -0500, Nancy Young

Curly Sue wrote:

I have been told by one Chinese young lady that carrots are not used
in Chinese cooking and therefore they are not liked very much.

I wish someone would tell my Chinese food place. Whenever they get
the chance, they load up the food with those carrot leaf shapes.
Grrrr.

nancy

They probably say the same thing about parsley on American plates!

Yeah, but if I wanted beef and broccoli and carrots, I wouldn't have
ordered beef and broccoli. They use it as cheap filler.

nancy

zxcvbob wrote:

levelwave wrote:
Mark Thorson wrote:

Today I was annoyed by two elderly Chinese ladies picking carrots.
They were taking forever to decide which ones they wanted.



What does the age, race and sex of the customer have to do with the
story?... Not that I care of course... but some ladies here (and I'm not
mentioning any names - Curly Sue) obviously have a *major* problem with
it...

It provides some details to the characters, and a context. It could have
just as easily been any other age, race, or sex -- but it wasn't.

I read just recently that as people age, they become more oblivious
to their surroundings. I believe it, the store I frequent is in
front of senior citizen housing, so I get to shop with a lot of
elderly people. They literally do not have a clue people are
waiting for them to move. I'm not being mean, it's just a fact.

The original story reminded me of a time I wanted tomatoes. Well,
this elderly man (there, I said it) was picking through the tomatoes
with deep concentration. It was a stack of cartons of stem tomatoes.
I waited. Waited. He actually starts unstacking the cartons,
looking for that ONE special tomato. Fine, I'll go find garlic,
maybe he'll be gone by the time I get back. He was gone all right,
replaced by and elderly woman with similar dedication to get just
the right tomato. Neither one had any clue I was standing there
waiting.

nancy

Nancy Young wrote in
:

The original story reminded me of a time I wanted tomatoes. Well,
this elderly man (there, I said it) was picking through the
tomatoes with deep concentration. It was a stack of cartons of
stem tomatoes. I waited. Waited. He actually starts unstacking
the cartons, looking for that ONE special tomato. Fine, I'll go
find garlic, maybe he'll be gone by the time I get back. He was
gone all right, replaced by and elderly woman with similar
dedication to get just the right tomato. Neither one had any clue
I was standing there waiting.

--- The following comment is meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek ----

Not only is this thread redolent of anti-Asian sentiment, but it also
reeks of ageism.

--- end of tongue-in-cheek comment ---

My mother as she got older refused to allow others, who waited behind
her while she counted her coins at the cash, to bully her into going
faster. She pretended not to hear them. People would look at me as
though I could make her go faster and I would shrug and invite them
to address her directly. After all, she was the one they had
problems with. She would often pretend not to understand, if they
spoke English, and would get snippy if they spoke French. Either
way, it worked. If they got really pushy, she would pull out her
white cane :-)

Going shopping with her was an expedition, much like going shopping
with a two-year old, as she had to do everything herself and it took
forever. She hated it when my sister and I took her places in her
wheelchair because she felt she missed things, and preferred pushing
her stroller slowly along and stopping at regular intervals. In a
small store, that could mean twenty minutes to half-an-hour if you
include getting in and out of the car and walking over from the
parking spot. In a big grocery store...well, you can do the math.

--
"The problem with the French is they have no
word for entrepreneur."

attributed to George W. Bush by Tony Blair
via Baroness Williams

Sheryl Rosen wrote:

I don't really choose carrots, they come in bags of 1, 2 or 5 lbs around
here.

In my corner of Texas, you can no longer buy a handful of okra. Now,
the okra comes in plastic square boxes. I can not buy 6 okra pods I
now have to buy a whole pound of it. All of the stores made this
chang at the same time - all of them.

I am rebelling. No more okra for me. I will buy the frozen stuff
until I can get to a farmer's market.

Becca

Nancy Young wrote:

I wish someone would tell my Chinese food place. Whenever they get
the chance, they load up the food with those carrot leaf shapes.
Grrrr.

Maybe that's what those ladies were talking about.

"Hmmm... this one would make a good gingko leaf."

"Can't you just see this one carved into a swan?"

Three elderly Irish ladies were taking forever to pick
out a handful of carrots in front of me, in the market.
So I moved up close behind them, holding an opened
empty plastic produce bag, hoping they'd get the hint.

Of course they didn't even notice me, but I now could
hear their conversation better. The old lady in the center
was dissolve in tears, sobbing and overwhelmed with
despair. Her friends on either side tried to question her
as to the cause of her sudden upset.

"Ah, tell us now Mary, what has upset ye so?", one
asked.

"Twas these carrots, Kathleen," she sobbed. "They
have reminded me so much of me late husband, Pat."

The two friends exchanged raised eyebrow glances
at each other, as they huddled around their stricken
friend that they each supported by an arm.

"Was it the length of them, that brought poor Pat to
your thoughts?" asked the one on her left.

"Ah, no..., twas not that.", she sighed.

"Was it the thickness of them, then?", suggested the
other friend.

Another volley of sobs erupted from the stricken
woman in the middle.

"Twas all the dirt on them!"

An Old joke from the West of Ireland
Retrofitted a bit, for this thread.

Paul (Formerly from Galway)



"Mark Thorson" wrote in message
...
Today I was annoyed by two elderly Chinese ladies picking carrots.
They were taking forever to decide which ones they wanted.

At first, I just went over to get some Brussels sprouts, hoping
they would be done by the time I got back to the carrots.
No such luck. They had taken at least five minutes (maybe
more time before I got there) to pick FIVE carrots! That's
a WHOLE MINUTE per carrot!

So I stood behind them holding an empty bag hoping they'd
get the message and hurry up or move aside or something.
They were polite and smiled and moved aside while continuing
to discuss the fine points of carrots (I assume) in Chinese.

I take very little time picking carrots, though I check for several
features. I like small diameter, so I mostly pull carrots from the
front of the stack where I can view them end-on. I also like
the shape of my carrots to be more cylindrical, rather than
turnip-like. I also like a deep color, though I usually don't have
much choice on that. Even though I HATE Safeway because
of their card system, I go there for carrots and Brussels sprouts
because they're better there than in other stores.

I also do a brief bending test on each carrot to make sure it's
rigid, not rubbery. I also rotate the carrot to inspect it for
defects. I do this all very fast. Even though I'm filling my bag
pretty quick, if you watch, you can see I'm doing a lot of
inspecting.

Well, these Chinese ladies seemed to be impressed. They
started putting BACK some of the carrots they had already
picked, at enormous cost of their time and mine. They began
pulling out carrots from lower in the stack -- I guess they
somehow had the idea that was not permitted, that you could
only take carrots lying on top, but then they saw me pulling
carrots out from there.

They were looking at the carrots in my bag. I'm sure by now
those were the ones they wanted. NOT A CHANCE! You
ladies have already cost me enough -- you're not getting my
carrots! The last time I saw them, they were still at the stack
of carrots tediously scrutinizing and discussing each one.

Becca wrote:

Sheryl Rosen wrote:

I don't really choose carrots, they come in bags of 1, 2 or 5 lbs around
here.

In my corner of Texas, you can no longer buy a handful of okra. Now,
the okra comes in plastic square boxes. I can not buy 6 okra pods I
now have to buy a whole pound of it. All of the stores made this
chang at the same time - all of them.

I am rebelling. No more okra for me. I will buy the frozen stuff
until I can get to a farmer's market.

Becca

Grow your own. :-)
It does well here and is quite a prolific crop!

Or, try some of the small Mexian markets. They still sell
okra in loose bins....

K.
--
^,,^ Cats-haven Hobby Farm ^,,^ ^,,^

"There are millions of intelligent species in the universe, and they are
all owned by cats" -- Asimov

Custom handcrafts, Sterling silver beaded jewelry
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAP...s&userid=katra

Sheryl Rosen wrote:

He's telling a story.
We weren't there, he was. He is describing the scene.
A good story teller provides details so that you can visualize it the way he
witnessed it. Ever read Hemingway? Faulkner? It takes them 3 paragraphs to
describe the evening air. But when you finish reading those 3 paragraphs,
you can almost SMELL it, they described it so vividly.

By providing the detail that they were elderly, chinese ladies, you
immediately get a visual in your mind. If he had just said "two people",
the story wouldn't have been as interesting to read.


Thank you Sheryl. You just proved my point. Now where were you when I
was getting flamed for this *exact* same thing?

A few months ago I started my story with "An elderly black lady in a
wheel chair" to "describe the scene" just as Mark did... and I got
Flamed pretty bad... I guess it's OK to mention their race if it's
Chinese and not Black... too funny...

~john!




--
What was it like to see - the face of your own stability - suddenly look
away...