Curly Sue wrote:

Heh heh- you said it!


Ok... you got me on that one (depending on how you read it)... but just
this once

~john!


--
Say hello to the rug's topography...It holds quite a lot of interest
with your face down on it...

levelwave wrote in message ...
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...

That's the way it seems to be on TV news crime stories. I remember
once - in the same news broadcast on a local station - two crimes
were reported. On was about a woman who was beaten to death by a
homeless man she was kind enough to take into her house. No mention
of the killer's race even though he was still at large. A few minutes
later, another news stories about two men who had been "gay bashed".
They stated that "a group of Asian men were later arrested" for the crime.
No mention of the race of a criminal still at large (later when he was
finally arresed it turned out he was black...), but no problem mentioning
that the gay bashers were Asians even though they were already in custody.



~john!

levelwave wrote in message ...
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!

Actually (though it was probably not intended to be necessarily
helpful), the age, race, and sex of the customer may have much to do
with the story, providing that the OP is relatively unfamiliar with
elderly Chinese women. If these Chinese women were obviously elderly,
you can be certain that they are quite old, possibly even 20 years or
more older than OP may have assumed. Might that begin to offer some
insight into their behavior? They were speaking Chinese? I would
assume that they were doing so out of convenience or necessity, rather
than to irritate/bedevil the OP. If so, then they no doubt originate
from quite a different culture than the OP, as well. Any possibility
that the OP was in a hurry? Many in today's Western society don't
bother to hide their state of hurriedness, many even subconsciously
using such cues as a not so subtle prod of sorts on those in their
way.

GaryO