Not to you, Margaret, but to Wayne"
>
> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>
>> Back in the early 1940s my parents stopped at a small roadside
>> restaurant while on a cross-country trip. They had finished eating
>> their sandwiches when the waitress asked if they'd like dessert.
>> Without looking at a menu, my dad replied, "bring us each cherry pie a
>> la mode." The waitress looked puzzled and told him that they didn't
>> serve anything like that for dessert. My dad asked if they had any
>> cherry pie and the waitress said they did. He then asked if they had
>> any vanilla ice cream and the waitress again replied that they did.
>> My dad then ask the waitress to bring them each a slice of cherry pie
>> with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.


Perhaps they just called it "pie with ice cream?" and she was confused
by the term or had not heard it.

Maybe, the lack of sensitivity to the reigning culture was the stupidity
in play, not the waitress's. There was an assumption being made (that
she would know and understand the term) and a bit of arrogance (the
patronizing re-ordering of the dish). Instead of this bs ritual, maybe,
"how about pie and ice cream?"


jim