Global Studies
Apr. 20th, 2008 05:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogGlobal, in this case, being our corner liquor store.
As I approached the cashier with my new-found love of an Australian chardonnay, I saw her fiendishly working away on a school paper concerning Public Authority Reform in New York State, complete with a Comptroller's Office report on the subject. (This very one, for the policy wonks here.)
Contemplating the advanced mental condition of my liquor store cashier compared to my own, all I could think of was a comic strip I remember from my undergraduate days.
First panel: a computer programmer (identifiable by his pocket protector and the Digital Equipment printer green-and-white-lined computer paper he was staring at) is looking hopelessly confused by the problem before him, while the janitor starts to pass by him pushing a broom.
Second panel: the night janitor looks over the programmer's shoulder, and says, "You're going to have an infinite loop in that thing if you don't correct that conditional in Line 35."
Third panel: Janitor continues sweeping the floor.
Fourth panel: Thought balloons from programmer's head include "new job?", "Peace Corps?", and "buy gun?"
----
I was about to engage the cashier in a discussion of whether a Comptroller's report written by Alan Hevesi would have any scholarly value after the guy resigned in disgrace (I finally decided otherwise, since in this state if you ruled out disgraced politicians' work, nothing would ever get published), but our chat came to an end when a friend of mine showed up in line behind me with the stockup for his Seder tonight.
Consisting, entirely, of the obligatory gallon jug of traditional Manischevitz concord grape.
I didn't want to offend by asking then and there, but.... is there some edict of Kashruth that requires a seder to be accompanied by really bad swill?
I've been to this family's home in the non-Seder season, and their taste in the grape tends much toward our own: mostly whiter varieties, and generally possessed of a cork rather than a "best if used by" date stamped on the bottom.
Is it just Tra-dish-SHUN to accompany the bitter herbs with the same wine your bubbe poured back in the old neighborhood? Does Manischevitz have some kind of kosher-for-passover certification that the Finger Lakes wineries aren't able to obtain? Or was this one of the commandments on that long-lost third tablet Mel Brooks told us about?
Whatever the answer, enjoy the evening with your families. And whatever you do, don't drop anything.
As I approached the cashier with my new-found love of an Australian chardonnay, I saw her fiendishly working away on a school paper concerning Public Authority Reform in New York State, complete with a Comptroller's Office report on the subject. (This very one, for the policy wonks here.)
Contemplating the advanced mental condition of my liquor store cashier compared to my own, all I could think of was a comic strip I remember from my undergraduate days.
First panel: a computer programmer (identifiable by his pocket protector and the Digital Equipment printer green-and-white-lined computer paper he was staring at) is looking hopelessly confused by the problem before him, while the janitor starts to pass by him pushing a broom.
Second panel: the night janitor looks over the programmer's shoulder, and says, "You're going to have an infinite loop in that thing if you don't correct that conditional in Line 35."
Third panel: Janitor continues sweeping the floor.
Fourth panel: Thought balloons from programmer's head include "new job?", "Peace Corps?", and "buy gun?"
----
I was about to engage the cashier in a discussion of whether a Comptroller's report written by Alan Hevesi would have any scholarly value after the guy resigned in disgrace (I finally decided otherwise, since in this state if you ruled out disgraced politicians' work, nothing would ever get published), but our chat came to an end when a friend of mine showed up in line behind me with the stockup for his Seder tonight.
Consisting, entirely, of the obligatory gallon jug of traditional Manischevitz concord grape.
I didn't want to offend by asking then and there, but.... is there some edict of Kashruth that requires a seder to be accompanied by really bad swill?
I've been to this family's home in the non-Seder season, and their taste in the grape tends much toward our own: mostly whiter varieties, and generally possessed of a cork rather than a "best if used by" date stamped on the bottom.
Is it just Tra-dish-SHUN to accompany the bitter herbs with the same wine your bubbe poured back in the old neighborhood? Does Manischevitz have some kind of kosher-for-passover certification that the Finger Lakes wineries aren't able to obtain? Or was this one of the commandments on that long-lost third tablet Mel Brooks told us about?
Whatever the answer, enjoy the evening with your families. And whatever you do, don't drop anything.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-20 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 08:06 am (UTC)If I were the programmer, I'd just buy the gun. And shoot the janitor.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 02:58 pm (UTC)There's no accounting for tastes, and I'd be afraid to hear some of the explanations in any case.