All in all, I think each store acted properly, but it was really interesting to watch. Often stores either argue with customers when they shouldn't or in the wrong way, or they don't speak up when they should. This was nice to see. It was also interesting that in each case, the customers were [seemingly] longtime New Yorkers, while the people who spoke up were immigrants from other countries.
- It's interesting how different stores treat customers, and how customers act in general, at least in NYC. I stopped in Mendy's on 34th Street on Tuesday, and an older man finished his meal, got up, and started to leave. One of the cashiers, a frum guy who looked Moroccan or Israeli, called out "Sir... Sir! There is a garbage over there." The man calmly stopped, walked back, threw his garbage out, and left.
- Yesterday, I was stopping in Rite Aid to get diapers, but as I was nearing the store, a shaky-walking older black man was staggering fast, backwards, from the store pointing at the Indian store manager who was yelling at him to Shoo. He bumped into me (didn't see me), then turned around and walked quickly away. The manager then apologized to me, and explained that the man would steal from the store, grabbing items off shelves and stuffing them into his jacket before running out. The manager then turned to one of the cashiers, who was black, and said "Your friend was just here again! He tried to come again!" While I don't think he meant it negatively, the cashier seemed to react for a second at the term "your friend" because he was the only black cashier there. Nothing poorly intended anywhere, but the choice of words made for an interesting result.
- Last night, I was getting Serach something from the burger place and a customer who sounded a lot like Rocky was a bit frustrated with the Mexican man behind the counter. He decided that the delay (even though his burger was still cooking and he'd been waiting all of about two minutes) was annoying and said something along the line of "F*** you, n*****" to the Mexican guy, much to the surprise of everyone else there. He then proceeded to drop a couple more F-bombs over the next couple of minutes, including when he didn't realize that the guy before him was getting the same sauce on his bun and didn't understand why the worker was putting it first on that guy's before his. Finally, he demanded his stuff "to go", so the Israeli girl who worked there - who had spoken up at one of his outbursts - said "To go, PLEASE" to him. (He didn't seem to get that she was talking to him.) Finally, he left... with his 9-year old kid in tow.
Also:
Have a great Shabbos!
- I was moving our car this morning (stupid alternate side), when I saw our friend DGEsq2 who recently moved with his wife from Chicago stumbling, glossy-eyed, to his car. I rolled down my window and noted "This is where you say 'I hate New York'", to which he replied "Yeah, and this is why I'm going to an 8:30 Shacharis instead of a 9. Ugh."
- There were a ton of frum Jews at the Cavs-Nets game on Tuesday, including a couple guys who got Lebron to sign their jerseys. For an empty place, it was a little surprising, but I guess it's reasonably kosher, cheap entertainment if you live near there.
- Nancy Pelosi is a moron:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that the House and Senate would hold hearings the week after Thanksgiving and move toward a vote on a $25 billion loan package one week later if the Big Three come back with a plan that is logical and ensures that the companies will remain viable. ...The decision to call the House back into session next month does not depend on the quality of the plans offered, she said, but rather on the automakers meeting the deadline.
I rolled down my window and noted "This is where you say 'I hate New York'", to which he replied "Yeah, and this is why I'm going to an 8:30 Shacharis instead of a 9. Ugh."
ReplyDelete...and from this ma'asa we can paskin a very important halachik question - is one required to recite the daily "I hate NY" as part of their greater morning prayers or can it be said independently, we see from here that it stands alone and need not be recited as part of Shacharis.
This story does not demonstrate whether it must still be said during one's prayers; merely that one may of course say it outside of one's prayers as well, wherever applicable.
ReplyDeletesigh.
ReplyDeleteGET OVER IT!!
Hey, if Gil can post this video, I think we can make fun of NY. :)
ReplyDeleteAll seriousness, we enjoy having a little fun. What's the big deal?
"All in all, I think each store acted properly"-
ReplyDeleteexcept the Rite Aid manager, who insulted the black cashier by calling the thief "your friend". Don't excuse him so easily.
I don't think he meant it in any way to be a negative, or thought about the fact that they were both black. I think he just didn't think about how it looked.
ReplyDeleteBecause it just gets annoying and childish -- okay, you don't like NY. But to constantly, over and over and over, "I hate NY," "I hate NY," "I hate NY" -- it gets excessive. What good does it do to constantly complain?
ReplyDelete"I hate NY," "I hate NY," "I hate NY" -- it gets excessive
ReplyDeleteWhaaat!? How silly.
This is me sticking my tongue out. :P
ReplyDeleteDitto Raizy.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't think the manager meant it in the way it sounded, Ezzie, for what reason do you think he said it?
Staten Islanders, whom the rest of the city frequently believe are "yotzai min ha'klal" anyway, are not achiv to say the "I hate NY" either during shachris or independently. We don't have alternate side of the street parking in SI--yet another good reason to consider our borough as a good place to live.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I wonder if alternate side parking is responsible for getting some people to shacharis with a minyan. You know, once you have to get up anyway to move the car.....
ReplyDeleteI hate NY too, but maybe they have some zchuyos anyway.
Oh, and is it really the customer's responsibility to dump his own garbage? I mean, I know it's a nice thing to do and all, but to ask an older man to do it instead of having the workers do their job and clean up after him sounds a bit chutzpadik to me.
ReplyDeleteErachet :)
ReplyDeleteAnon1 - I think he was telling his worker that the thief had tried to come back, and poorly used the term "Your Friend". It's like when people say about someone the other person doesn't like "your buddy".
ProfK - Doesn't SI smell? :) We've liked SI the couple times we were there, but it's still not the same as anywhere out of NYC. Don't most of the people work in Manhattan or Brooklyn?
Anon2 - Huh! Good question, but... guaranteed that net it causes more people to have more trouble getting to/from minyan because there is nowhere to park, the traffic trying to get to it is insane, etc. Also, people outside of NY have far more time in the morning to be able to go to minyan without worrying about being too late for work. This also leads to less stress; stress can cause problems in general.
Anon2 (2) - I think it is the customer's responsibility, yes. The bins are there for that reason. Particularly in that Mendy's, where the back part of the restaurant is a sit-down with service, it seems clear that the expectation is that people will basically clean up after themselves. I should note that the men didn't object at all, but properly and immediately turned around and took care of it. In general, I do not think that the workers' job is to clean up after people unless it is a sit-down place with service. (Actually had an interesting discussion about this in HS with one of our GS teachers, who was dismayed that numerous guys in yeshiva wouldn't clean up after themselves.)
ReplyDeleteI don't know what Mendy's is so I can't comment on that. I do know that as a kid, we used to go eat pizza on the Lower East Side (Grand corner Essex) and it never entered my mind to clean up after myself. There was some Oriental worker there who used to go around dumping people's garbage and wiping the tables after people left. Once I was there with a friend and saw her throwing out her stuff and was very impressed and started to do it myself after that. But I thought it was lifnim mishuras hadin and not expected of me.
ReplyDeleteI will say that I think it depends on the place. If a place has a worker specifically doing that, that's one thing; some end up having other workers go out from whatever their normal responsibilities are to clean up because they obviously can't leave dirty tables. In general, I think places which have accessible trash cans where the tables are are designed to have people throw their own stuff out, even if they also have someone cleaning up. I don't think it's lifnim mishuras hadin to clean up but rather somewhat expected.
ReplyDeleteJust re: Mendy's specifically, the front part is fast food where you order and sit down and eat on your own; the back part is a larger area with nicer tables and waiter service. I think that if you use the back part, you expect that there will be busboys to clean up; in the front part, you should be cleaning up after yourself.
I hear you. That Oriental guy also worked behind the counter and just slipped out every few minutes to clean up tables so maybe it wasn't his official job. I guess I wasn't so special for cleaning up after myself, after all.
ReplyDeleteAll this talk about restaurants is making me crave pizza. Pregnant women shouldn't read posts like this!
BTW, just noticed that you went to OJ. Is that where Reuven Buckler teaches?
Ezzie,
ReplyDeleteOnce, many years ago, the garbage dump for the city was located in SI until we got populated enough and with enough political clout to say NIMBY and the dump was closed. No, it does NOT smell here. We have the largest amount of green belt space in the entire city as well as protected wetlands. My block backs up to woods, not other houses.
Yes, people from SI work in Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Westchester, New Jersey and also SI--this makes us different from the residents in the other boroughs just how?
Are we like Cleveland and Portland and St. Louis? Not exactly. But we are the most "out of town" of the five boroughs.
Anon - Yes, I was in R' Buckler's shiur for a few months before switching to a shana bet shiur.
ReplyDeleteB'sha'a tova!
ProfK - this makes us different from the residents in the other boroughs just how?
...it doesn't.
But we are the most "out of town" of the five boroughs.
Dunno about that, Queens seems to take that if only because "out of towners" are a good chunk of the population before leaving. SIers tend to be next gen SIers. A person would be more likely to get 'stuck' in SI than Queens.
Nice! Rabbi Buckler just married off his oldest son last Sunday. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks--I made myself pizza for supper because I couldn't get it out of my head!
Queens seems to take that if only because "out of towners" are a good chunk of the population before leaving.
ReplyDeleteThere actually is something about Queens anyway, not just the OOTs that live there. In my high school, the nicest, least jappy girls were the ones from Queens.
I think he was telling his worker that the thief had tried to come back, and poorly used the term "Your Friend". It's like when people say about someone the other person doesn't like "your buddy".
ReplyDeleteBut that in and of itself, in this public setting, was problematic, and not because of the racial aspect, which may have been unintended. It would be one thing for me to say to you, "Hey, I saw your best friend the other day," and then neutrally go on to tell you what happened so we could both share understanding of our annoyance with the fellow, in a private conversation between only us or also with a few other peers who are also in the know. In front of co-workers and customers, however, an angry manager exclaiming to one worker that "his friend" had come back is accusatory and placing blame and complaining of problems brought in and causing embarrassment. It simply doesn't sound like the context for the sarcastic kidding-around you describe.
I'm willing to judge favorably that the manager didn't intend the racial bit, but it seems far-fetched to believe that the manager couldn't have intended anything negative.
Anon - Mazel Tov! And hehe - hope it was yummy.
ReplyDeleteErachet - Cool. See?
Anon1 - ? Very much disagree. He wasn't angry, merely telling him what happened. I was just noting the term "your friend" could be misunderstood. I think it was clear that he wasn't his "friend", but that the term "friend" can be misinterpreted as association based on skin color. He was clearly not assigning blame or anything like it.
See?
ReplyDeleteSee what? That there are nice New Yorkers? I already knew that. :D