Customers! Oy! 4 Jun 2009 I used to run a service department so that’s why this site amuses me so much. Yeah, I know I’m probably fifteen years behind everyone else: The World: America’s Theme Park (Note: this takes place at our cafe in Kuranda, Australia.) Tourist: “Lady, how about we make a deal? I wanna buy this bottle from you.” Me: “Oh, sorry. We only have four of the blue ones and they’re not for sale.” Tourist: “So you’re telling me I can’t buy this?” Me: “Yes… I know it’s a nice bottle, but we do need it for the water.” Tourist: “Lady, I don’t think you understand what I’m getting at.” (The tourist pulls a wad of US money from his wallet.) Tourist: “I got REAL money here!” Humor Social evolution
Politics What must a citizen know? 3 Jan 2008 The previous Australian junta introduced a “citizenship test” for those wanting to become naturalised Aussies. It includes such gems as who Don Bradman was, who wrote a song that isn’t even officially our anthem (Waltzing Matilda – Tom Wait’s version is way better), and other fluff. About one in eight… Read More
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Morality and Evolution 5: biology and culture 20 May 201422 May 2014 [Morality and Evolution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7] I should note that there is no set historical sequence implied in the levels 0 to 4, apart from the fact that we were primates before we were humans, so some sort of historical transition from 0 to 1 must occur before any of the others…. Read More
Biology The Velvet Underground of… 8 Oct 2010 Recently there have been a couple of “Velvet Underground” posts, of the kind that the VU were a very unknown but amazingly influential group. As Chad Orzel says, “only of order a thousand people bought the first Velvet Underground record, but every one of them went on to start a… Read More
“Trust me. I’m a metaphysician”: Customer: “Well, I don’t know what it is I always get. My daughter usually gets it for me.” […] Me: “…was it ‘coffee’ or ‘not coffee’? Customer: “Hmm…I believe it was both.”
Ha! Even nice Americans can be rude that way. I remember the couple that hosted me as an exchange student complaining about people not speaking English when they came to visit México.