Thursday, June 26, 2008
normally i love curried potatoes...
Living in Kolkata is hard. Every time I think that I'm starting to figure things out something new gets thrown at me, in some cases literally. Today I was just walking down the street on the way to the market for lunch when I felt something hit my back. I turned around to see a very angry old woman yelling at me in Bengali with the remnants of curried potatoes in her hand - those same curried potatoes were now on the back of my shirt. It was immediately obvious that she was missing a few screws upstairs, so I think the best way to describe my reaction was an instant of anger followed quickly by an emotionally defeated sigh. Joe Ballard, if you are reading this, I feel it must be said that you never mentioned anything like this in our trainings - needless to say I felt completely unprepared...
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7 comments:
i just feel, as a mental health professional, i should note that even people with the most severe mental illnesses hardly ever throw curried potatoes at people.
hang in there, jay.
Let me add that, as a food scientist, I can say that although potatoes are rarely used as projectiles, they would certainly serve that purpose admirably. Properly cooked, and with a suitable choice of cultivar, it would remain as an integral projectile until impact, at which time it would lose all structural integrity, a little like an organic dum-dum bullet. Of course, the aerodynamics would be optimal for an uncut, spherical potato (unless a carefully selected ovoid shape were available, which might be conducive to throwing a spiral, leading to more precise tracking along a tragectory (less wobble)due to the gyroscopic effect). With the skin on it could be cooked a bit longer, so that a bigger mess resulted on impact, like the more traditional choice of an overripe tomato as a projectile. THe tomato would certainly make a bigger mess, but the imaginative use of curry sauce might make the potato and the tomato more or less equally effective. Additionally, the curry sauce might cause the potato to behave a bit like the now-outlawed spitter, if thrown with some practiced skill. If chunks of potato were thrown as a handful while covered with curry sauce, I would consider this to be evidence of an insufficiently rational approach to the task, and I would question the mental state of the thrower.
Jay, the main thing is to keep moving so as not to present a stationary target.
I can't believe you felt unprepared to handle this women. Have you forgotten what you learned while working in the Philadelphia school district. You have been away from Philly way to long! The principals and administrators were just as crazy- but in a different way. I can't wait to hear more about the crazy people in India. It is good to know that they are everywhere - not just in Philly!
And I really need to say, as your mother, that I find it hard to believe that someone would throw potatoes, curried or otherwise, if that someone hadn't been provoked. I'm reminded of all the times you called me at work to tell me your little brother had done something to you, at the same time assuring me that you had done absolutely nothing to provoke him. Do I detect a pattern here?
And by the way, all food stains should be soaked in cold water before washing.
Looking forward to seeing you in five weeks (your little brother won't be here).
Jay,
Don't think for one minute that I didn't want to throw food at you all during those trainings. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get approval for that learning objective.
The real question is, did you lick the potatoes off of your shirt? I bet you did. You are sick, man. Totally sick.
I agree - this was probably the best post I've ever read anywhere!
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