My wife and I like to stop at a Chinese buffet that is close to the interstate highway in Greenfiled, Indiana. Every time we visit this restaurant, we are amused by the large sign near the entrance. The sign reads:
Not Only Cuisine, But Also Clean
The buffet is quite elaborate, and the food is tasty, although during our last visit neither of the two waitresses that we asked had any idea what we were talking about when we asked for “hot mustard sauce” for the spring roll. You would think that that would be a common request.
There’s a saying that many Chinese adhere to: If the restaurant is clean, who is paying attention to the cooking? Makes you start to appreciate some of our cultural differences.
I never was a fan of “Tattoos on-the-go”. Speaking of tattoos, however, at a family gathering recently a man was showing off his new tattoo. He had a picture of his mother and father, obviously taken from a photograph, tattooed across his chest. The same 35 year-old man still lives with his mom and dad, although he has a good-paying job and could easily afford to live independently. If I was his old man, I think I would be pointing toward the door, not only for my sanity but for my son’s own good. I would ask him to spend some of his money on rent rather than have him live at home and buy expensive sports memorabilia with his income. Would that be too harsh?
Working-class bars in Montreal go by the term of brasserie; in english that would translate as tavern or (in small-town of english Canada) the “hoTEL”, accent on the second syllable.
For reasons that remain mysterious, these most of the real old brasseries had a couple of neon signs that I always found odd.
The first said Bienvenue aux Dames, meaning ‘women are welcome" (a bald-faced lie!) and the other proudly boasted Verres Stérilisée, ‘sterilized glasses’. God knows what dreadful outbreak made this sign necessary; it could be anything from TB to legionaires’ disease to dysentry.
It wasn’t that long ago that bars/taverns wouldn’t allow women in, and those that did had a separate area for them with its own entrance for, “Ladies and Escourts”. I still remember these places, but they were considered pretty much of an anachronism, and were in their last days. Welcoming women was a way of saying, “Oh, look how modern we are. We even allow broads in here.”
Maybe their basement is in danger of floating away and they need their son to keep things on the ground. Maybe the parents are in dreadful need of an observer to keep their lives together. Maybe he supplies them with pot and they’re holding him captive.
The UK transation of this sign is “dip your headlights” which I believe in American English is “use low beams” which isn’t quite as funny.
My favourite sign was one I saw in Dublin out of a top-floor bus window - it was about 12 foot up a wall and read “Temporary Sign”.
A lot of pubs in England have two rooms leading off the front entrance, the Bar and the Saloon. Women were welcome in the saloon, but the bar was strictly for men.
I have a picture of that one as well. I thought it was great! There were some great ones at the Cliffs of Mohr too…I’ll have to see if I can dig them up.
There were some great ones at the Cliffs of Mohr too…I’ll have to see if I can dig them up.
