Random Happenstance: Water Cooler Talk at Happy Fun Kitty Heaven

So, let's get a little personal since I never really do and just rant about random news items instead.

Here are some strange musings that have occurred in the span of an hour.

My strange friend, we'll name he/she "D," had a conversation. Also, when I call someone strange it can be one of three things. 1. A term of endearment. 2. A compliment of sorts when you really have nothing else to say. It's more interesting than "Interesting." and of course, 3. Honestly batshit crazy.

We had a quick Google conversation about the colloquialism (Wow, I spelled that correctly on the first try. It's not that complicated but it looks it. Appearances mean a lot and you know it.) Ok, let me try that again. I have a tendency to get a little off track. We had a discussion about the phrase "American as Apple Pie."

As it turns out, apple pie, is not American, which really isn't a very big surprise. Here is the rest of the conversation verbatim.

D: is apple pie american?
me: i actually have no idea
11:29 AM D: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_pie#Apple_pie_in_American_culture
looks like apple pie was invented in england?
hmm.. a recipe from 1381.. i wonder if it's any good
no sugar tho :p
me: "america" was also invented by england.
11:30 AM D: america was soooo not invented by england
me: uhm.
11:31 AM me: pretty much.
D: it was invented by americans!
the british colony was invented by britain
me: no, we wiped out most of the native folk
and by we I mean white people
Dennis: no, we wiped out the INJUNS
i'm not white!

Right before then, I went to the Deli and the Korean guy who was serving me soup, nice guy, mind you, says to me "It takes a lot of balls for an Asian man to have that haircut." To which I replied "Uh...ha. Thanks." and proceeded to pay the $3.50 for a large soup and free bread (I usually take the one with olives and rosemary in it. Warm tasty goodness.) He filled the cup extra chunky. Good man. Good man.

And of course, right before then I Googled a list of influential Asian Americans. You get your usual suspects...Maxine Hong, Jessica Hagedorn, IM Pei, Yo-Yo Ma (who kind of looks like the soup man at the deli.) The surprising thing was that the list of Asian-American business men and scientists were pretty short. Threw me for a loop. Hey, I can't help but function in blanket stereotypes and generalizations sometimes.

So that was my morning. Not all that fascinating. So I leave you with this last quip.

There is a Japanese TV show where these people in Tokyo are challenged to live for a month off 10,000 Yen. That roughly converts to $82.74 by today's exchange rate. (I checked.) You pay for your food and what not and then at the end of the month, they calculate and subtract your utility fees. One guy had a live chicken hatching eggs.

Gotta love the Japanese.