Re: Canadian revolution

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rMslade () shaw ca>]

Date sent:              Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:12:00 -0700
From:                   Andrew <andrewwilly () gmail com>

> > Have I mentioned my octopus story?
> >   
> I'm interested!

With only the slightest encouragement, then  :-)  (And if some of you can sit on 
Alan so that he doesn't explode  :-)

The moose thing is probably related to the Jewish dietary laws, which you can 
look up at your leisure.  (Cloven hooves, but no cud-chewing.)  And this story 
even has a (very slight) Canadian connection, as well.

A while back I was teaching a course for what eventually became Learning Tree 
(and I think they've changed again, but I'm not certain).  This was at their then 
headquarters in the DC area, and there were about a half a dozen courses going on, 
with about 10 instructors altogether.  Most of them had been involved with the 
group for some time and knew each other: the only "outsiders" were myself and 
another Canadian who was going through the instructor training program.

We were also the only two who were not (as far as we knew) of Jewish descent.

As Solly (and probably Gadi) can attest, "being Jewish" these days does not 
necessarily make much difference in your lifestyle.  However, one of the other 
instructors had recently had a heart attack and, whatever your position in the 
debate on religion going on elsewhere in this thread, you can understand that some 
people tend to hedge their religious bets after such an event.  So this instructor was 
wearing his yarmulke in class, and taking just a little bit more care with certain 
other niceties.

On Thursday, this being just on the cusp of losing the traditional "Thursday night 
dinner" that always used to be part of training courses, we, the instructors, all went 
out for sushi.  As we entered the establishment, the post-heart-attack instructor 
removed his yarmulke.  The other Jewish instructors were interested in why this 
was so, and the first said that, while he didn't want to make a big deal about it, the 
restaurant wasn't really kosher, and he didn't want to implicitly encourage people 
to believe that it was.  This sparked discussion of heart attacks, taking religion 
more seriously, and so forth, and it was only after about ten minutes of this that 
someone realized that said post-heart-attack instructor was not chowing down, as 
were the rest of us, on the delicious octopus-in-sweet-vinegar appetizer, and the 
rest asked him why.  His response was that he didn't think it was kosher, either, 
which surprised the rest of the Jewish contingent, and they asked why.  He seemed 
to hesitate at that, and I, without thinking (nor pausing much between mouthfuls, 
for that matter) noted that octopus didn't have fins and scales.

Face down in the appetizer as I was, I still realized that suddenly the whole table 
had gone silent, and, looking up, found that the entire table was looking at me, 
with some consternation.  You could see the question on every face, "How come 
this goy knows more about this stuff than we do?"

> p.s. I hope it ends with a good stoning.

Fortunately for me, no  :-)

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
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time or interest they deserve. We lavish gifts upon them; but the
most precious gift, our personal association, which means so much
to them, we give grudgingly.                            - Mark Twain
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http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm
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