I Hate It When People Throw Terrible Temper Tantrums
This happened to me years ago in the 1970s in Portland, Oregon.
A family friend was visiting me. She'd been very obnoxious during her visit. Since I had known her since childhood, and our mothers were friends, I'd decided to be tolerant.
I took her out to a very nice Chinese restaurant. As we waited for a table, she commented negatively on the decor. She didn't like the fish pond with a fake waterfall and small Chinese bridge over it.
We sat down at a table and ordered food. When they brought the food, I dug in and it was quite good. But she glared at her plate. I asked what was wrong.
"There are [i]carrots[/i] in this dish!" She looked outraged.
"Don't you like carrots?" I asked.
"That's not the point," she answered. "It's inauthentic. They do [i]not[/i] have carrots in authentic Chinese food because there are no carrots in China."
She was glaring and speaking loudly so the waiter came over to ask if anything was wrong. She repeated what she had said to me.
The waiter said, "Ma'am, with all due respect, I am from China. And we do have carrots there."
She got louder and insisted he was wrong. She wound up standing up and screaming over and over on the top of her lungs:
"THERE ARE [i]NO[/i] CARROTS IN CHINA!!! THERE ARE [i]NO[/i] CARROTS IN CHINA!!!"
It took the waiter, the headwaiter and myself to calm her down and accept another carrot free dish as a replacement.
I still think of this incident as the sine qua non of all temper tantrums.
By the way, a few days ago, I looked it up on the Internet. In a way, she was right. Carrots are not native to China. Although currently used often in China's cooking today, they were originally imported from Afghanistan in the 1300s.
A family friend was visiting me. She'd been very obnoxious during her visit. Since I had known her since childhood, and our mothers were friends, I'd decided to be tolerant.
I took her out to a very nice Chinese restaurant. As we waited for a table, she commented negatively on the decor. She didn't like the fish pond with a fake waterfall and small Chinese bridge over it.
We sat down at a table and ordered food. When they brought the food, I dug in and it was quite good. But she glared at her plate. I asked what was wrong.
"There are [i]carrots[/i] in this dish!" She looked outraged.
"Don't you like carrots?" I asked.
"That's not the point," she answered. "It's inauthentic. They do [i]not[/i] have carrots in authentic Chinese food because there are no carrots in China."
She was glaring and speaking loudly so the waiter came over to ask if anything was wrong. She repeated what she had said to me.
The waiter said, "Ma'am, with all due respect, I am from China. And we do have carrots there."
She got louder and insisted he was wrong. She wound up standing up and screaming over and over on the top of her lungs:
"THERE ARE [i]NO[/i] CARROTS IN CHINA!!! THERE ARE [i]NO[/i] CARROTS IN CHINA!!!"
It took the waiter, the headwaiter and myself to calm her down and accept another carrot free dish as a replacement.
I still think of this incident as the sine qua non of all temper tantrums.
By the way, a few days ago, I looked it up on the Internet. In a way, she was right. Carrots are not native to China. Although currently used often in China's cooking today, they were originally imported from Afghanistan in the 1300s.
70-79, F
