The Dish or the Surgery

October 6, 2008

I was buying paper towels at Duane Reade when a woman asked a non-native-English-speaking employee where the rubber gloves were. I was about to tell her myself, but I would have been wrong, as it didn’t occur to me at that moment that there are more than one kind of rubber gloves.

The helpful employee said, “For the dish or for the surgery?”

She looked a little startled. “For the surgery,” she said, and they went off together to medical supplies. I was pleased that the imperfect use of English didn’t stop the job from getting done.

(See also, “Help Wanted Pizzaman” and NIGHTLY MAKE SEX AT GRASS!)

Posted by jen | Filed Under grammar 

Comments

2 Responses to “The Dish or the Surgery”

  1. Mint on October 6th, 2008 6:05 pm

    I like it very much.
    I especially like that this post was not, as I originally thought, about you (or someone you know) having come into some money and trying to decide whether to spend it on a satellite dish or on cosmetic surgery.

  2. Kenny on October 7th, 2008 3:30 pm

    This reminds me of my favorite scene in Boogie Nights - Don Cheadle is at a donut shop picking out a dozen, points to a tray of donuts covered in red & green sprinkles and says, “Are these….for the Christmas?”

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