Kosher and non-kosher cuisine

[Ed]

There was a scene in "The Producers" where the camera pans to the audience during the Overture for the play "Springtime for Hitler". Every person in the theater is aghast, mouth agape, eyes wide in unfeigned disbelief. Well, that was me when I read this:

ALLENHURST, N.J. (AP) — The bill was a shocker, and not because of the amount. After eating at a Jersey shore restaurant, Elliott Stein and his girlfriend were handed a bill that said "Jew Couple" near the bottom, as a table identifier used by the waitstaff. The slur also turned up on Stein's credit card statement weeks later.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-08-17-restaurant-slur_x.htm


This place is within spitting distance of Hymietown itself (if a paragon like Jesse Jackson can use the term it must be fine).

All I can say is Oy vay.

Alabama I can understand but NJ?

 

[Cleon]

How did it wind up on the credit card statement? According to the article, it was used as a table identifier; I've never seen "Table 23" or something like that appear on my statement. Usually just a description, transaction date, and reference number. (And amount, of course.)

 

[toddjh]

Man, what was that person thinking?

That said, I think calling it a "racial slur" is a little over-the-top. Questions of whether Jews are a "race" aside, it was a descriptive phrase that used no pejorative terms. The offensiveness was supplied by the context, not contained in the comment itself.

Jeremy

 

[Ed]

How did it wind up on the credit card statement? According to the article, it was used as a table identifier; I've never seen "Table 23" or something like that appear on my statement. Usually just a description, transaction date, and reference number. (And amount, of course.)

I've seen it, not all of the time. I recall a resturant I used to go to had a whoopsie with the matre 'd who ran some "extra" bills thru the card system. I suspect it is for an audit trail of some sort.

Wild story though.

 

[Cleon]

That said, I think calling it a "racial slur" is a little over-the-top. Questions of whether Jews are a "race" aside, it was a descriptive phrase that used no pejorative terms. The offensiveness was supplied by the context, not contained in the comment itself.

Meh. Whether it's properly a "racial slur" or not is a bit semantic, I think. If someone calls out to me, "hey, Jew!" I know it's not meant in a nice way. Likewise for "Jew boy," despite the fact that I am indeed a Jew, and as of the last time I checked (potty break a few minutes ago) I'm a boy, too.

It's not the first time--"Yid," a common anti-semitic epithet, is actually Yiddish for "Jew." (In fact, a common Yiddish greeting is vos komt a Yid--"how is a Jew?")

"Jew couple," granted, is not up there with "Mr. Kike and his JAP." But language--and the intent behind it--can be that intuitive and, well, hypocritical in many ways. A word's meaning in one context is not necessarily the same in another context.

Now that I think on it, I wonder if there would be as much offense and shock if the waiter had written "Jewish couple" instead of "Jew couple." A lot of times just the word "Jew" can be a little jarring.

There's an interesting linguistic study in here somewhere...

 

[Cleon]

I've seen it, not all of the time. I recall a resturant I used to go to had a whoopsie with the matre 'd who ran some "extra" bills thru the card system. I suspect it is for an audit trail of some sort.

Weird. Never seen it, myself--maybe I should look, just for giggles.

Wild story though.

Indeed.

 

[Random]

I don’t know. If a restaurant only had one black couple in it, then “black couple” would be a specific identifying phrase. Would putting that on a check to identify who had ordered a certain dish be out of line?

Of course, why they don’t just use the table number is beyond me.

 

[Ed]

Weird. Never seen it, myself--maybe I should look, just for giggles.

"Kikey Dradel, Table 666"

 

[Kopji]

LOL, this gets darkly more funny as it goes on...

The New Jersey Attorney General's Office said Wednesday it is investigating the July incident at Parkhill's Waterfront Grill through its Division on Civil Rights.

Well DOH

The server, identified on the check only as Karina, is no longer working at the restaurant, general manager Malia Wells said Wednesday. Wells wouldn't say if it was because of the incident.

Yeah, they might need to dredge the river for her body.

"We don't run our establishment like that," Wells said. "It was definitely poor judgment on her part."

Well, they DID run their restaurant like that.

Stephen Reid, a spokesman for the restaurant, said it had been the waitstaff's practice to use descriptions of diners to identify them on checks, instead of using the number of their table, as many establishments do.

Sheesh how utterly stupid is this idea? Everyone who's ever eaten there is gonna be checking their bill to see if they can get in on the lawsuits.