Rich Old White Ladies: Not Very P.C.

Both Blogger and gmail have been broken all day. Whether this was because they were, in fact, broken, or due to some technical work snafu involving stringent firewalls I don't know. But here I am, a tad bit crankier and whole lot sleepier.

Sometimes my work is like an episode of The Office, only more disheartening because it takes place in a building of learning (and is real).

So today I was flipping through one of the manga books I ordered and I was slightly dismayed at the amount of violence I encountered. When I mentioned this to one of my senior citizen volunteers, she shrugged and said off-handedly, "Why don't you ask one of those Japs that sit in the back of the library what they think of it?"

I know I must have flushed bright pink, but managed to squeak out, "Umm. They're Chinese."

"Oh," she replied, "they're all just slanty-eyed to me." And turned back to her dusting.

I can't tell you where her blanket "Asian/slanty-eyed" stance comes from, but damn if she didn't just bowl me over with a charm only the moneyed elderly possess. Wonder what she thinks of the Jews? Maybe I'll wish her a happy Yom Kippur and find out.