Odd question of the day...
Dec. 15th, 2001 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivka...from the checkout clerk in the J.C. Penney's men's department. She was a perfectly nice and attentive salesperson - for example, she went to considerable effort to refold a shirt I was buying so it would look nice in the box. But when I went to sign the credit slip she asked me,
"Oh, were you born left-handed, or did you have to switch?"
*bemused headshake*
I am so honestly puzzled. What on earth could she possibly think had happened to my right arm? What kind of catastrophic illness or injury happens after a person has learned to write, and leaves her with one arm half as long as the other and a small but well-formed hand? I mean, if I'd had an amputation it would be an obvious (if overly personal) question, but my right hand is clearly present and, well, hand-shaped.
Did I have to switch? Yeah, after the horrible accident in the lab with the shrinking ray. It's so kind of you to bring back the memory.
(No, it's not what I said. I didn't feel like going into my frosty how-dare-you mode either, so I just said something noncommittal. But honestly...)
"Oh, were you born left-handed, or did you have to switch?"
*bemused headshake*
I am so honestly puzzled. What on earth could she possibly think had happened to my right arm? What kind of catastrophic illness or injury happens after a person has learned to write, and leaves her with one arm half as long as the other and a small but well-formed hand? I mean, if I'd had an amputation it would be an obvious (if overly personal) question, but my right hand is clearly present and, well, hand-shaped.
Did I have to switch? Yeah, after the horrible accident in the lab with the shrinking ray. It's so kind of you to bring back the memory.
(No, it's not what I said. I didn't feel like going into my frosty how-dare-you mode either, so I just said something noncommittal. But honestly...)
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no subject
Date: 2001-12-17 02:32 am (UTC)I think what you ran into was "holy shit, your right arm is much shorter than your left, and I'm about to say something, so I'd better say something that's merely 'stupid because I'm dumbfounded and realizing this', rather than 'stupid, rude, and just plain mean'."
If you've read the hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, it's this tendency that Ford Prefect was commenting on when noting how humans kept saying obvious things like "you're very tall" and "so this is it, we're going to die".
It's not that humans keep talking to prevent their brains from working... it's that they keep talking because their brains *ARE* working... but not hard enough.