Well, if they did not want to "eat like an American," they should not have asked for "quintessentially American."
Perhaps they just wanted to be able to complain about "what barbarians these Americans are." When I ate at a Chinese friend's feast, I managed to swallow and not complain or comment about certain items (sea urchins and OLD eggs) which I seemed to me to be very unpleasant to eat.
We may all be barbarians at another nation's table.
forgive me for getting politicalbytchearseJanuary 22 2011, 17:19:59 UTC
But this is the same White House that gave back the gift (not just quietly moved it into storage) of the bust of Winston Churchill, and also gave Queen Elizabeth an Ipod...preloaded with President Obama's speeches.
Sounds like some "advisors" need some lessons in protocol themselves :-\
"An Obama aide reported the queen was given an iPod loaded with video and photos of her 2007 trip to the United States, as well as songs and accessories. She also received a rare songbook signed by the composer Richard Rodgers."
Two thoughts came to mind as I was reading the BBC story. The first was an old Doonesbury cartoon, when Uncle Duke was Ambassador to China. At a formal dinner, a Chinese child objects to the jellied duck's web. "Foolish child, you dishonor your elders," scolds the parent. "Don't you know there are starving children in Kentucky?"
The second thought was from the film "Shirley Valentine", when she's working in a Greek restaurant, and tells the grateful middle-aged English tourists that she can make them an off-the menu meal of egg and chips.
Codswallop!dakini_bonesJanuary 23 2011, 04:47:06 UTC
My step-father is an executive in Ball Corp. They basically make all the aluminum cans in the world. When China was opening up, my parents lived in Hong Kong and Beijing, and since they were Old China Hands, would have to entertain Chinese executives who came over here, to the US. One time we had 5 Chinese executives over, so my mother decided that a BBQ would be a great change of pace for them. 5 Chinese guys (+my step-father and mother) ate *15 pounds* of steak, and they were poking around for more! They also polished off 2 quarts of rice pudding, made with milk and eggs, and they RAVED about it. They did ignore the salad though. They seemed unimpressed. Mind you, they were in *no way* required to, or in the position to flatter us. Quite the other way around!
We had hoped to save some of the food for leftovers for us. No dice!
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Perhaps they just wanted to be able to complain about "what barbarians these Americans are." When I ate at a Chinese friend's feast, I managed to swallow and not complain or comment about certain items (sea urchins and OLD eggs) which I seemed to me to be very unpleasant to eat.
We may all be barbarians at another nation's table.
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Sounds like some "advisors" need some lessons in protocol themselves :-\
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/world/europe/02ipod.html
"An Obama aide reported the queen was given an iPod loaded with video and photos of her 2007 trip to the United States, as well as songs and accessories. She also received a rare songbook signed by the composer Richard Rodgers."
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The second thought was from the film "Shirley Valentine", when she's working in a Greek restaurant, and tells the grateful middle-aged English tourists that she can make them an off-the menu meal of egg and chips.
Reply
When China was opening up, my parents lived in Hong Kong and Beijing, and since they were Old China Hands, would have to entertain Chinese executives who came over here, to the US.
One time we had 5 Chinese executives over, so my mother decided that a BBQ would be a great change of pace for them.
5 Chinese guys (+my step-father and mother) ate *15 pounds* of steak, and they were poking around for more! They also polished off 2 quarts of rice pudding, made with milk and eggs, and they RAVED about it. They did ignore the salad though. They seemed unimpressed.
Mind you, they were in *no way* required to, or in the position to flatter us. Quite the other way around!
We had hoped to save some of the food for leftovers for us.
No dice!
Reply
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