My son came home one night from his job, describing the choices the residents had that evening for dinner. One of the choices was 'city chicken.' He said, "I didn't even know what that was. When the residents asked me, I just told them it was chicken." Well, let's hope there are no Jews or Muslims living there! Granted, it's not a dish I ever served here at home, but wouldn't common sense tell him to ask the kitchen staff what it is? He also came home one day and said that for breakfast, many of the residents requested their eggs 'over easy,' 'sunny side up,' or 'poached.' Again, he had no clue what any of that was, he just conveyed it to the kitchen and brought it out. Growing up, my mother served those types of eggs every Saturday morning. I would beg her to make me scrambled eggs, but she refused to ever fix something different for one person. I vowed to never eat that nastiness again (and felt vindicated when it came out that raw eggs are a no-no). Therefore, my kids have never had anything but scrambled or omelets. Still, I would think after living 19 years, you might have come across eggs somewhere else?
Wedding planning has also magnified the lack of knowledge going on here. My daughter has no idea on the etiquette of ANYTHING, ranging from invitations to what the mothers wear. I accompanied her and her fiancé to a florist to discuss flowers and practically had to hide my head when she asked the florist what a carnation looks like! Um, it's only our state flower? Honestly, where did this kid come from?
Middle Child contributed to the madness last week. First, our washing machine broke, so we were not able to do laundry at home for over a week (my trip to the Laundromat deserves its own post!) No sooner was the washing machine repaired, when the dishwasher began having problems. When I told Middle Child to not put anything in the dishwasher till it got fixed, she asked me, "How are we going to wash the dishes?"
Are you roaring?
Honestly, I've begun to notice the ignorance of friends as well. One asked a waiter at a restaurant what a Pellegrino is (never been to a grocery store or restaurant before?), one told me she had no idea what geocaching is when I mentioned it, (ok, maybe she never had a kid in scouts, etc.) and another person wrote on FB that her missing cat was "skiddish." I'm realizing that people are not bad spellers, they really just don't know the word to begin with!
I'm not trying to say I know everything, but wouldn't you think that being on the internet all day would result in some sort of osmosis from driving on this information superhighway?
OMG...I freaking LOVED this post! You had me howling with laughter!
ReplyDelete" When I told Middle Child to not put anything in the dishwasher till it got fixed, she asked me, "How are we going to wash the dishes?"
Bwhahahahahahaha! Roaring!
Also, I loved the one about the carnation!!!!
"Growing up, my mother served those types of eggs every Saturday morning. I would beg her to make me scrambled eggs, but she refused to ever fix something different for one person."
I'm with you. I can only eat eggs scrambled. 'over easy,' 'sunny side up,' or 'poached' grosses me out.
Great post, my friend!
X
I'm glad we can make each other laugh, Ron. Runny eggs are all the rage now, on top of burgers, etc. I've gotten food poisoning twice on vacation, so I'm too paranoid for that.
DeleteThanks for always appreciating my humor!
Oh, I don't know; a lot of these wouldn't have necessarily been common knowledge to my younger self, either. My mom would serve us 'fried eggs', which, I learned later, were what the diner called 'over easy'. I never heard of 'sunny side up' until I was in college (and scrambled/omelettes were my preference, anyway). And I never heard of 'city chicken' until I lived in the dorm in college. 'Course, growing up in Up North Michigan, I never heard of a 'taco' until I went to college, either. . .
ReplyDeleteI probably knew what a carnation was when I was a kid (and I did know that Apple Blossoms were our state flower), but I wouldn't necessarily have known the difference between a carnation and a chrysanthemum. . .
Tho I do wish I'd had a camera handy when we got our kitchen remodeled and Jen told the kids they'd probably end up washing dishes in the bathtub. . . (As it turned out, our contractor had an ingenious 'temporary sink' that he'd hook up every night in about 2 minutes, then take it down every morning.)
You're right; there's plenty who wouldn't know what city chicken is. Unfortunately, it was a staple in my household growing up. It drives me nuts that my son wouldn't bother to ask the cook what the heck it was!
ReplyDeleteA girl should know what a carnation is! That was just wack!
My kids would FREAK if we said we were washing dishes in the tub! FREAK!
My sympathies to you on being without those two major appliances. If I had to pick, I would sooner be without a dishwasher than the clothes washing machine. Your Middle Child's perplexity is funny!
ReplyDeleteYesterday I was at a potluck dinner and the hostess said to me, "I made iced tea, but it's Arnold Palmer." I said, "You mean, like, it has liquor in it?" She laughed and said, "No, it's just iced tea and lemonade mixed." I never knew that was called Arnold Palmer tea.
But I did know about all those ways to prepare eggs. I love eggs over easy. Almost cooked but not quite.
My kids told me about Arnold Palmers because they were very popular in the high school cafeteria. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteI don't know what city chicken is, but I did know what the other things you mentioned were. It reminds me of a sitcom I saw where the main character corrected a waitress in her pronunciation of the word "Wheelbarrow." The character was laughing at her, saying, "It's wheel-BARREL." For a second, that threw me off, too. I'd always known it was wheelbarrow, but when someone points it out it does kind of sound like it should be wheelbarrel!
ReplyDeleteCity chicken is pork cubes served on wooden skewers. You aren't missing much! We always laughed at my mom for her pronunciation of wheelbarrow....she said wheelborrow. I have no idea why!
DeleteTrue story. . . The mom of one of my HS buddies used to pronounce 'peanuts' without the 't', or at least slide past it, so it came out sounding like. . . well, yeah, just like that. . .
DeleteMaybe she was from France, where they drop final consonants. That's just weird.
DeleteFunny, I've heard the terms eggs over easy and eggs sunny side up so many times but never got round to looking them up. They're terms you never come across over here. Now I've looked them up and I'm fully informed. I'm even acquainted with over medium and over hard!
ReplyDeleteI'm also surprised at how many people are ignorant of the most basic things in life, and mis-spell so many words. Parents and teachers just don't seem to doing their job. And as you say, don't people use the internet to fill in the gaps?
How do people say they want their eggs there?
DeleteI really think not reading books is the reason people don't know the correct words. Even if you misunderstand a word like skittish when you hear it, you would think a person would have come across it at some point in writing.
Here we just have a fried egg and that's that - it's always sunny side up. Or alternatively scrambled, poached or boiled.
DeleteI like my eggs over medium.
ReplyDeleteI like your new last name.
DeleteLOL, I laughed through the majority of this post. I can't imagine someone getting through life not sure what a carnation is, it seems like the most common of flowers after roses :)
ReplyDeleteNow I'm going to ask my son if he knows the different types of eggs you mentioned here; I'm betting he might have trouble with it.
Honestly, I loved going to the laundromat when we first moved back to Southern California and we postponed buying a washer/dryer. It was only after I decided I needed to go back to work that the reality of spending precious weekend hours at the laundromat prompted the purchase of a new washer and dryer. I'm a people watcher and there were always good people watching at the laundromat :) You must blog that down the road sometime.
I think the funniest thing someone said to me years ago was when we were moving. The house we were living in had a pool. When I mentioned to this friend of son's that we were moving, he said "how are you going to move?" I said, "we're going to have a moving company pack us up and move us" (those were the good old days when you could negotiate a move deal like that). The kid just looked at me and said "you're going to pack the pool too?"
betty
Yes! The carnation thing was ridiculous! The laundromat was packed and the place was filthy. I couldn't believe I was taking my clothes there to get cleaned. Unfortunately, it was the closest one within 15 miles.
DeleteThat's hilarious about the pool question. And this wasn't a little kid asking, right?
Since we have not had a dishwasher the entire time we've been in this house, I wonder if my son would know what one was or how to use it?? LOL
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of 'city chicken', Pellegrino I'm thinking might be foo-foo type of bottled water but cannot be sure, and 'geogcaching' I've only heard of on a couple FB pages. One girl might have even told me what it was and I still can't remember. I do know other things though... hehe
In a message the other day, someone used the word 'supposively' and I was thinking... that isn't right. It's supposedly. So then I did a search and found that a lot of people use supposively instead. Why??? lol
Maybe city chicken is regional? They've always sold it pre-made at every grocer I've ever been to.
DeleteHow is supposively even considered a word? It's crazy that when so many people speak or spell something incorrectly, we just change it!
Haha, guess it's a cultural thing maybe? Our kids are spoiled, they've had eggs in every shape and form and can collect 'em any time hey need 'em. We taught 'em how to wash dishes and do some of their own cooking starting in grade school.
ReplyDeletebut on the odd words, yep there's lots out there. Had a Junior high teacher who mis-taught piles of students teaching Colloquialisms but spelling phonetically rather than correctly. Supposebly there's hundreds and hundreds os 'em all over the country mispeaking and mispelling irregardless of whatever the dikshunairy sez.
.... you're welcome
My kids do know how to wash pots and pans, but you know what literal thinkers those on the spectrum can be!
DeleteI don't get it .... ;-)
DeleteOkay, Bijoux, I confess that I had to look up "City Chicken" but only because that term isn't used much around Brooklyn. But I completely agree with you.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if the internet is actually ignorance rather than combatting it.
Many people only look at sites that interest them, you can get your news tailored to what you want to read. And then there's social media and its "I can haz cheezburger" craziness.
You can build great things with a hammer and a saw, but you can also do a lot of damage. It depends upon what you do with the tools.
Good grief, but you are right! I mistakenly followed a link this morning and the illiterate rants in the comments make me want to lock my doors and never venture into public again!
DeleteI have learned to Google before opening my mouth and that has save me from numerous embarrassments... The kids and I found a geocache last night.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the death of your washer. That was always my first goal in finding a place after college--no interest in hanging at the laundry mat weekly.
Google is my friend, too. That is so cool that you do geocaching! I would love to, but I'd have to do it alone.
DeleteMy daughter was able to rent a washer/dryer at her apartment. I told her it was worth the money!
Okay so as much as this post made me laugh I need to admit many of the things you mentioned I myself have no idea what are. City chicken?!? Geocoaching?! Why can a cat not be skittish? Lol I know I am making myself look dumb, I guess you can slap your head and say "ugh, kids these days!".
ReplyDeleteCity chicken is pork; I was more dismayed that my son just told the people it was chicken instead of asking the cooks where he works. You are correct that a cat can be skittish....but it doesn't skid when it's scared! Please tell me you know what a carnation looks like!
DeleteSkiddish?! That would drive me crazy! You know, my creepy neighbor is also a bad speller. Here's a sampling from court documents: ciote (coyote), nabor (neighbor), and fude (feud).
ReplyDeleteWhat is a city chicken? ::: googling :::
Lol......on those spellings! Good lord, a third grader can do better than that! I had no idea that city chicken would receive so much head scratching. I ended up googling it and it said it was a Great Lakes dish. Who knew we had such a nasty specialty?
Deletethat's classic about the dishwasher - true story, when our kids were 5 & 6 we bought a small caravan and they were so excited when we left on our first camping trip. the first night i put them in the bunks and as i was kissing the son goodnight he turned away from me - i asked him what was wrong and he burst into tears and said ' you didn't tell us we'd have to wash dishes'.
ReplyDeleteKids are hilarious! You never know their breaking point, but I wouldn't have thought it would be washing dishes for a little boy!
DeleteYou'll never convince me that eggs over easy isn't a gift from the gods.
ReplyDeleteI never cease to be amazed at what people don't know, but then I wonder what things I don't know that others assume I should? For instance, this is the very first time I've heard the expression "city chicken." That is NOT a term used in the South!
City chicken is a Great Lakes regional dish, according to Wiki. I was shaking my head more about my son not bothering to ask the cook what it was so that he could correctly tell the residents.
DeleteMy spouse enjoys people's reactions when I tell them I have no idea who X, Y, Z sports figures are. It's rare for women here to not be sports fans.
Sports, TV shows, celebrities in general - much of that I just (happily) have no knowledge of.
DeleteI am also clueless about movies and movie stars after about 1995. My son cracks up when I say things like, "Is Channing Tatum a boy or a girl?"
DeleteAre we sure Middle Child didn't put laundry in the dishwasher when the washing machine was broken??
ReplyDeleteBad spelling is rampant everywhere these days. It drives me up the wall!
She's fairly wacky, so I wouldn't put anything past her!
DeleteI have a theory that visual people are better spellers and more annoyed by others' misspellings. I find an error in every book I read, though sometimes it's just a duplicate word or something like that.
Bahahah! :-) Lately my preteen has been asking "what do you mean?" after EVERY SINGLE THING I say to her, e.g. "go put your socks in your drawer". What do you mean, what do I mean? Just put them in the drawer!!! It's as if her brain just melted under the power of hormones. Heavens help me.
ReplyDeleteMy son did something similar . . . He would say "What?" after every single thing I said! Drove me nuts!
Delete