[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] CHAT: Bagels and lox
Michael Kay scripsit: > Oh dear, jokes really don't travel well, do they? Can you explain it for > non-Americans? A bagel is a small round loaf of bread with a hole in it, physically resembling a ring-doughnut, but the bread is much denser: classically the dough is boiled before it is baked. Bagels are usually split longitudinally before (optionally toasting and) eating; common accompaniments are butter, cream cheese, and the aforementioned lox, which is smoked salmon thinly sliced. Both of those, and most particularly the combination, are Jewish delicacies. Since Jews in the U.S. are mostly to be found on the coasts, inhabitants of the interior are not too familiar (at least traditionally, and in jokes) with their ethnic cuisine or the terms that apply to it. This leads to another joke about a similar innocent who tries matzoh-ball soup for the first time; this is chicken soup with small round dumplings made of unleavened flour (matzoh) used for Passover. The innocent eats his soup and says "Say, this is really good! Tell me, what other parts of the matzoh do you eat?" I trust this one will survive the trip across the Atlantic better. And now, in proper XML-DEV tradition, a meta-joke (with equal-opportunity insults): * When you tell a Frenchman a joke, he laughs when he hears it. * When you tell a German a joke, he laughs twice: once when he hears it, and once when he understands it. * When you tell an Englishman a joke he laughs three times: once when he hears it, once when he understands it, and once when he retells it to his friends. * But when you tell a Jew a joke [prestissimo e fortissimo] he interrupts you halfway through to tell you his 'improved' version! John Cowan, goyisher Hiberno-Deutscher -- John Cowan <jcowan@r...> http://www.reutershealth.com I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen, http://www.ccil.org/~cowan han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith. --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|