Say What?

We've read several articles recently about New Yorkers going to speech therapy to rid themselves of their New York accents. That's because the thicker the accent the more ignorant they sound -- or so say the afflicted.

I don't know. I'm still in the, "Oh isn't that cute. Do you think they talk like that on purpose?" phase. But yesterday the cuteness started to wear off a bit. I was doing a little Christmas shopping in my favorite store. When I had collected all my arms could hold, I stepped up to the counter, whereupon the sales clerk smiled and spoke rapidly to me in Hungarian. Or maybe Russian. Or perhaps Bostonian? Whatever. I asked her to repeat whatever it was she said. The second time sounded exactly like the first, so I sheepishly asked for yet another repeat. I still didn't understand, but since her inflection suggested a question, I said no. That seemed safe.

I was mildly annoyed at the breakdown in communication, but I had to wonder, who is the ignorant one here? Although I could not understand a word she said, she had no trouble understanding me. I guess that makes *me* ignorant. Ouch.

NOTA BENE:
I'm leaving tomorrow on a business trip, so for the next four days you'll have the Durf Blog with your morning coffee, or more likely, afternoon glass of wine. I'm not saying he'll blog, but he might, and that will be enough to make me check the site on a daily basis. Of course, I'll be checking it to see if I need to call and say, "Honey, I read your blog today. I just wondered...what the X!?!%!X were you thinking?"

This will be good practice for January, February & March when Durf might or might not be blogging while he's baching it here in Tarrytown. I won't be blogging, unless by popular demand I'll be prattling on about the details of the new capital gains rules and whining about recalcitrant clients. Your choice.