OK, so last Wednesday, I'm at Village Tavern where they have a regular "Wine and Dine Wednesday" promotion that features ½ price wines by the glass. The ½ price wine is not the reason I'm there because I generally stick to guzzling hard liquor like a man that "likes to get drunk quick" (ala "it's a wonderful life"), but the promotion tends to be a pretty big draw for other folks. It's typically a noisy and what I would call "vulgar" crowd.
Anyway, to get to my point, I 'm sitting at the bar sipping a scotch whiskey and this guy comes up beside me and starts talking to me, trying to make a point that he got drunk for just $13.50. I doubt that I was looking particularly impressed with this revelation when the guy pauses from a minute, looks at me and asks:
"Are you Jewish?"
At this point, I lift my glass from the bar, take a sip of my scotch, return the glass to the bar, look at the guy and reply: "Technically, no."
The fellow looks at me with a somewhat confused countenance and replies:
"Whaddya mean? Yeah you are, right? you're Jewish!"
I look back at the fellow and calmly say, "Technically, no. I'm of Scotch-Irish ancestry and was raised as an Episcopalian. However, as Brendan Behan noted 'Other people have a nationality, the Irish and the Jews have a psychosis' "
The guy looks more confused and blubbers "I'm Irish, what the hell's that supposed to mean?"
I told him, "I don't know, Brendan Behan said it. He was a famous Irish playright. Maybe it's about the guilt."
The guy says "Who said that? How do you spell it?" and starts looking for a pen to write it down as I slowly spelled the name for him. I never thought to ask why he inquired of my ethnic origins to begin with, but I'm sure it doesn't matter.
Someone at the same restaurant asked the same question of a co-worker and me a few months ago. It's a little puzzling, and although, again, it doesn't matter, I don't think that I'll be going back there for Wine and Dine Wednesday specifically. I prefer a quieter, less raucous clientele that is more conducive to my brooding.
The problem is today that folks seem to be afraid that if they aren't being loud and obnoxious, somebody may think they aren't having a good time.
