Isn't that a funny saying? The only things that came out of Isabel's mouth when she was a babe were screams and vomit. Anyway, taking the saying a little more loosely, I thought I'd report on a classic Isabel-ism which she came up with today.
In her school, as in her nursery, there's a reasonable percentage of Asian pupils (my little sister, aged 16, claims that Chesham is nicknamed Bangla-chesh due to the large Asian population, but I must say that I've not yet seen this reflected in the quantity or quality of curry houses). But I digress. Isabel today, on her return from school, said in a very considered manner, "I don't think I like brown boys, they smell funny. But I like brown girls, they smell of quiche."
After I had picked myself off the floor and recovered myself from the laughing fit, I was trying to work out the best way to respond. After all, saying something like this outside the privacy of our own home could get us all lynched! But all I could come up with was an "oh really?" I was almost more interested in why any grouping of individuals might smell of quiche. Thoughts on how I should actually have responded very welcome - I expect I'll come up with something brilliant in the shower tomorrow morning.
Posts
Ivan Klimes: a founder of modern science, journal, publishing
-
It has become fashionable recently to praise the work of Robert Maxwell as
a great innovator in science publishing. Articles and memoirs have pointed
out h...
3 days ago
This had ME rolling on the floor as well!
ReplyDeleteI've often thought, but been too afraid to say out loud, that persons from cultures whose cooking used a lot of very strong spices, often smelled quite strongly of those spices! I can say this as I am Persian and growing up it was my big fear to go to school smelling like my mum's cooking. As a teenager, I would close my bedroom door and open my window while my mum was cooking to make sure this could not occur! And trust me, persian cooking uses no curry and very little cumin so I can only imagine how much worse it could have been!
What does one say to Isabel for this except that yes you are probably right, that dufferent families cooked with different spices and that is why she probably smells quiche, but that one must never comment out loud one another person's smell?
Let me know if you come up with a response! :-)