Monthly Archives: February 2009

Do this for me (and take pictures)

zoo

Five bucks gets you to the “Desi Rap” book release tonight at UPenn. (Thanks to U. for passing this on to me!)

Hosted by UPenn’s South Asia Society:

A comprehensive look into the complex identity of South Asian Americans, “Desi Rap” combines the stories of fourteen activists, artists, academics whose lives have been impacted by the hip hop culture in the United States. Lauded for its poignancy and creative insight, this collection of essays tackles a number of issues confronting the second generation South Asian community and their manifestations as barriers to or facilitators of identity formation.

Featured Guests: Dr. Ajay Nair, DJ Rekha, spoken word artist D’Lo, MC Chee Malabar, Film director Raeshem Chopra Nijhon, and Swapnil Shah, member of the hip hop group Karmacy

Performances by: Atma and the Excelano Project

Support the book via Facebook!

Sounds super. Wish I weren’t about to pass out from the flu.

New Header!

Courtesy PhillyBits. Gracias, senor! If you have a chance, be sure to check out more from his incredible collection.

Did you REALLY just say that to me?

Time: 5:01 PM

Day: February 20, 2009

This is the third day in which I attempt to contact Thunderbird Bowling Centers. I go to their website, where I have already filled out a complaint and come upon the number of their corporate office.

Thunderbird Bowling Centers have been in business in the Philadelphia region for over 50 years. We pride ourselves on our personal service to all of our customers. Each of our bowling centers features day, night and weekend bowling leagues for women, men, seniors and children. Each of our locations is handicap friendly and can accomodate several customer needs. Along with our committment to our league bowlers, Thunderbird Lanes also features a fantastic birthday party program, corporate bowling program and company recreational program. You will find as thousands of others already have that Thunderbird Bowling Centers is the FUN place to be!

Our Corporate Office is located at:

1130 North York Road
Willow Grove, Pa 19090
(215) 659-1715
fax (215) 659-9460

Here’s how it went down. I wish I had been able to record the conversation, it was so unbelievable.

Me [incredibly polite as always] : Hi, I’m calling because I had a bad experience at one of your bowling centers and I wanted to leave a complaint.

TL guy: Well, you realize this is the Willow Grove bowling alley?

Me: Yes, but on your website it’s listed as being the corporate office as well.

TL guy: Okay, but everyone’s out for the weekend. If you give me your name and number, I will be sure to leave them a message.

Me: Sounds good, no problem. [Starts spelling out her name.]

TL guy: [Midway through PG spelling out her name.] Wait, wait. Is that really your name?

Me: Excuse me?

TL guy: You know what I think? I think somebody’s playing a joke because nobody can really have a name like that. I think you’re just playing a prank on me and I’m going to hang up right now.

[Hangs up.]

Me: [Spluttering in disbelief, certain someone is playing a joke on me.]

I call again.

Me: Excuse me, why did you hang up on me. That really was my name. This isn’t a joke.

TL guy: Look, stop calling here. I will call the police and have them trace who you are.

Me: Go ahead, because you know, not everyone has an Anglicized name.

TL guy: I don’t know what you’re saying. Goodbye!

Me: !!!!!!!

Don’t wanna go to school, then you’re SOL

This made me laugh so hard today when I was on the subway. But I dunno about using acronyms, Blueprint communication folks. I’m thinking for the populations you’re trying to reach, spelling it out would have more of an impact.

officer-006

I did something bad

officer-001

On Tuesday, I paid my respects at the make-shift memorial erected at the site of where Officer John Pawlowski was killed.  Today, on my way to get some chicken noodle soup from the deli, I passed the memorial again. I took a moment to say a prayer.

Then I noticed that the memorial had grown by leaps and  bounds. Now it features a tarp to safeguard all of the paraphernilia that people left in remembrance. I also noticed something else.  Left on top of everything else was a piece of paper with racial epithets and the like scrawled across it.

I know memorials like these are sacred. At the same time, someone from his family seeing something like that made me wince. So I stole it.

I did. I stole it. The cashier at the Dunkin Donuts tried to help me dissect the language, because I could not figure out what the paper was saying. We gave up, concluding it was the rantings of a nut.

I wish crazy people wouldn’t pollute memorials like this.

Save it for the forums, the Facebook groups and the blogs.

This isn’t the place for political/racial discussions.

It’s about honoring the memory of someone who died trying to serve and protect.

Show me the bacon!

z19

I don’t know what it is about lunch trucks in Center City, but they seem to be overwhelmingly dominated by Pakistanis. Which would be okay, except for all the obnoxiousness PG has to go through every time she orders breakfast. What makes it worse is my office building is barricaded on all four sides by Pakistani vendors. It’s not like at Temple, where you had the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Indians, the Italians, the Romanians, the Turkish vendors, etc.

Here’s a typical morning conversation:

Me: Hi, could I have a bacon, egg and cheese on a kaiser roll?

Pakistani Vendor: Sure, sure, sure. That’s turkey bacon, right? [Naturally assuming I'm Muslim.]

Me: No, regular bacon.

PV: You no want turkey bacon?!?

Me: No. No turkey. Real bacon.

PV: But you look Pakistani, aren’t you Pakistani.

Me: [Under my breath.] Grrrrrrr. [Pause.] No, I’m Indian. [Lying through my teeth.]

PV: Really, you look Pakistani. Isn’t your family from Lahore?

Me: [Lying through my teeth.] Nope, I’m from Mumbai.

PV: And you still want BACON bacon?!?

Me: Yes, please.

[Extra ten minutes later because PV is so put out by this request.]

PV: Okay, here you go. Have a nice day. Are you sure you’re not Pakistani??? You’re very fair.

Me: [Walking away vowing to find another vendor, knowing I am far too lazy to ever find one.]

WikipediaWictionaryChambers (UK)Google imagesGoogle defineThe Free DictionaryJoin exampleWordNetGoogleUrban DictionaryAnswers.comrhymezone.comMerriam-Webster

I’m officially terrified

Of propellor accidents.

So my coworker yesterday told me the story of one Dmitri Tertyshny, a former Philadelphia Flyer who died after he fell overboard a motorboat and got his neck sliced by the engine’s propellor blades. “The boat hit a wave and caused him to fall forward overboard. The boat ran over him and its propeller slashed his neck and his jugular vein.” (My coworker’s kid plays in the same ice hockey league as Tertyshny’s son.)

Since then, I’ve spent the better part of the morning clutching my neck in a protective manner. I came across this website, which terrified me even more. Okay, no more motorboats for me.

Because I need a life too

Bowling UPDATE

A bunch of folks were outraged after reading my post last Sunday. Last Wednesday, Brendan Calling wrote:

“Until i read an update at Phillygrrl, I have one thing to say to Thunderturd lanes: there are plenty of other bowling alleys in Philadelphia.”

Well, here’s the update folks. No response. That’s right. Despite my readers assuring me they sent the link to Thunderbird Lanes. Despite repeated dialogue between Thunderbird Lanes via this site, I didn’t receive one email from anybody at Thunderbird Lanes. Not one. Seriously all I want is a simple, “Sorry your visit sucked” email. Is it too much to ask?

So I guess I have to do it their way. “Please contact the bowling center directly so that we can rectify the situation ASAP.” Sigh. Not really looking forward to this. I really don’t wish to speak to any of the rude folks at that alley. Perhaps I’ll contact the folks Mithras tracked down for me. I’ve probably dragged my feet on this thing so long, they probably forgot about it.  Good thing I didn’t.

Who’s that?

Me, naturally.

Thanks to Phillybits for stalking photographing me.