Been reading you blog for quite some time now. To put it in the words of Del Shanon: Hats off to Larry (or in this case - to Michael M. :)). Anyway - a comment about the article in SD Reader: A good one, but it lacks a certain pun, don’t you think? But still, keep it up! I enjoyed reading it

     by pengovsky on November 14, 2005 at 10:00 am

good articles!

     by m on November 14, 2005 at 10:19 am

Michael,

Loved your article. 
It brought back some great memories of similar chestnut stands in Zagreb
in that long ago land of youth.  I’m
surprised about the dryness it brought to your mouth; perhaps the chestnuts
were roasted too long.  They should be
somewhat moist after you bite through the hot browned meat of the nut.   Glad to hear they’re still using paper bags
rather than some inferior modern substitute. 
My fingers were always blackened by the time I’d finished one bag, a
tell-tale sign of what I’d been up to the past 10 minutes or so.  The last time I had a chance to eat from the
street, I was somewhat disappointed at the high number of chestnuts I had to
throw out as they were spoiled and gutted by (now roasted) little white
worms.  Hope the quality in Slovenia
has not gone downhill.

About the Albanians. 
Great point.  In Croatia,
they were called Siptari, (with the “sh” pronunciation), a closer name to the
original Albanian name.   Most of the
slasticarne (the pastry shops) were run by Siptari.  The best ones were always owned by
Siptari.  They always struck me as industrious,
friendly, and, as you pointed out, happy. 
How they were able to maintain their good cheer amongst the hang-dog
expressions of my fellow Croatians was an amazing feat of willfulness.

Keep up the great writing. 
Who took those pictures of the chestnut roaster?

     by DArkoV on November 14, 2005 at 2:24 pm

I know, perhaps the pleasure of makeing some decent money plays into
the cheerfulness of those Albanians. Albania itself is a poor country,
and then the poverty that Albanians liveing in Kosovo-Metohija is
pretty well knonw. So by contrast, a nice business not too far from
home for an occasional visit, but far enough away that there is
opportunity must make a difference. On the whole faked
cheerfulness in American business, If it were only in food service, and
other direct contact situations, it would not bother me so much but
this whole forced positive attitude makes me sick, because of course
it’s not real. I’ve found being respectful, knowing what I was selling,
being able to give the customer realistic advice and help them later
always worked better. With disgruntled customers, I’ve found sometimes
it was magic how well the phrase ‘Please sir, /ma’am, if you keep
yelling I can’t help you!’ worked wonders. In one job the customer
complained about the shipping fee and I said to that one ‘Sooo the guys
who bring the product to your door don’t deserve to make a profit? What
do you think this is COMMUNISM?’ worked pretty good too. My boss
grimaced but guess what? That customer got his product, got the
replacement also of defective product and They stopped bitching,
because what happened was that I’d made them laugh, and then there was
some real cheerfulness instead of the fake type.
Now I personally saw pretty cheerful service where I went, I can only
think of a couple of times when this wasn’t so, and I attibuted this in
one case to my early difficulties in the language, and the man serving
me laughed when I said ‘Never mind, I’m must a stupid foreigner!’ That
made the man laugh, and then I saw the item I wanted because in
laughing the man moved out of my view of the black bread I wanted. He
laughed, I’d asked for brown bread, not thinking that in BiH the
correct way to ask was for black bread. The guy told me the right way
to ask, and I told him that in the U.S. it was brown bread and I’d
simply used the words I thought would work. Thereafter I always found
attentive service in his shop. Now his wife was different, she was very
helpful from day one. The other shop where I had less than cheerful
service was a a little fruit stand, and it seemed that it was my
timeing, I don’t know how the hell it happened, but I would always
arrive just in time for their coffee break!

     by Katja on November 14, 2005 at 4:06 pm

Thanks for the comments.I’ve heard the word šiptari
here too, although I always thought it had slightly negative
connotations. Still, most everyone I know loves their products and
friendliness. In fact, I only remember one negative comment: A guy was
telling me that the money made from the ice cream stands all goes to
fund terrorist groups in Kosovo. As you probably guessed, the guy was a
Serb — so huge grain of salt and all that.I’m not sure what pun I missed, but as a man who loves puns, I probably regret it. 

     by Michael M. on November 15, 2005 at 12:17 am

(Forgot to mention that the pictures are both mine. I was required to
contribute a photo together with each story.)

     by Michael M. on November 15, 2005 at 12:23 am

Actually I didn’t have a specific pun in mind… Bad choice of words on my part, I’m afraid Take no notice of it, it was a really good artice. I love the way you write

     by pengovsky on November 15, 2005 at 12:01 pm

Heh, this makes me wanna share my experience with waiters and retail clerks in the US.
I spent all of last december plus the beginning of january in
Roseville, CA (greater Sacramento area) and i had my share of american
retail clerks and waiters.Initially i was really surprised by
the tone of the retail clerks. Walking into a grocery store and being
greeted by a clerk with the words "Hello, how are you doing today"
really confused me. I later found it amusing, how the clerks generally
got confused if i actually replied with something meaningful and then
asked them how they were doing. Hehe, i actually got two or three of
them stunned and staring at me, as if i was from another planet.The
waiters however bothered me more then retail clerks did. In california,
as you walk into a restaurant, a waiter usually intercepts you, makes
an introduction and tells you that they have a table for you and that
they will take you to the table. Then they take you to the table. After
you sit down, they tell you that they will be your waiter and that if
you need anything, you should call them. They tell you that they will
bring the menus. They walk away and come back bringing the menus. Heh,
this is really ridiculous … as they bring the menus, they tell you
that they will walk away for a minute, give you time to decide and then
come back. And it goes on and on like this thruought the meal, they
keep coming back to the table, asking if you need stuff, or they just
stop by and ask if you are OK. I could hardly believe it the first time
it happened to me, i remember, it was at a Red Robin. Heh, the second
time i came there i astonished the waitress by telling her that she’ll
get her tip if she leaves me alone.Anyway, for somebody from
Slovenia all of that is just too much. I mean we’re used to not being
bothered by waiters and clerks. I must say however, that i really
admired the acting. These people sounded as if waiting my table was the
greatest thing they could be doing and as if they were really happy
about doing it.Well, as an epilogue, … the day i came back
from CA, i walked into a Dan in Noc convenient store in Ljubljana,to
buy some cigarettes. The clerk looked at me from the other side of the
counter, clearly infuriated by the fact that i was there. She said
"What". I simply the named a brand of cigarettes. She pulled a pack
from under the counter and literally threw it at me. She didn’t bother
telling me what i have to pay, she just assumed i knew what they
costed. I did, of course. I gave her the money, and before walking away
i said bye. She didn’t say anything back. It made me feel like home and
i smiled.
 

     by Rox on November 15, 2005 at 6:45 pm

Great story, rox, thanks for sharing it!

     by Michael M. on November 15, 2005 at 6:55 pm