Another thing that Lis wanted me to blog
Nov. 5th, 2004 07:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xiphiasSo, Maralyn is this woman I work with.
She's a nice enough person, but she's maybe a little untrained in critical thinking skills. I'm trying to find a nice way to put it, and that's what I came up with.
She's also vaguely interested in Judaism, because her father was Jewish, and she never learned much about Judaism growing up. So she asks me questions sometimes, which I'm more than happy to answer.
"Hey, Ian," she called across the cafeteria at lunch yesterday, "I got a question about Jewish stuff."
"Sure, shoot, whaddya wanna know?"
"It's about sex with a sheep," I thought I heard her say.
"A SHEEP?"
"No, not a SHEEP -- a SHEET. With a hole in it."
"Oh. THAT thing. Yeah. It's not true."
"Whaddya mean it's not true?"
"That whole thing about how Orthodox men and women have sex through a sheet with a hole in it? Yeah, it's total bullshit. No truth to it at all."
"How do you know?"
"Whaddya mean 'how do I know?' I know. It's not true."
"Yeah, but I read it once somewhere."
"I don't care. It's not true."
"But you're not Orthodox, so how would you know for sure?"
"Because a lot of my friends are Orthodox, I hang out with rabbis, my mother's a religious leader, I teach Hebrew School, I study this stuff, and I learned about this one and why it's not true."
"I don't believe you."
"Why not? Why would I possibly lie about this? Look -- my theory is that people saw people doing their laundry, and there's this kind of undershirt thing that Jewish men wear which looks kind of like a poncho, so my theory is that other people saw those talitot katanot hanging up on the clothesline, and thought it looked like a sheet with a hole in it, and made up the story."
"I think you're wrong -- I read it somewhere that it's true. I mean, you knew what I was talking about when I said it, right? You'd heard of it!"
"Yeah, sure -- I'd heard of the fact that there was this lie going around. But I know it's bullshit."
"I think you're making that up."
At this point, of course, everybody else in the entire cafeteria is totally cracking up.
She's a nice enough person, but she's maybe a little untrained in critical thinking skills. I'm trying to find a nice way to put it, and that's what I came up with.
She's also vaguely interested in Judaism, because her father was Jewish, and she never learned much about Judaism growing up. So she asks me questions sometimes, which I'm more than happy to answer.
"Hey, Ian," she called across the cafeteria at lunch yesterday, "I got a question about Jewish stuff."
"Sure, shoot, whaddya wanna know?"
"It's about sex with a sheep," I thought I heard her say.
"A SHEEP?"
"No, not a SHEEP -- a SHEET. With a hole in it."
"Oh. THAT thing. Yeah. It's not true."
"Whaddya mean it's not true?"
"That whole thing about how Orthodox men and women have sex through a sheet with a hole in it? Yeah, it's total bullshit. No truth to it at all."
"How do you know?"
"Whaddya mean 'how do I know?' I know. It's not true."
"Yeah, but I read it once somewhere."
"I don't care. It's not true."
"But you're not Orthodox, so how would you know for sure?"
"Because a lot of my friends are Orthodox, I hang out with rabbis, my mother's a religious leader, I teach Hebrew School, I study this stuff, and I learned about this one and why it's not true."
"I don't believe you."
"Why not? Why would I possibly lie about this? Look -- my theory is that people saw people doing their laundry, and there's this kind of undershirt thing that Jewish men wear which looks kind of like a poncho, so my theory is that other people saw those talitot katanot hanging up on the clothesline, and thought it looked like a sheet with a hole in it, and made up the story."
"I think you're wrong -- I read it somewhere that it's true. I mean, you knew what I was talking about when I said it, right? You'd heard of it!"
"Yeah, sure -- I'd heard of the fact that there was this lie going around. But I know it's bullshit."
"I think you're making that up."
At this point, of course, everybody else in the entire cafeteria is totally cracking up.