Tuesday, April 13, 2004

The Price of a Puff

Funny thing, customer service.

When I was in the train station the other day I decided to stop by the sweet shop for a snack to eat on the train. The proprietor was smoking, so I told her politely: “I’d really like to come in to shop, but the smoke is really bothering me. Would you mind putting out your cigarette so I can come in and shop?”

She replied: “No. Every time someone comes in here I have to put out my cigarette!”

Well, if she prefers cigarettes to cash, who am I to argue?

Thursday, April 08, 2004

Gender Clarity in the Knesset

The Israeli Knesset’s website has revamped its alphabetical listing of all the members to include small pink or blue icons next to each name to clue the reader about the member's gender. I guess those Israeli names (which include names in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and Amharic) can be a bit hard to figure out sometimes.

Personally I’d prefer to see more pink.