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From: "RevDrBobBarnes" <>
Subject: [RHEA] Illustration of confusion at documentation line for immigrants
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 09:04:12 -0500


ENJOY- Dr. Bob!
Subject: Chinese Laundry



Walking through San Francisco's Chinatown, a tourist from the
Midwest was fascinated with all the Chinese restaurants, shops,
signs and banners. He turned a corner and saw a building with the
sign "Moishe Plotnik's Chinese Laundry."

"Moishe Plotnik?" he wondered. "How does that fit in Chinatown?"
So he walked into the shop and saw a fairly standard looking
Chinese laundry. He could see that the proprietors were clearly
aware of the uniqueness of the name as there were baseball hats,
T-Shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with the logo "Moishe
Plotnik's Chinese Laundry."

There was also a fair selection of Chinatown souvenirs, indicating
that the name alone had brought many tourists into the shop. The
tourist selected a coffee cup as a conversation piece to take back
to his office. Behind the counter was a smiling old Chinese
gentleman who thanked him for his purchase in English, thickly
accented with Chinese.

The tourist asked, "Can you tell me how this place got a name like
"Moishe Plotnik's Chinese Laundry?"

The old man answered, "Ahh... Everybody ask that. Is name of owner."

Looking around, the tourist asked, "Is he here now?"

"He is right here," replied the old man. "He is me."

"Really? How did you ever get a name like Moishe Plotnik?"

"Is simple," said the old man. "Many, many year ago when come to this
country, was stand in line at Documentation Center. Man in front is Jewish
gentleman from Poland.

"Lady look at him and say, 'What your name?' " He say, 'Moishe
Plotnik.'

"Then she look at me and say, 'What your name?'

"I say, 'Sam Ting.'"



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