re: #39 OhCrapIHaveACrushOnSarahPalin

Yah but do u guys all say hi to each other on the street like the blacks.

This reminded me—when I was in college I was in New York with a couple of friends. We’re walking down the street when a very elderly man, dressed very frum, stops on the sidewalk and just STARES at me. I look back at him. Neither of us says anything. Ten, fifteen seconds. Then he starts walking again.

I have never figured this out. My friends insisted it was because I looked Jewish. I don’t, except to people who think all dark white people look both Jewish and/or Italian, and one of my friends actually did look distinctly Jewish. They thought she didn’t, because all redheads look Irish right?

Also, even if he could pick me out for a Jew, who cares? We were in Brooklyn. There are approximately five hundred thousand Jewish girls in secular clothes who cross this man’s path on a daily basis.

No clue. Maybe I looked like someone, and he had to make sure Rocheleh hadn’t snuck out in jeans again. Maybe he had dementia. It was an odd enough moment that I have remembered it for nearly twenty years.