Everyday Racism

[poliphilo]

The guy has come to replace the boiler. The new boiler will be 31% more efficient, he says. He arrived on time and spent the first 20 minutes telling us about his friend the boffin and how his friend the boffin once made a artificial heart valve and how his friend the boffin used to fine tune motor bikes.

I thought, I don't know why you're telling us all this but maybe it's a ploy to put us at our ease. A technique.

Then he asked us- apropos of nothing- if we'd been "invaded".

I thought Ailz fielded it adroitly. She said we got on very well with our neighbours and since they were mostly muslims we didn't got bothered by drunks wobbling up and down the street on Friday nights.

It sort of killed the conversation though.

Comments

Re: the idiot american asks...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Boffin is slang for scientist- a bit old fashioned, but still in use.

Re: the idiot american asks...

[cataptromancer.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, a "boffin" character played a key role in a recent story arc of the webcomic "achewood" (the story itself indulged in quite a bit of meta-U.S.-fetishization-of-English-Culture).