I cry for the "yutes" of America

4Speedy

(said like Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinnie)

I stood next to a woman at Subway who said to the counter girl, "Please don't cut that (sub) in half.  I am sharing it with my husband so I need it cut into one/third and two/thirds."

High school aged Subway girl stares at woman, without saying one word, as though customer had spoken to her in Martian-speak.  Stares at sandwich, stares more at customer. 

Customer says, "Do you understand what I mean?"

Silent counter girl looks to her co-worker, another high school aged girl, who raises her hands, palms up, and shrugs in a gesture of "I have no idea and please don't drag me into this."

Customer says, "You know, thirds.  If you divided the sub into three equal parts, cut it so that one piece is just one part and the other piece is two parts."

Girl still stares and at this point has not uttered a single word.

Finally, exasperated, customer says, "Just give me the knife, I'll cut it for you."

Face/palm

Susie2005

DH and I always talk about what kind of world we are bringing our kids up in.  Unbelievable.

JOEBunny

Super sad.  We have a school near us with a 14% graduation rate.  Maybe they went their?

Jamaica_Bride

JOEBunny:

 Maybe they went their?

 

Dead.  

Susie2005

Jamaica_Bride:

JOEBunny:

 Maybe they went their?

 

Dead.  

Totally dead.

JOEBunny

Jamaica_Bride:

JOEBunny:

 Maybe they went their?

 

Dead.  

Whatever Jamaica.  I can't spell.  I don't even see that things are misspelled.  Make fun of me.  Have fun with it.  

Jamaica_Bride

Smooches!

 

 

belle204

That probably would have been me, honestly. I suck at that kind of thing(cutting into fractions). On another note, is it bad that the first thing thought was "I hope she at least gave her gloves if she handed her the knife"? I'm such a germophobe.

4Speedy

belle204:

That probably would have been me, honestly. I suck at that kind of thing(cutting into fractions). On another note, is it bad that the first thing thought was "I hope she at least gave her gloves if she handed her the knife"? I'm such a germophobe.

Belle, you would have at least said something, anything, to diffuse the situation.  Even just admitting you are really bad at math would have been 100X better than staring in stupefied silence.

veloelle

Ditto Belle. I'm not a math person, and if someone is staring at me, it makes me flustered and nervous, then i really can't think. Why didn't the customer say 1/4 and 3/4 instead of dividing by 3, then make two halves. Seems overly complicated for a sammich.

SurfBride4

Jamaica_Bride:

JOEBunny:

 Maybe they went their?

 

Dead.  

Hilarious. Totally made me laugh.

belle204

I think the staring increased the dramatic effect. I have this picture in my head of the exchange and it cracks me up. Now, I was thinking about this ? the bread at Subway has little "grooves" that essentially divides it for you so I can definitely see the customer's frustration.

Jessys_Girl

My thing is, the woman first said "Don't cut the sandwich in half"...she didn't instruct the counter girl to cut it for her, in fact she said she'd cut it herself at home...

So the counter girl was baffled by NOT cutting the sandwich...and then when the woman tried to explain the fractions it made the counter girl that much more baffled!  LOL

AnnapolisLari

This is why I am teaching DS basic fractions already.

He knows 'half' well and 'quarter' a little less well. I've touched on what 'one third' means. It's not as if I drill him-- we cook together and it comes up with the measuring cups.

shouldbworkin

AnnapolisLari:

This is why I am teaching DS basic fractions already.

He knows 'half' well and 'quarter' a little less well. I've touched on what 'one third' means. It's not as if I drill him-- we cook together and it comes up with the measuring cups.

they covered this in kG this year with DS.  They also ran a grocery store at the end of the year so that they could learn to pay for things.  I wish they'd also teach them how to count change back!  

I think most kids just need a class on practical application of what they've learned right about the time they're about to go out and get their first job.