Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA20993 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 22 Feb 2002 19:21:50 GMT Message-ID: <000701c1bbd6$8b16b080$1aa7eb3e@default> From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be> To: <kennethvanoost@myrealbox.com> References: <7B8A1559-270D-11D6-980D-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> Subject: Re: Memes Meta-Memes and Politics and appetites Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 20:23:41 +0100 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: Wade T.Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
> On Thursday, February 21, 2002, at 03:03 , Kenneth Van Oost wrote:
>
> >> people wonder and look at me
> >> enjoying my meal on my own...
>
> > The number of people eating in a restaurant is certainly one of the
> > criteria
> > I use when choosing among unknown eateries.
>
> For what it's worth, I at first thought, simply looking and taking
> Kenneth's comment most literally, that he merely meant he was eating by
> himself- I got no indication that he was a singular presence in the
> restaurant. In fact, I thought he meant other people in the restaurant
> were the ones looking.
>
> And there is a small stigma to sitting by oneself in a restaurant, at
> least I think there is here in the US.
>
> But then Grant interpreted it as meaning the restaurant was empty.
> Totally different.
>
> I was about to intercede with my interpretation that Ken only meant he
> was sitting without a companion-
>
> But then, he came back elucidating upon Grant's.
>
> Ah, language....
>
> Some restaurants get so busy, so fast, that it is a benefit to arrive
> early and be one of the few patrons.
>
> And some places are just so busy that the noise and activity are not
> pleasant, at least not personally.
>
> Getting people to enter a new restaurant is a major enterprise. I'm sure
> books have and could be written.
Hi Wade,
I meant it in both ways, sitting on my own, without any compagnionship
and sitting alone in an empty restaurant.
By the former there is indeed, like you did mention, a stigma_ two ways
IMO to see this,
the first is ' jealousy ', alone with no hungry kids and a wife that can 't
choose what to eat.... what a life !
and two, is compassion. People always want to drag me along within their
table- conversation, the weather... you know what it is like !!
Like I said, group- behavioral traits show themselves in strange, odd ways.
Not of my liking, though !
But personally I love the first way best, sitting on my own seeing other
people struggeling with kids, the wife, the mother in law... hell of a way
to observe how memes work, or don 't....
Cheers, I will have a cold beer next...
Kenneth
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