Huh. That's just... weird. At my Christian grade school, we learned that right away. Assuming she went to a public school, I'd still think she'd learn about that somewhere. Was she a fundamentalist?

Nope. She grew up in North Dakota and went to public school. Her mother was very involved with their church, but I don't think her father was, and she wasn't religious at all.

I had a friend in college who was very surprised to find out, junior year, that Jews don't believe in Jesus.

I've run into that a few times. Seventh Day Adventists that kept coming back after we had a fairly involved conversation about it at my door, and co-workers. DH getting told that forgiveness only comes through Jesus when he said he'd be out of the office atoning for Yom Kippur was the best.

What's funny to me about all of these stories is that I'm pretty sure the only religious people who have ever approached me were the Lubavitchers in college. (And they opened with, "Are you Jewish?" so when I said no, I was off the hook....)

I mean, maybe some proselytizer has said something to me on the street at some point, but I just smile and keep walking, like I do with anyone asking me anything. And I've been in apartments, so no one knocking on the door. Oh! We did get the occasional Jehovah's Witnesses at the one house in DC< but they mostly just left the Watchtower.

It came up during Passover, when I was debating whether or not to eat something that had corn starch as an ingredient. I explained the reasons for and against to her, and she thought that it was ridiculous nitpicking and said, "Jesus, I don't think he'll mind .... actually, literally on that one." I said, "Huh?" She said, "I don't think Jesus will mind." I said, "Probably not, since Jews don't believe in Jesus." She looked confused and said, "Then what do you believe in?" I said, "God," and then we kind of looked confused at each other for a minute.

Somehow, with the different conversations in here, all I can think of is my college roommate's (now) husband, who would avoid talking to strangers in public places by responding to the question "Is anyone sitting here?" with "Just the Lord."

People from anywhere can be stunningly ignorant. I once knew a woman who said to me, as we sat on the plane flying to Italy from Greece, "England is an island?" She attended Barnard at the time.

We used to get Jewish people come door to door when we lived in London. They'd stare at whoever opened the door, at the mezzuzah, back at whoever opened the door and then back away slowly. It was fun.

I just went on a sorrel hunt. I have the impression I was the only Anglo in the store, because the checkout lady didn't bother speak to me in English. I almost spoke to her in Spanish (an actual full sentence with vocab and shit came to mind) and then decided to eff that and not embarrass myself. Still! The sentence was grammatically correct, even if only three words long.

So, uh, that incident with the security guard over a week ago? Yeah, it got followed up and the guard interviewed and procedures changed.

So. I'd almost feel bad for the guy, 99% chance it was stupidity on his part, but needs to learn. Official policy now ixnay on the approaching people in the garage without being summoned. Seems like a good call.

I have discovered, over the years, that the more eccentric I look, the less likely people are to talk to me about religion. I guess the evangelical types figure there's no hope for me anyway, so why expend the effort.

ita, your sorrel is my hibiscus, right? (Or jamaica!) I still haven't gotten to the right neighborhoods to find that here. Boo. Actually, maybe looking for sorrel is my way in.