Saturday, March 28, 2009

Transfer $ 8 please.

A visit to the Barnes & Nobles Bookstore in Temecula, California, USA.

Barnes & Nobles is the most favourite shop in the USA.
Well stocked.
Well organized.
Relaxed atmosphere.
Friendly and helpful employees.
And there is always a nice coffee shop inside Barnes & Nobles.

Trader Joe is very good shop too but it is hard to find books there.

Nowadays, Barnes & Nobles has the policy that if they don’t have the book you are looking for, they will ship it to you for free.
That is probably out of necessity as Barnes & Nobles experience strong competition from Amazon.com.

Coming out of the shop the mood was excellent.
The book “Animals in translation: using the mysteries of autism to decode animal behaviour” by Temple Grandin had been bought and the Barnes & Nobles card extended for another year.

The mood was so good that other people were hearing the content man whistle a nice tune.
It is true, it would have been hard to recognize the song “Blackbird” by the Beatles, as that song was whistled.
But everybody understood the good mood.

So did obviously an African-American young lady who was sitting half way in, half way out, on the passenger’s side of a nice car.
Many would have called her pretty.
She was well dressed.
Made up expertly.
Even decorated with some jewellery.

She called out to the whistler passing by:
“Excuuuse me, but can I have a word with you?”

How to ignore such a request made by an African American young lady?


She told “they” were from Lake Elsinore.
A town about 40 miles to the north.
Their car had broken down.
She claimed they were in a “desperate” situation.
Would the gentleman be so kind to give $ 8 so she could buy a ticket for the bus to go home?

The reply was: “You can use my mobile phone to call your brother to come and help you”.

That pissed her off badly.
From being friendly she turned into a nasty bitch.
The moment to return into the whistle mode and continue the walk in the sunshine to the unique Fuso Szulc.

This approach to ask for travel money due to terrible circumstances has been experienced before.
Clearly in the memory is this pretty Polish girl in the main station of Warsaw.
Waiting there for a train she came up to the traveller and explained she was robbed and had therefore lost all her money.
And could the kind gentleman be so kind to give her some Zlotys so she could buy a train ticket to go home?
The answer given was: “OK, let’s go to the ticket counter together and I will buy you the ticket you need”.
For the girl to take off and disappear into the crowd.

Another time there was this man in Paris who had this story he had not eaten for days due to being unemployed and having no money.
He heard: “OK, let’s go to that restaurant and I buy you a dinner”.
It made him run away too.

Now some fervent and loyal blog readers may argue that the African American lady’s car in Temecula had maybe truly broken down.
And that she truly needed $ 8 for the bus.
But that is very unlikely.
Who is travelling to a shopping centre in another town without any money?
Who is not having a mobile phone to request help of relatives or AAA?

The lady didn’t look she would be a customer of Barnes & Nobles.
Hence, it might be a scheme.
Her daily work to make money.
Park her car near a shop where intellectual, often liberal and for sure good-hearted people go to shop.
Like beggars putting themselves next to the entrance door of the church.
And approach every person afraid to be called a racist with a tear jerking story.

Still, several fervent and loyal blog readers may not agree how this situation has been handled.
Those are invited to PayPal through the “donation”-button on this blogside $ 8 and this money will be carried and offered to the African American lady hanging out next to the Barnes & Nobles store in Temecula, California, USA.
$8, minus shipping and handling of course.





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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of "making money". Whatever happened of the cute Russian Lady from the internet, you were writing with... She seemed so nice and wanted to meet with you. Tell us about it!

Andreas

Fred Wishnie said...

We get hit up almost every other month or so as we travel around the country. We've also noticed that they seem to be better dressed lately. Instead of sending the $8 to you, we'll save it for the next "broken down" victim and give it to them directly, with your best regards. :-)