You Got To Read This!

[kaciemarie]

I live in Phoenix and my friends wanted to go to Honey Bear's BBQ so I emailed the manager and explained my situation (in detail I will add) and this is the response I got...

You can eat everything. We do not have wheat bread and we use white flower in the peach cobbler.

So you should be fine.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Clark

Honey Bears BBQ

Needless to say, we didn't go there for lunch. Here's my question. Do I just ignore her response or try to educate her on what Celiac Disease is. I would hate for a newbie to think that she was right and eat there, but I honestly don't know if there is any hope for her!

[CarlaB]

I live in Phoenix and my friends wanted to go to Honey Bear's BBQ so I emailed the manager and explained my situation (in detail I will add) and this is the response I got...

You can eat everything. We do not have wheat bread and we use white flower in the peach cobbler.

So you should be fine.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Clark

Honey Bears BBQ

Needless to say, we didn't go there for lunch. Here's my question. Do I just ignore her response or try to educate her on what Celiac Disease is. I would hate for a newbie to think that she was right and eat there, but I honestly don't know if there is any hope for her!

I would respond in a constructive, understanding way. She meant well. But, I'd try to educate and I'd tell her that. Someday she may get someone in there with a severe wheat allergy that may drop dead just from ingesting it ... she should know white flour is wheat.

Thanks for the laugh!

[Mango04]

I would just send a friendly response explaining that white bread and white flour are both made out of wheat, and maybe include a link to the forbidden ingredients list...just for the sake of other Celiacs who might try to eat there in the future.

[jerseyangel]

I agree that a note and maybe a print out of gluten ingredients would be a good idea. I had to do a double-take at this post, though!

[jenvan]

I live in Phoenix and my friends wanted to go to Honey Bear's BBQ so I emailed the manager and explained my situation (in detail I will add) and this is the response I got...

You can eat everything. We do not have wheat bread and we use white flower in the peach cobbler.

So you should be fine.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Clark

Honey Bears BBQ

Needless to say, we didn't go there for lunch. Here's my question. Do I just ignore her response or try to educate her on what Celiac Disease is. I would hate for a newbie to think that she was right and eat there, but I honestly don't know if there is any hope for her!

I would also respond with some basic information. There may come a day when someone with celiac disease or gluten intolerance who is new or unsure may trust their faulty "information"!

[penguin]

What's scary is that this woman works in a restaurant preparing food regularly. I don't think I'd want to eat somewhere where the employees don't know what the food is made out of

[Guest Robbin]

Geez, this country is getting way too ignorant. What does she think white flour is made of? Maybe she thinks "white" is a grain? She does need educated on this for the sake of anyone that eats there. Unfortunately, this is so common. Its like one of my "brighter" relatives saying that maybe my son should try tofu since he cannot have soy or milk.

[schuyler]

Some peolpe really are ignorant. A few months ago, a chef put pancake batter in my omlet. Unfortunately, I did not find out until after I had eaten everything. When I asked why it was put in there, they replied "Our pancakes are made with white flour." I took the opportunity to politely explain that white flour is made from wheat. They were very appreciative of my info, and the manager implemented a new rule that if someone says they have an allergy or intollerance, the chef and manager must be notified so that they can go the the persons table and discuss everything with them.

I think that you should do something similar because only good things can come from educating people.

[gfp]

Geez, this country is getting way too ignorant. What does she think white flour is made of? Maybe she thinks "white" is a grain? She does need educated on this for the sake of anyone that eats there. Unfortunately, this is so common. Its like one of my "brighter" relatives saying that maybe my son should try tofu since he cannot have soy or milk.

Well and partly in reference to another of your posts...

My gluten-free was at Uni in the UK last year and shared a house with 14 people .. a few moved in and out but basically of the 14 only 3 could actually cook anything from scratch .. I don't mean making your own pasta or chutney (must check the pot soon) but I mean making a bolognaise sauce or chilli.

Of the 11 left probably 6-7 were unable to boil an egg without instructions ... and lived entirely on take out or anything that was pre-prepared and went in a microwave. Im completely serious...I mean i knew things were bad .. I just didn't think THAT bad.

It amazes me that people don't know how to make pasta, Im not saying they actually do, i just mean realise what its made from and it doesn't grow on trees ... especially after this Open Original Shared Link

Please read it without any hot beverages in your hands!

[jerseyangel]

gfp--that was too funny! And I thought it was money that didn't grow on trees

[penguin]

It's official. People are big fat idiots.

[gfp]

It's official. People are big fat idiots.

The weird thing is many of them are not....

I did my undergrad with a guy who could tell you the result of any football game from 4 leagues for the last 15 years AND who scored and when. He could do the same with hundreds of films down to times in minutes when someone enters/exists stage....

Could he get physics ? Not in the slightest... but Im sure he could if he just focussed.

I couldn't tell you who is playing today in the world cup (and I don't want to know) if its on TV I will switch it off and when credits come on films I turn them off, Im simply not interested.

For me what I put in my body is important ... several other things are important and I know trivia (in the true sense) which is competely useless and people compete to have me in a pub quiz team but ask me to name 10 faces of actors/actresses and Im lost.

Im sure my friend thought it bizarre that I know the periodic table by heart including RMM's and isotopes ... and I had no idea what the name of a football team was from some town or other...

[penguin]

For me what I put in my body is important ... several other things are important and I know trivia (in the true sense) which is competely useless and people compete to have me in a pub quiz team but ask me to name 10 faces of actors/actresses and Im lost.

Im sure my friend thought it bizarre that I know the periodic table by heart including RMM's and isotopes ... and I had no idea what the name of a football team was from some town or other...

Yeah, but there's a difference between trivia and being ignorant. I couldn't tell you anything about football from 5 minutes ago or more than 10 elements on the periodic table, let alone their weights and isotopes. (Good for you on that, actually, DH is a ChemE and doesn't know all of that!) I do know quite a bit of cooking trivia, but that's my interest.

What disturbs me here is that the woman *works* in a restaurant, she is around food 8 hours a day and never bothered to glance at ingredient statements. It's not the hostess who answers those emails, this woman was likely an owner/manager/cook. We don't all have to watch football, or know the periodic table, but we all *have* to eat.

It just goes to show in this country, we're so used to eating things that come ready-made and wrapped in plastic that we don't have any flipping clue what's in it. I also get annoyed when people don't learn how to cook, since you have to eat every day, I see it being as important as knowing how to wash your hair and brush your teeth.

[flagbabyds]

i would never eat there, they have no idea of what they are putting into their food, not a good idea for a place to eat in my opinino.

[jkmunchkin]

I live in Phoenix and my friends wanted to go to Honey Bear's BBQ so I emailed the manager and explained my situation (in detail I will add) and this is the response I got...

You can eat everything. We do not have wheat bread and we use white flower in the peach cobbler.

So you should be fine.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Clark

Honey Bears BBQ

Needless to say, we didn't go there for lunch. Here's my question. Do I just ignore her response or try to educate her on what Celiac Disease is. I would hate for a newbie to think that she was right and eat there, but I honestly don't know if there is any hope for her!

Wow so not only does this woman have no understanding of what wheat is but she also didn't win any spelling bees. Someone might want to inform Miss Clark how to spell flour; not flower!

[gfp]

Yeah, but there's a difference between trivia and being ignorant. I couldn't tell you anything about football from 5 minutes ago or more than 10 elements on the periodic table, let alone their weights and isotopes. (Good for you on that, actually, DH is a ChemE and doesn't know all of that!) I do know quite a bit of cooking trivia, but that's my interest.

What disturbs me here is that the woman *works* in a restaurant, she is around food 8 hours a day and never bothered to glance at ingredient statements. It's not the hostess who answers those emails, this woman was likely an owner/manager/cook. We don't all have to watch football, or know the periodic table, but we all *have* to eat.

It just goes to show in this country, we're so used to eating things that come ready-made and wrapped in plastic that we don't have any flipping clue what's in it. I also get annoyed when people don't learn how to cook, since you have to eat every day, I see it being as important as knowing how to wash your hair and brush your teeth.

I don't think its just the US by a long long way....

However I do think there is a worldwide movement of promoting stupidity as chic.

In the UK there was a TV scientist called Michael Ball who did really good kids shows.

He has a daughter called Zoe .. who was (and maybe still is) a radio 1 DJ and I used to listen on my way to work.

I remember one day some guy phoned in and he was a post doc researcher in fish genetics and she spent a good 10 minutes making fun of him and IMHo making a complate fool of herself.

To his credit her father phoned in ... and after him telling her in no uncertain words that making fun of people for gaining knowledge is pretty stupid the show cut to commecials with her breaking down in tears.

I have a friend of a friend who is very bright, has a very good job ($600/hr) and is pretty much happy with his 2 kids and wife, but steadfastly refuses anything 'cultured' .. he always says stupid guys have more fun and less worries.

Meanwhile I buy my coffee from one of two places in Paris that direct imports "Illy black label ristretto" while he buys the little prepackaged ones. I rarely spend less than $10 on wine (even for cooking) and often spend over $100 on a bottle but I don't know i enjoy it more than him buying a pint of beer?

(OK Beer is out for me anyway)

I find it completely weird that someone isn't bothered by what they put in their bodies but then most people find me weird ... I can tell you loads of stupid facts (like the April fool thing from memory) but I could have just googled for 10 mins so what does it gain me....

Buying vegetables the market the other day the guy is busy adding them up on a calculator oly 3-4 items but I just told the guy how much it added up to without any real effort but hey.. I still have to wait until he does it ... so then the guy asks me how ... and i just say becuase I don't use calculators ..(it was only 3 numbers!)... most dart players can do this and calculate exactly what they need to finish without any effort and half inebriated and quite a few of them are hardly able to spell there own names ....heck most of my fathers generation are perfectly capable of the same thing .. just like people who look at you weird for fixing your own car ...

Society sets progressively lower standards ...

When I look at the exams I took when I was 16 (O levels in UK) and my brother 2 yrs later there was already a difference. When I look at the equivalent today its pityful.

My borther went to buy a portable TV a couple of years ago for his bedroom, suffice it to say he knew exactly the size he wanted based on hard math, the distance to the bed and possible the phase of the moon (j/k).

In the shop we are confronted by a sales rep who tries selling a 14" when my brother wants a 15" and says .. hey but its only 1" differnence out of 14" so you'll not notice....

My brother explained that the apsect ratio is 4:3 so the 15" hypotenuse means that the tube must be 9 by 12 since 15^2 = 225 and 9^2+12^2 =225 and 9x12 = 108 sq in.

(grade school trig)

whereas a 14" hypotenuse is 8.4 x 11.2 = 94.08 sq in and hence the 15" is 15% bigger since 108/94.08=1.15

Now I don't expect they guy can do it in his head although for this situation its actually trivial (due to the 3:4 ratio) BUT the guy just didn't get the fact that the 15" was a hypotenuse or what an hypotenuse was and squaring 3 and 4 were beyond him, let alone working out the sqaure root of 225 is 15. The 4:3 ratio is a nice special case .. it has been recognised as such since the Hellenic era not that this guy would know who pythagoras was nor what the Hellenic era represents!

On the same ratio .. when i moved back to the UK from Libya I took my rugs. They were just cheap machine rugs and I actually paid less than $10 each for them but I saw no point in throwing them out ....while I was doing air frieght anyway.

So I get to customs in the UK to pick them up and wait for however long and start talking to a Swiss guy who's picking up a laptop sent from Switzerland by his company.

The laptop was one of those with a built in printer and they couldn't decide to tax it as a printer or computer since they had different rates ... kinda funny and they guy is saying look my company don't care... its used anyway but my copmpany is willing to pay just to save time and money.

But they couldn't decide even when he offered to just pay whatever was most expensive....

Next my turn.... I have handmade some brass lamps about 3-4 feet high, various other valuable items but this guy is fixated on the 6 or so rugs... its all on the inventory ....

He starts talking about thousands of £ import duty so I just say look forget the rugs they're not important just destroy them, sorry to have caused a fuss but they guy won't let it go... his sheet has proces in sq metres and I have listed them in length/width so he's saying OK, this is 4x3m but is that 4 sq metres or 3?

Im not sure I say... lets say 4 and be safe !!!! but your list is for handmade carpets and you can clearly see these are machine made. Where is your list for machine made carpets....

Of course he doesn't have one!

I've hired a van for the day and its costing me money so I just want to get out of there, rugs or not but he won't let me leave the rugs because of paperwork... not my problem I say bringing oput a copy of the import rules...

after about 2 hours of this the guy just let me take everything... but this guy is a customs officer and he can't work out how to calcualte sq meters from length and width!

Im sorry but there is something wrong with the selection process!

[par18]

Wow so not only does this woman have no understanding of what wheat is but she also didn't win any spelling bees. Someone might want to inform Miss Clark how to spell flour; not flower!

Maybe next time she should use a dixshunnarry!

Tom

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I but this guy is a customs officer and he can't work out how to calcualte sq meters from length and width!

Im sorry but there is something wrong with the selection process!

Even scarier is the fact that it's probably not the selection process-- he was probably the brightest applicant they got for that job...

Heck, just look at our medical system--our MDs are supposed to be the best and brightest in our society, and look what idiots most of them are!

[floridanative]

Even scarier is the fact that it's probably not the selection process-- he was probably the brightest applicant they got for that job...

Heck, just look at our medical system--our MDs are supposed to be the best and brightest in our society, and look what idiots most of them are!

Ditto!!!! If doctors don't know zip about Celiac disease, you can bet that 90% of the servers you encounter in the average US restaurants do NOT know that flour is made from wheat, that white bread is made from wheat and so on and so on. I went to a hoity toity country club to eat and was told the chef knows all about gluten since several members there have Celiac. I was impressed until I got there, spoke to the chef and he asked me if I could have rice and pasta............yes.....no and then I wasn't impress anymore. I did not get sick but ate mostly things that were seemingly safe and he said they were too. I got lucky and I'll not be going back there in the future.