David Sedaris has just swung through Canada to promote his latest book of essays, reminiscences, and exaggerations, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, and there’s been lots of coverage. Like this Q&A with Hannah Sung on the CBC Arts site, which includes the following baffling excerpt:
Q: Do any recent encounters with fans stand out?
A: There was a guy last night at the reading whose parents are from India. I saw him standing there, and I said, “Do you work at Canadian Tire?” And he didn’t, he had some grown-up job, but he said, “It’s funny, everywhere I go, people ask me to get them another size or just ask me questions as if I work there.” I’d never in my life talked to anybody with that problem! It was fascinating to me. I absolutely love it when I learn about something like that.
We here at the Quillblog labs may just be missing something, or perhaps some detail has been lost in the telling, but we’ve been scratching our heads trying to figure out how that reply makes any kind of sense. Sedaris looks at a fan “whose parents are from India” and asks if he works at Canadian Tire? (And to those who do work at Canadian Tire: don’t worry, you may work your way up to a “grown-up job” yet.)
If anyone can clear things up for us, hey, that’s what the comments section is for.
Remember, Sedaris is American. They sometimes have generalized views of Canadians and our weather. He might just as well have said, “Do you work at Tim Horton’s?” because it is a well known Canadian business, and he was making small talk with a Canadian.
That’s my guess.
when he told the story at the reading he made it sound that it was the look of the crisp ironed clothing that made him think the guy worked at CT not his heritage (and that it was his traditional Indian mother probably ironing the guy’s clothes for him). or that’s how I understood it.
What’s baffling is that he’s never met anyone with that problem before. It’s happened to me frequently.
Anyone who’s worked in a mall in the winter and visited other stores on their break would have experinced it. If its a book or record store I sometimes try to help the person myself…
It happens to me all the time. And I’ve never worked in retail. For some reason, most often at Staples. But since I own my own business I know where everything is anyway, so I just help the person out and go on my way…