SMART TALK

by Dr. Dot Pilcrow




SWAT I SAID: Last weekend, I stopped in at the Perfect Parfait, Underbelly's ice cream parlor. Yes, we have a real ice cream parlor, one of the last in Texas.

I mentioned that I was watching my fat intake, and the young man said, "Well, we have five flavors of sherbert." Being a therapist at the Center for English as a First Language, I couldn't help noticing the problem.

"Flavors of what?" I asked, to make sure I had heard correctly.

"Sherbert," he answered. "Slike ice cream without the cream." He probably thought I was the one who didn't speak English as if it were his first language.

"Oh, you mean sherbet," I said, affecting sudden understanding.

"Swat I said. Sherbert."

"Of course you did," I breathed with a smile.

How can anyone listen and learn from anyone else when they can't listen to themselves? And they believe the schools left them behind?