Chinese laundry

[joseyclosey]

Walking through San Francisco's Chinatown, a

tourist from the Midwest was fascinated with all

the Chinese restaurants, shops, signs and

banners. He turned a corner and saw a building

with the sign "Moishe Plotnik's Chinese Laundry."

"Moishe Plotnik?" he wondered. "How does

that fit in Chinatown?"

So he walked into the shop and saw a fairly

standard looking Chinese laundry. He could see

that the proprietors were clearly aware of the

uniqueness of the name as there were baseball

hats, T-shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with

the logo "Moishe Plotnik's Chinese Laundry."

There was also a fair selection of Chinatown

souvenirs, indicating that the name alone had

brought many tourists into the shop.

The tourist selected a coffee cup as a conver-

sation piece to take back to his office. Behind

the counter was a smiling old Chinese gentle-

man who thanked him for his purchase. The

tourist asked, "Can you tell me how this

place got a name like "Moishe Plotnik's

Chinese Laundry?"

The old man answered, "Ahh... Everybody

asks me that. It's the name of the owner."

Looking around, the tourist asked, "Is he

here now?"

"He is right here," replied the old man.

"He is me."

"Really? You're Chinese. How did you ever

get a name like Moishe Plotnik?"

"Is simple," said the old man. "Many, many

years ago when I came to this country, I was

standing in line at the documentation center.

The man in front of me was a Jewish gentleman

from Poland. The lady at the counter looked

at him and said, "What is your name?" He said,

"Moishe Plotnik."

Then she looked at me and said, "What is

your name?" I said, "Sam Ting."

[wh12725]