"It is my job to make sure not only that you are seated, but that you feel comfortable and welcomed to my establishment before your meal is served. Frankly, being a good host means putting others ahead of yourself and allowing them to feel important. I guess I'm old-school in that way.
"I have toys - a snazzy cell phone with matching Blue- tooth. But these last two items have been the bane of my existence as a restaurant host.
"Why are people so rude that they cannot stop a cell phone conversation for a brief moment in order to allow me to greet them warmly and usher them to their table? This cuts across racial, social and professional lines and extends from those too young to understand proper social etiquette to those old enough to know better, and it irks me to no end that I am dismissed in such a rude manner.
"Have these people not been taught manners? Is it their easy and rapid acquisition of wealth? Perhaps it is the increasing speed at which we live.
"To the people on cell phones who I meet: When you dismiss me, I get angry. When you will not hold your cell phone conversation for one brief moment to let me greet you, you are just being rude. I have considered at times just standing stock still and not saying a word until you treat me with the same courtesy I am extending you. Perhaps some day I will rip the cell phone out of your hands or say something rude. But no. I am a professional. I will rise above you."
I think you're already there, pal.
Linguica quest
Where I grew up, among the Gomeses and Sousas, the Correiras and Rodrigueses, there was this thing called linguica (pronounced Lynn-gwee-suh). There still is a lot of linguica around - a reddish/brown Portuguese smoked sausage that is the most delicious in the world. It's like kielbasa, only good. (Sorry, my Polish-American friends, I had K-and-kraut after a funeral in East Baltimore nearly 30 years ago, and I haven't been able to even take it under advisement since.)
Linguica can be found in just about any supermarket in New England. It's offered as a topping in pizza shops. It's commonly served at breakfast in diners. It has the powerful garlic thing going for it, a touch of vinegar, and spices Vasco da Gama brought back from India. Linguica truly tastes of some other world. (The Portuguese brought linguica to Hawaii ages ago, and apparently you can get it with breakfast at McDonald's in Honolulu.)
You can't get linguica in Baltimore.
I have never seen it for sale south of Cranston, R.I. (OK, maybe New Haven, Conn.)
I always have to stock up during trips back home, or have it shipped by Gaspar's of New Bedford, Mass.
But the other day I discovered it at the Price Rite store on S. Queen St. in York, Pa., selling for $3.49 a pound.
Thank God for the global economy.
dan.rodricks@baltsun.com
Dan Rodricks hosts Midday, noon-2 p.m., Monday through Thursday, on WYPR, 88.1 FM.
