People Discuss Awkward Positions Someone Else Has Put Them In
#25 Shameless Dinner Questions
My mother-in-law is an elderly Thai woman. Even though she’s lived in America for 50 years, she still speaks broken English. She can be very tactless. One time, I was at a party she was hosting, and without any shame, she asked one of her guests what it was like being an FDNY paramedic on 9/11, and if he watched people jump out of the towers. After he answered very briefly, he buried his face in his plate so he didn’t have to answer anymore questions. She then proceeded to ask, “So sweet muffin, how many people you kill in Iraq?” After the party, I told her that she had behaved very inappropriately, and that she had hurt a few people’s feeling by her questions.
