At a birthday party this evening, where most of the guests were middle-aged or older, and everyone was German, I happened to be sitting near the table with all the food. So when one woman wandered over to pick up a few snacks, she made a bit of small talk with me. Making a bit of small talk back, I mentioned that I hadn't really figured out yet which things on the table were vegetarian.
She pointed out one thing she knew was vegetarian because she'd brought it herself, then peered at another dish and said, "Oh, and I think this is vegetarian, it's salmon."
Yes, I know 99 percent of Germans are firmly convinced that a fish is not an animal, at least when it comes to purposes of defining vegetarianism. (I assume it's allowed to be an animal the rest of the time?) I don't know how they arrived at that conclusion, but they did. And I do know this already. Still, the misapprehension was so blatant ("It's vegetarian, it's salmon") that I couldn't help – gently! – correcting the woman: "Salmon? Oh, so it's not vegetarian."
This met with a blank stare.
I tried to explain: "Because fish isn't actually vegetarian, because it's an animal."
"Oh," she said, "I guess that's what I would call vegan."
"Well, vegan is actually something else – it means no dairy products, and no eggs."
Another blank stare.
Yes, that's the point where I just smiled nicely and gave up.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Also, tonight on the S-Bahn, a seller of a homeless magazine who got on the train and then burst out laughing – because there was a clown sitting there in the seat across from me, red nose and all. You know, just sitting there and riding the train.
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