I've already posted
my most cringeworthy moment, if you can call a six month period of my life a moment. As it was one of my first posts I felt somewhat anonymous when I posted it, and therefore safe... now, however, having met actual real live b3tans, I think I will leave that one where it is.

But I have more... oh yes...

Many years ago I met a great woman who became my best friend. Early on in our friendship she told me her son Ben had learning difficulties.

We were chatting on the phone one time and she said,
"Did I tell you Ben's a Mormon?"

Now, I'm not sure exactly what was going on in my head at the time, or why I thought what I thought, I just remember having a sort of PC panic, (of the kind best portrayed by John Cleese, "Don't mention the war!") and thinking "oh fuck, am I Right On enough to deal with this?"...

Because I thought she meant "Mongol".

I was a bit taken aback but thought perhaps it's ok to call them that if you're their mum.

"Er, no, well, er, um," I bluffed "You said he was special needs".

I'm not sure how the conversation went after that or how long it took before I realised, probably because I've blanked it out.
( warmfuzzies Isn't here, Thu 27 Nov 2008, 22:29, 3 replies)

Well...
to some of us that could be seen as a fairly appropriate response...
(The Bloody Awful Warsaw Concerto, Sun 30 Nov 2008, 3:02, closed)

lol
Yes.. the church of Jesus Christ and latter day saints and Ghengis Khan's mongol hoard do bear some striking similarities.. I was second guessing that he mis-heard her matter-of-factly mentioning that her son was a moron.. it fitted nicely enough in my mind anyway.

Happy Tuesday
(AndyC4m Eject Eject [><], Tue 2 Dec 2008, 14:16, closed)

Um, I is a "she" :)
"Mongol" is a (now deemed un-PC) term for those with Down's Syndrome, in reference to their "Mongoloid features".

I don't know why I thought she meant that, I just confused the words Mongol and Mormon. To my friend's credit she did laugh and reply something like "yeah, they are quite similar" but when then when she started talking about how a percentage of his wages was automatically taken by the church I started to think perhaps I had it wrong, as I had never heard of Down's Syndrome peeps having their wages docked for religious purposes... And then I panicked even more and tried to backtrack so she wouldn't realise what I thought she had meant. As I said, I have blanked it out so I don't know if she figured it out...
( warmfuzzies Isn't here, Tue 2 Dec 2008, 19:50, closed)