Ho'!

The Panera Bread at Baltimore has a system where you get an order #, and once the food is ready, they call out your order #. On the west side of Michigan, or in Wilmington, Delaware, they make it more complicated. They ask for your name as you place the order and call out your name when the food is ready. And this is where the trouble starts.

As many might have noticed, my name is not the best for the 'Wild Wild' West. Its difficult to walk up in a bar... ok, its easy to walk up in a bar but its difficult to pull off a "How you doing? The name is Apoorva", compared to a "How you doing? The name is Clint". Not to say - My name is Apoorva - ever worked in India, but it never got me a "Huh?"

Anyhoo, back to Panera. I place my order and the pretty lady behind the counter asks for my first name. From experience I have learned to pass on my last name in such cases.

"Joshi"
"What?"
"J-O-S-H-I. Joshi"
(pretty lady types)
"Ok, no guarantees on that one", she says.

So I move to the section where they are making the paninis and soups and all that yummy food and another pretty lady is bringing out the food and calling out names.

"Tom, your order is ready"
"Jane, your order is ready"

Long pause, looks at the screen.

"Ho......."
Has trouble reading
"Ho....? Errr...."

"Yes, thats me"
"How do you say your name?"
"You dont wanna try. All I'll tell ya is its definitely not Ho'!"

And we laugh.

And then I walk away.

The new Ho' in town!