Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yon_saf AT bezeqint.net>]

Walking through San Francisco's Chinatown, a tourist from the Midwest was
fascinated with all the Chinese restaurants, shops, signs and banners.  He
turned a corner and saw a building with the sign "Moishe Plotnik's Chinese
Laundry."
"Moishe Plotnik?" he wondered.  "How does that fit in Chinatown?"
So he walked into the shop and saw a fairly standard looking chinese laundry.
 He can see that the proprietors are clearly aware of the uniqueness of the
name as there are baseball hats, T-Shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with the
logo "Moishe Plotnik's Chinese Laundry."
There was also a fair selection of Chinatown souvenirs, indicating that the
name alone has brought many tourists into the shop.
The tourist selected a coffee cup as a conversation piece to take back to his
office.  Behind the counter was a smiling old Chinese gentleman who thanked
him for his purchase in English, thickly accented with Chinese.
The tourist asked, "Can you tell me how this place got a name like "Moishe
Plotnik's Chinese Laundry?"
The old man answered, "Ahh...  Everybody ask that.  Is name of owner."
Looking around, the tourist asked, "Is he here now?"
"He is right here," replied the old man.  "He is me."
"Really?  How did you ever get a name like Moishe Plotnik?"
"Is simple," said the old man.  "Many, many year ago when come to this
country, was stand in line at Documentation Center.  Man in front is Jewish
gentleman from Poland.
"Lady look at him and say, 'What your name?' "He say, 'Moishe Plotnik.' "Then
she look at me and say, 'What your name?' "I say, 'Sem Ting.'"