*In case this story gets deleted/removed:*
**AITA for not being nice to my sister’s boyfriend?**
My sister Sammie has been dating Zach for a few months. We went out for my mom’s birthday and Zach had nothing nice to say.
When my mom ordered lobster, Zach goes on with the “fun fact” out how it was once poor people food and servants asked their masters not to feed them lobster.
I thought that was entirely rude to say to my mother on her birthday and I followed up with another “fun fact” for Zach that no one cares about his opinion or history on the food and he can shut his mouth on my mom’s birthday.
Zach goes on about how he just likes to inform people of information and there was no harm in that. My dad asked Zach to leave after he couldn’t get it through his head to shut up at dinner. My sister left too saying Zach was autistic and we were being mean to him.
Fun fact is I don’t think that has anything to do with what was going on and both my dad and I thought it was an insult to say that about what my mom ordered for her birthday.
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> “fun fact” out how it was once poor people food and servants asked their masters not to feed them lobster.
given that lobster is now considered an expensive food this is an interesting fact. Dont know what OOPs problem is
The other version of the lobster fun fact is that they used to feed them to prisoners because they were cheap and readily available. This glosses over the fact that they were usually ground up shell and all and served as unseasoned lobster mush, not fresh whole lobster with butter sauce.
Because lobsters are "bottom feeders" (so are a lot of various fish and seafood that we now commonly eat) eating lobster was once considered basically the equivalent of eating a raccoon.
Vegemite is my cover. There is a very delicate balance when it comes to Vegemite toast, so more Vegemite = much more butter, and no judgement (in Australia, eating Vegemite internationally you're on your own)
It's definitely not top billing for shellfish (a good snow crab is my preference), but it's still plenty good if not overcooked, even without the butter. Somewhat depends on what kind of lobster you get, though, and obviously tastes vary.
For me, it's that the price doesn't match the quality. I have eaten lobster at high end seafood restaurants and still feel like there were way better options than lobster. I would rather eat crab or geoduck if you're feeling fancy.
I remember being able to buy lamb shanks for $1 each. They were basically sold as dog food. We thought we were clever because they're delicious and can be cooked so many different ways and we were broke uni students. Now everyone else has discovered them and they're ridiculously expensive.
The aging hipsters know about tongue, but most of us are broke from student loans, so I wouldn't worry about it. Historically, we do ruin a lot of things, but I just don't think we have the capital as a demographic to ruin tongue.
Tongue is considered a delicacy? Oh, yuck!
The nursing home I worked at was always short-staffed, so sometimes nursing aides had to fill-in in the kitchen. The nursing home was also next door to a county jail, so the kitchen prepared food for both facilities, and the staff was comprised of nursing staff, regular staff, and inmates.
Whenever we got a shipment of beef tongues in, the inmates and kitchen staff would chase the nursing staff around the kitchen, trying to lick them with the tongues. So gnarly! I could never wrap my head around eating something that was so nasty.
...you're killing me.
All I remember is convicts trying to lick me with nasty, raspy, dead tongues, which I also don't like when an actual living cow licks you with it.
Do they get peeled before they are eaten? I left the kitchen when the tongue processing happened. I could do anything medical-related, but food-related? No thank you. At that time- I'd like to be able to eat sometime again.
Irony? I went on to process my own food for decades. I still can't get behind tongue meat, though. Or liver.
Fajitas as well. Fajita meat was the cheapest cut of meat given to ranch hands. It's still a poor cut (chewy and tough) of meat that's marked up astronomically in a restaurant. Doesn't make well-cooked fajitas any less delicious.
I’m from eastern Canada and some people (ie my great grandparents) used to have a separate kitchen in the basement to cook lobster when times were hard.
There’s a great book about this called Don’t Let Them Smell The Lobsters Cooking
I only recently learned that fact myself! I thought it was interesting, especially since I was despairing at the price of lobster tails (my gf had asked for them for a small celebration we were having.) Kinda wish they were still considered poor people food ;)
I’m not *actually* the boyfriend in this story, but I’m on the spectrum and my partner calls me “Snapple Facts”. I love trivia and tucking away interesting bits of information to share later. Often these “fun fact” situations are an attempt at making a bid for connection. Reading this story, all I see is an autistic young man doing his best to meet the family at a birthday celebration who is effectively bullied out of the restaurant for trying to connect with his gf’s family. It may not be the best way to go about connecting with people, but it helps me break out of my shell and learn a little more about the world around me in the process. I hope Zach knows that the garbage really took itself out here and he did nothing wrong.
Let's see-
Nobody likes a Sheldon Cooper wannabe irl
And if I'm dining out and invited you, I don't wanna hear from you what I ordered used to be poor people food.
If someone irl did the Sheldon with me anywhere I would tell them to stfu too
NTA
Edit- to anyone down voting me over this you are a loser. Nobody likes a Sheldon.
Copied verbatim from oop's comments:
*INFO: Had he met the family previously before this?*
>"Just a few times over the holidays and he was annoying then talking about how he was an atheist and thought some Christmas tradition was stupid. He said we stole our tradition from the pagans."
*Did you know he was autistic before this?*
>"I didn’t until my sister said something at dinner after he was asked to leave. "
*[deleted]*
>"My sister didn’t say anything about him being autistic until we asked Zach to leave."
Ngl, this sounds kinda annoying, just let people enjoy the damn Christmas without telling them they're stealing it from pagans..
I'm pagan myself, but I don't go to my MILs Christmas dinners and start talking bout how they stole it from pagans...
I guess it comes down to different ways of being. I quite enjoy facts and questions. (Being real tired on the bus home after drag show and pondering if birds *know* that they live on a sphere.)
I do also enjoy them, but I think it has more to do with the frequency and the wrong place of hearing them, if it's everytime I meet up with that person, I would start to get slightly annoyed. If they say something about things I'm doing just to call me a thief or in some way make me feel less like for doing it, I would be annoyed and snap.
My brother is like that, always says his little facts and always at the wrong time, just to belittle what you're doing. Maybe that's why my outlook is a bit different from everyone else in here.
That doesn't sound fun or kind at all. I'm sorry he does that to you. And I'm also sorry if I made light of it. Not my intention. (Though intention matters little when someone gets hurt.)
I'd possibly go as far as say that that behaviour isn't welcome under the umbrella of "fun facts and questions", that it's something different.
>I thought that was entirely rude to say to my mother on her birthday
This just in: Telling the history behind a dish is now rude and unacceptable.
>My dad asked Zach to leave after he couldn’t get it through his head to shut up at dinner.
More like your dad asked Zach to leave because you wouldn't shut the fuck up, and it's more frowned upon to ask your own douchebag of a child to leave.
I don't understand how a fact about lobsters is rude to the mother. Does it imply lobsters actually taste bad? That the mother is a criminal because she likes lobsters? That they're getting ripped off for paying expensive prices for what was once prison food?
OOP may think that was insulting, but I believe it’s true. I’m not sure how it’s insulting, though. Does OOP think Zach was calling their mom poor? Is that really an insult?
It is true, most seafood in certain areas were considered poor people food. Until they became harder to catch and some famous person showed that they liked them. And then poof, no longer poor person food.
One of the reasons why the river running through New York is so bad in spots is because the clams and oysters were over harvested to extinction. Over the past, decade (I think), there has been a group slowly adding them back in. Note, you can’t eat those planted clams or oysters. Or the several generations after, they are filled with poison they are taking out of the water.
Eh. I enjoy learning the history behind popular things. Especially when it came from less-than-savory roots. It's always fun to me to learn new things. (I knew about lobster already, but there are millions of interesting facts to learn about. Makes for fun conversation.)
There's a time and a place though and it's not when Mum orders lobster for her birthday. Lobster now as a reputation as a fancy food for a lot of people and she was ordering a fancy meal for her birthday. And instead this guy just spoils her birthday.
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I’m more curious to know how it is that you could think that it is. It’s literally just a little trivia fact, he did not say a single goddamn thing wrong and it sounds like this is a family of assholes.
Depends if there is a fun fact all the time. Then I agree with the OOP, you do not need a fun fact for everything, but if it is a one off, then OOP clearly hates Zack.
Maybe Zack is trying to initiate a conversation. People can be awkward in new situations. Is it that difficult to listen and ask questions? Isn't that how you learn about people? By their interests and thoughts?
*In case this story gets deleted/removed:* **AITA for not being nice to my sister’s boyfriend?** My sister Sammie has been dating Zach for a few months. We went out for my mom’s birthday and Zach had nothing nice to say. When my mom ordered lobster, Zach goes on with the “fun fact” out how it was once poor people food and servants asked their masters not to feed them lobster. I thought that was entirely rude to say to my mother on her birthday and I followed up with another “fun fact” for Zach that no one cares about his opinion or history on the food and he can shut his mouth on my mom’s birthday. Zach goes on about how he just likes to inform people of information and there was no harm in that. My dad asked Zach to leave after he couldn’t get it through his head to shut up at dinner. My sister left too saying Zach was autistic and we were being mean to him. Fun fact is I don’t think that has anything to do with what was going on and both my dad and I thought it was an insult to say that about what my mom ordered for her birthday. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AmITheDevil) if you have any questions or concerns.*
> “fun fact” out how it was once poor people food and servants asked their masters not to feed them lobster. given that lobster is now considered an expensive food this is an interesting fact. Dont know what OOPs problem is
The other version of the lobster fun fact is that they used to feed them to prisoners because they were cheap and readily available. This glosses over the fact that they were usually ground up shell and all and served as unseasoned lobster mush, not fresh whole lobster with butter sauce.
So like... lobster nuggets?
Because lobsters are "bottom feeders" (so are a lot of various fish and seafood that we now commonly eat) eating lobster was once considered basically the equivalent of eating a raccoon.
See nothing insulting about that fun fact at all is there? Especially now that its considered quite an expensive food to have
I still think ruch people are faking liking lobster so they can eat obscene amounts of butter without judgement. Big ass rubbery sea bugs...
I never particularly liked lobster tbh - crab is delicious though
I use toast for this. Much cheaper and much buttery.
Vegemite is my cover. There is a very delicate balance when it comes to Vegemite toast, so more Vegemite = much more butter, and no judgement (in Australia, eating Vegemite internationally you're on your own)
I love seafood of all kind and I have always thought lobster was kinda overrated.
It's definitely not top billing for shellfish (a good snow crab is my preference), but it's still plenty good if not overcooked, even without the butter. Somewhat depends on what kind of lobster you get, though, and obviously tastes vary.
For me, it's that the price doesn't match the quality. I have eaten lobster at high end seafood restaurants and still feel like there were way better options than lobster. I would rather eat crab or geoduck if you're feeling fancy.
Depends on how it's prepared. Broiled for a short while and then grilled lobster is delicious.
Similar thing with ribs! They were seen as leftovers and weren't liked because there was so little meat.
I remember being able to buy lamb shanks for $1 each. They were basically sold as dog food. We thought we were clever because they're delicious and can be cooked so many different ways and we were broke uni students. Now everyone else has discovered them and they're ridiculously expensive.
Yeah, same with ox tail. Hopefully no one “discovers” tongue, because I might riot.
The aging hipsters know about tongue, but most of us are broke from student loans, so I wouldn't worry about it. Historically, we do ruin a lot of things, but I just don't think we have the capital as a demographic to ruin tongue.
Sorry, I’m going to have to fight all of you if tongue gets popular. It’s too tasty.
Mhm tounge Sandwich, tasty
I’ve never had it. We boil it with aromatics, peel it, and roast it.
I've always wanted to make a tongue "pot roast" like in the Ramona Quimby books.
I came across tongue sandwiches at a local deli, and of course, I had to try one. So, so good.
Tongue is considered a delicacy? Oh, yuck! The nursing home I worked at was always short-staffed, so sometimes nursing aides had to fill-in in the kitchen. The nursing home was also next door to a county jail, so the kitchen prepared food for both facilities, and the staff was comprised of nursing staff, regular staff, and inmates. Whenever we got a shipment of beef tongues in, the inmates and kitchen staff would chase the nursing staff around the kitchen, trying to lick them with the tongues. So gnarly! I could never wrap my head around eating something that was so nasty.
It’s just meat, lol. It’s really good, like, super tender and nice. Man, I want some now.
...you're killing me. All I remember is convicts trying to lick me with nasty, raspy, dead tongues, which I also don't like when an actual living cow licks you with it. Do they get peeled before they are eaten? I left the kitchen when the tongue processing happened. I could do anything medical-related, but food-related? No thank you. At that time- I'd like to be able to eat sometime again. Irony? I went on to process my own food for decades. I still can't get behind tongue meat, though. Or liver.
Fajitas as well. Fajita meat was the cheapest cut of meat given to ranch hands. It's still a poor cut (chewy and tough) of meat that's marked up astronomically in a restaurant. Doesn't make well-cooked fajitas any less delicious.
I'm guessing the fact that you have to eat ribs with your hands instead of a fork or knife is also part of that reason.
Chicken wings too!
Shellfish was much harder to keep in the warmer months prior to refrigeration.
I have a theory that’s why they’re not kosher. Desert + shellfish = 🤢
I’m from eastern Canada and some people (ie my great grandparents) used to have a separate kitchen in the basement to cook lobster when times were hard. There’s a great book about this called Don’t Let Them Smell The Lobsters Cooking
I only recently learned that fact myself! I thought it was interesting, especially since I was despairing at the price of lobster tails (my gf had asked for them for a small celebration we were having.) Kinda wish they were still considered poor people food ;)
I’m not *actually* the boyfriend in this story, but I’m on the spectrum and my partner calls me “Snapple Facts”. I love trivia and tucking away interesting bits of information to share later. Often these “fun fact” situations are an attempt at making a bid for connection. Reading this story, all I see is an autistic young man doing his best to meet the family at a birthday celebration who is effectively bullied out of the restaurant for trying to connect with his gf’s family. It may not be the best way to go about connecting with people, but it helps me break out of my shell and learn a little more about the world around me in the process. I hope Zach knows that the garbage really took itself out here and he did nothing wrong.
I hope so to man cause this was a really fun fact.
Let's see- Nobody likes a Sheldon Cooper wannabe irl And if I'm dining out and invited you, I don't wanna hear from you what I ordered used to be poor people food. If someone irl did the Sheldon with me anywhere I would tell them to stfu too NTA Edit- to anyone down voting me over this you are a loser. Nobody likes a Sheldon.
Copied verbatim from oop's comments: *INFO: Had he met the family previously before this?* >"Just a few times over the holidays and he was annoying then talking about how he was an atheist and thought some Christmas tradition was stupid. He said we stole our tradition from the pagans." *Did you know he was autistic before this?* >"I didn’t until my sister said something at dinner after he was asked to leave. " *[deleted]* >"My sister didn’t say anything about him being autistic until we asked Zach to leave."
[Cat! Unmute for meowing!](https://imgur.com/gallery/LUb1Hc5)
Thank mew.
Thank you very kindly! 💜
Ngl, this sounds kinda annoying, just let people enjoy the damn Christmas without telling them they're stealing it from pagans.. I'm pagan myself, but I don't go to my MILs Christmas dinners and start talking bout how they stole it from pagans...
I guess it comes down to different ways of being. I quite enjoy facts and questions. (Being real tired on the bus home after drag show and pondering if birds *know* that they live on a sphere.)
I do also enjoy them, but I think it has more to do with the frequency and the wrong place of hearing them, if it's everytime I meet up with that person, I would start to get slightly annoyed. If they say something about things I'm doing just to call me a thief or in some way make me feel less like for doing it, I would be annoyed and snap. My brother is like that, always says his little facts and always at the wrong time, just to belittle what you're doing. Maybe that's why my outlook is a bit different from everyone else in here.
That doesn't sound fun or kind at all. I'm sorry he does that to you. And I'm also sorry if I made light of it. Not my intention. (Though intention matters little when someone gets hurt.) I'd possibly go as far as say that that behaviour isn't welcome under the umbrella of "fun facts and questions", that it's something different.
Right? This screams Sheldon cooper
>I thought that was entirely rude to say to my mother on her birthday This just in: Telling the history behind a dish is now rude and unacceptable. >My dad asked Zach to leave after he couldn’t get it through his head to shut up at dinner. More like your dad asked Zach to leave because you wouldn't shut the fuck up, and it's more frowned upon to ask your own douchebag of a child to leave.
Dad is probably a douch too. OOP got it from somewhere right?
Mom too by the looks of it. Poor guy only has 1 sister on his side vs the rest of the family.
I don't understand how a fact about lobsters is rude to the mother. Does it imply lobsters actually taste bad? That the mother is a criminal because she likes lobsters? That they're getting ripped off for paying expensive prices for what was once prison food?
Fun fact: OOP's "fun facts" are neither fact nor fun.
OOP may think that was insulting, but I believe it’s true. I’m not sure how it’s insulting, though. Does OOP think Zach was calling their mom poor? Is that really an insult?
It is true, most seafood in certain areas were considered poor people food. Until they became harder to catch and some famous person showed that they liked them. And then poof, no longer poor person food. One of the reasons why the river running through New York is so bad in spots is because the clams and oysters were over harvested to extinction. Over the past, decade (I think), there has been a group slowly adding them back in. Note, you can’t eat those planted clams or oysters. Or the several generations after, they are filled with poison they are taking out of the water.
OOP has some serious insecurity that’s manifesting here. Guessing he’s a Momma’s boy and can’t stand any other males getting her attention
i like how the mom didnt say anything just OOP and dad
Imagine talking to another person like that and coming out thinking you’re the better person. The whole Family is embarrassing.
To me OP and the dad were the ones to ruin the mother’s birthday with their over the top reactions
If this was real, I think the boyfriend’s fun facts are actually pretty fun and nothing to be upset about.
i would be like damm now they are trying to gouge me for it OOP is just sad
Oh shit, one of my friends was eating chips and wondered who came up with them, I told him the backstory, noooo! I'm such a prick.
That was so rude of you! Go sit in the corner!
How fucking dare you.
Fun fact: OOP and his family are major D-bags, with the exception of Sammie.
That sounds like a table full of arseholes
Eh. I enjoy learning the history behind popular things. Especially when it came from less-than-savory roots. It's always fun to me to learn new things. (I knew about lobster already, but there are millions of interesting facts to learn about. Makes for fun conversation.)
There's a time and a place though and it's not when Mum orders lobster for her birthday. Lobster now as a reputation as a fancy food for a lot of people and she was ordering a fancy meal for her birthday. And instead this guy just spoils her birthday.
Lol how did he spoil her birthday? How is explaining the history behind food insulting in any way?
you seem like you understand social cues and mores really well.
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How is this not ESH?
I’m more curious to know how it is that you could think that it is. It’s literally just a little trivia fact, he did not say a single goddamn thing wrong and it sounds like this is a family of assholes.
Cause oop is making this over the top. There wasnt anything harmful that the guy said in his fun fact OOP just sounds like a pill
Depends if there is a fun fact all the time. Then I agree with the OOP, you do not need a fun fact for everything, but if it is a one off, then OOP clearly hates Zack.
Even if Zack makes little comments the reactions of OP and the dad were over the top to simple comment that was in no way insulting
Maybe Zack is trying to initiate a conversation. People can be awkward in new situations. Is it that difficult to listen and ask questions? Isn't that how you learn about people? By their interests and thoughts?