Sometimes stereotypes, positive or negative, really do have a basis in reality.  Irish people drink a lot, blacks run faster (yet, ironically, are the slowest walkers on earth), Asians are good at math while horrible at driving – all these generalizations aren’t backed up by a lot of facts but cases can be made for any of them.  This might appall some people but the reality is there are certain tendencies among races that can be categorized, even if its highly unscientific.

One absolute, undeniable FACT is that Asians are the only race that can handle dry cleaning with utter efficiency.  As my experiences lately with an American dry cleaning establishment were not positive since they wrote on my shirts.  The previous dry cleaners I used, an Indian-owned place, lost a shirt of mine and I had to threaten them before they reimbursed me for my loss.

With the place owned by a southern lady, I don’t know how they stay in business by telling people if you turn in clothes Tuesday morning that they won’t be ready until the following Monday.  So I decided to try a dry cleaning place in a strip mall across from my office complex.  My heart fluttered with joy when I saw two Asian women standing at attention, ready to take my clothes (the dirty ones in my arms, not the ones I was wearing, you "happy ending" perverts).  They got all my info in a matter of seconds and then, keep in mind this is Monday morning, asked if it was OK if it wasn’t ready until Tuesday after 5 PM.  I had to stifle a laugh with them being worried that 36 hours was not a quick enough turnaround time for clothes.

Of course their business probably solely consists of high maintenance business people from the office park so they need to be efficient in order to stay in business, but needless to say I was elated.  When I got the clothes back the next day, my name wasn’t written in ink on the shirt, rather a computerized tag was affixed to one of the buttonholes, like most professional places do.  Is the Asian dry cleaning community “mobbed-up”, monopolizing all the efficient dry cleaning facilities, thus blocking out other racial factions from doing the same job as well?  Who knows.  All I know is if you see an Asian behind the counter at a dry cleaners, your clothes are in good, albeit slightly tinier, hands.

It reminded me of how efficient Asians can be when it comes to moving the line at Chinese food joints in mall food courts.  When I worked at the Merchandise Mart, the line at Lai Lai always doubled, and sometimes tripled, the next longest line in the food court.  But that line moved faster than any other line.  In fact, by the time they served five people, other lines would only have served one.  While others were waiting on their Philly cheesesteaks, I was 20 bites into a styromfoam container of orange "chicken" goodness.