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The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre was sitting in a cafe when a waitress approached him: "Can I get you something to drink, Monsieur Sartre?" Sartre rep

The French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre was sitting in a cafe when a waitress approached him: "Can I get you something to drink, Monsieur Sartre?" Sartre replied, "Yes, I'd like a cup of coffee with sugar, but no cream". Nodding agreement, the waitress walked off to fill the order and Sartre returned to working. A few minutes later, however, the waitress returned and said, "I'm sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream -- how about with no milk?"

brokenmachine 6y ago
I don't get it.
- gtirloni 6y ago
  In the ice cream situation, broken and down mean the same thing. In the Sartre anecdote, milk and cream mean the same thing.
  - DrScump 6y ago
    No, it was a logic error on the part of the server. Since he requested without cream, their lack of cream was irrelevant.
- pgcj_poster 6y ago
  Sartre believed that it was impossible to abdicate the responsibility of making choices, because to choose to do nothing is still a choice -- in other words, "nothing" is a kind of something. So one might humorously imagine that Sartre would also think that "no cream" is a kind of something that could be different from "no milk."
  - feintruled 6y ago
    Excellent! I once went to a local burger place - they have a menu full of the various types of burgers, all loaded with everything. My kids are super picky, so I asked for a burger, with nothing except the burger and the bun. Server looked confused - but which burger did I want? It became apparent that while I could ask for a preset item and ask for removals, I could not actually go fully off menu. So I had to ask for "the cheese burger, without the cheese" (as somehow distinct to say, the bacon burger, without the bacon). I laughed at the ludicrousness of that, but now I see they were channeling Sartre! In retrospect it would have been a truly beautiful absurdity if see had come back and said "sorry, we have no cheese, do you want no bacon?"
    - daemin 6y ago
      I get the feeling that it's also easier for the cashier to put it into the point of sale / ordering system. There are buttons for specific menu items, and then buttons to remove things from them, but no buttons to build a burger from scratch.
      - withinboredom 6y ago
        I remember working at the drive thru for Wendy’s. I learned all about some clever orders that saved you $0.50-2.00 by ordering things a certain way. I can’t remember anything specific, but I remember one time asking, “so you want an X?” And they came back with “no, put it in exactly how I told you.”
    - donarb 6y ago
      Like the scene from Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson. He asked the waitress for an omelet with a side of toast. She says they don't have a side of toast, so he asks for a chicken salad sandwich, on toasted wheat bread, and hold the mayonnaise, the lettuce and the chicken salad.
zerocrates 6y ago
Brings to mind the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure by Infocom where you start the game with an item called "no tea" in your inventory.

brokenmachine 6y ago

I don't get it.

gtirloni 6y ago
In the ice cream situation, broken and down mean the same thing. In the Sartre anecdote, milk and cream mean the same thing.
- DrScump 6y ago
  No, it was a logic error on the part of the server. Since he requested without cream, their lack of cream was irrelevant.
pgcj_poster 6y ago
Sartre believed that it was impossible to abdicate the responsibility of making choices, because to choose to do nothing is still a choice -- in other words, "nothing" is a kind of something. So one might humorously imagine that Sartre would also think that "no cream" is a kind of something that could be different from "no milk."
- feintruled 6y ago
  Excellent! I once went to a local burger place - they have a menu full of the various types of burgers, all loaded with everything. My kids are super picky, so I asked for a burger, with nothing except the burger and the bun. Server looked confused - but which burger did I want? It became apparent that while I could ask for a preset item and ask for removals, I could not actually go fully off menu. So I had to ask for "the cheese burger, without the cheese" (as somehow distinct to say, the bacon burger, without the bacon). I laughed at the ludicrousness of that, but now I see they were channeling Sartre! In retrospect it would have been a truly beautiful absurdity if see had come back and said "sorry, we have no cheese, do you want no bacon?"
  - daemin 6y ago
    I get the feeling that it's also easier for the cashier to put it into the point of sale / ordering system. There are buttons for specific menu items, and then buttons to remove things from them, but no buttons to build a burger from scratch.
    - withinboredom 6y ago
      I remember working at the drive thru for Wendy’s. I learned all about some clever orders that saved you $0.50-2.00 by ordering things a certain way. I can’t remember anything specific, but I remember one time asking, “so you want an X?” And they came back with “no, put it in exactly how I told you.”
  - donarb 6y ago
    Like the scene from Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson. He asked the waitress for an omelet with a side of toast. She says they don't have a side of toast, so he asks for a chicken salad sandwich, on toasted wheat bread, and hold the mayonnaise, the lettuce and the chicken salad.

zerocrates 6y ago

Brings to mind the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure by Infocom where you start the game with an item called "no tea" in your inventory.