Okay, but WHY is there a car with diplomat plates parked outside the worse Chinese restaurant?

[conuly]

I mean... it's the North Shore. Of Staten Island. And that's not a very good Chinese restaurant at all. I'm just saying, it's an odd place to find a diplomat.

Comments

[dine]

they got a craving for really bad egg rolls? they're related to the owner? maybe it's all part of some spy ring - super sekrit messages passed via fortune cookies!

[conuly]

LOL.

[gatheringrivers]

I'd go with spy ring, lol

[marahmarie]

I'd go with the fortune cookies, I love that.

[sovay]

And that's not a very good Chinese restaurant at all. I'm just saying, it's an odd place to find a diplomat.

Front?

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

The problem is usually fronts have better food. Except, if they aren't mobsters.

[conuly]

Nobody would buy it as a front if the food sucked.

[nodrog]

I could tell you of the time my uncle in Pittsburgh took my parents out to eat, and they went down town in every sense, down to the waterfront, where you don’t go after dark, and my parents were seriously alarmed, but he parked around back and they went to an anonymous door that had a light shining down in front…  and it opened onto Heaven as an Italian restaurant.  O M G.  Hushed, gleaming crystal and creamy linen and solid hand-rubbed wood, red-checked tablecloths innocent of any hint of stain, and the aroma of cooking…  O M G.

See, the restaurant was subsidized by certain good family men with serious connections to organized labor, and they never knew when their generous patrons would decide to stop by.  All they knew was what would happen if these gentlemen were displeased with anything they found there.  Ever.

Meanwhile, hey, it’s supposedly a normal restaurant; “Good evening…”

[giandujakiss]

depends on the country. i mean that really - poorer countries don't give their diplomats big budgets

[conuly]

Yeah, but I don't care how poor your nation is, that particular Chinese restaurant in Stapleton is really slumming it.

[cactuswatcher]

Visiting relatives?

[conuly]

Why not have them visit you?

[jhetley]

Maybe the better ones are bugged?

[conuly]

There's a better one three blocks down! Not likely to be bugged. I mean, this is pretty far off the beaten path. Whereas there's a real possibility that that particular place actually has bugs.

[greghousesgf]

I guess diplomats have lousy taste in Chinese food??

[conuly]

I HAVE NO IDEA.

[siderea]

If you don't want to be overheard, but you want to be in public, going to a restaurant you know nobody else will be eating at is your best bet. Your two choices are to reserve the whole restaurant for a private function, or, you know, just go somewhere that sucks so nobody will be there.

I don't know for diplomats, but I assure you, as someone who likes to occasionally eat out or catch coffee with fellow therapists and wants to be able to discuss cases, I keep a mental list of "restaurants lousy enough we'll have some privacy, but good enough I don't mind going there." It's short.

[conuly]

I guess that makes sense.

“The Secretary will disavow all knowledge -”

[nodrog]

It really does.  She’s exactly right.

And for a frivolous example, because my smartphone plays MP3s (they all do, but in this case) I have been so tempted to go, for example, into the restroom at Home Depot, into the stall, close the door, and play -

“Good morning, Mr Lynch.  The man you are looking at is Verkhovnyy Chelovek, a notorious member of the Russian Organizatsiya…”

- but I have to make sure someone else is in there, obviously.


[As a minor caveat, I would think your diplomats would not leave their vehicles identifiably visible.  Bit of a giveaway, what?]

[marahmarie]

Yeah, it's like at least eat at a better restaurant, damn it. I hate it when the hoity-toity try to act all hoi polloi.

[thewayne]

The diplomats are either (A) meeting with the spies who run the place and don't care about food, (2) have employees who really, REALLY hate them, or (III) have the worst possible taste in the universe.

There are many restaurants whose continues existence I question, not that I ever see diplo plates in my area.

[silveradept]

Maybe someone got to take the car out for a spin.