Off my usual beat but a humorous story from the land of intercultural marriages (my wife, if you don't know us, is Japanese):
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"The fairy that buys teeth from children." "IT BUYS THEM!?!" "Well yes." "HOW IT CANNOT EXIST." "Well it leaves a quarter under pillow."
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"THIS IS SOME F*^#}ED UP RELIGION." "No no it's not religious more of a folk tale." "YOU SURE." "Pretty sure." "Because you drink blood."
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"I know... that's complicated." "So why does the tooth fairy buy teeth?" "I don't know." "So why would you as a parent do this?" "Tradition"
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"How important of a tradition is unlicensed organ sales to you?" "Not very." "So not like the blood thing." "No very unlike the blood thing"
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"..." "So what do you do with them [here in Japan]?" "Throw them under your house or on the roof, depending." "On what?" "Opposites."
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"Opposites?" "Top teeth under house in crawlspace; bottom teeth on the roof." "Got it. For whom?" "There's no fairy of teeth throwing!"
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"OK. Is there a particular reason why?" "Good luck and it helps the new ones come in straight." "... today I learned." "How'd you not know?"
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"Well it's not covered in school." "Literally everyone knows that." "Maybe not." "Don't you literally have a degree in Japanese Culture."
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"I do but that particular fact wasn't in the textbook." "Why don't they put important things like that in the book!?!"
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There's a more important metacomment here about discourses about The Other, but it's late and kids are teething, so call it "a funny story."
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End of conversation
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