Got an angry email this morning from someone rabid that we dared mention in the latest issue of Bucharest In Your Pocket that Cismigiu has a litter problem:
I assume you did not enjoy a recent early walking in Cismigiu where, at around 7am, a fleet of workers cleans the whole garden which is – in my opinion – one of the cleanest gardens I’ve ever seen, and not only in Europe.
Well, the photo below was taken not long ago in Cismigiu, so I would guess the fleet of workers missed a bit…
Cleanest park in the world?
Anyway, brings us to another matter (which we’ve touched on before): sunflower seeds.
Is it not time to move to ZERO TOLERANCE on this issue? By that we mean the banning of the sale, distribution and consumption of seeds. It is surely the only way to rid this menace from our parks, playgrounds and other public places. Spitting seeds on the floor should be as socially acceptable as, well, spitting on the ground.
Oh… hang on…
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Anyway, it's considered a habit of lower class and uneducated people, you won't see middle class people spitting seeds.
@Davin: I tend to believe it's a Romanian custom. But not sure where it comes from, as I was saying – it's about breaking the shell and spitting it on the ground, it's not about the taste of the seeds.
You can see this habit in some old movies with Florin Piersic from the 70s I think. The action was set in the late 1700's, he was interpreting a tough guy, a hajdook who was stealing from the rich and sharing with the poor and had lots of conflicts with the boyars' army. He was breaking and spitting seeds like the cowboys from American westerns were chewing and spitting tobacco. =))
Can someone explain this phenomenon for me? I only first witnessed the consumption of sunflower seeds when I witnessed peasants in Maramures in village bars. Is this part of Balkan culture or just a Romanian thing?
But you know, it's not about the taste of sunflower seeds. No Sir! It's about breaking and spitting them on the ground!
Sunflower seeds without a shell appeared in commerce but nobody buys them, everyone wants to break the shell and spit it on the ground =))
You know, when Ceausescu was president, gypsies used to sell sunflower seeds on the street. And they would have a bag of sunflower seeds and a cup carved out of wood. From where people were looking, the cup looked like an ordinary 150ml cup but instead it was carved only a bit at the surface leaving most of the interior filled with wood and people were paying for what they thought it was 150ml of seeds and instead they got only a few seeds that fitted in the small carving =))
=))=))
I like sunflower seeds too but I don't know how to break them with my teeth =))
Tell me, is any other nation in Europe eating sunflower seeds and spitting them on the ground? =)) Oh you should see how it's like on the stadiums =))