The Pickled Cows Tongue Story

1974

A cute story told to me by Barney Kaplan

Written 09/2012* 237 Words

#137 BY Howard Yasgar

This story was related to me by my dear friend Barney Kaplan who passed away at 96 years of age in 2015.

think the story is more in the order of a joke.

Barney said that as his immigrant father’s business grew, he had a fish market concession in Detroit.

Besides the fish market, his father also sold other specialty items like pickled cow tongue.

The pickled cow’s tongue was kept marinating in a wooden barrel behind the sales counter.

One day A women customer came in and asked for a pickled tongue.

Barney’s father reached into the barrel of pickled tongues.

There was only 1 pickled tongue tongue left, so he put it on the scale, and it weighed 2-3/4 lbs.

The customer was disappointed, she said she wanted at least 3 lbs. So she asked if he had a larger one.

He put the tongue back into the barrel and then lifted it out again. This time he secretly pressed his finger on the scale and the tongue now weighed exactly 3 lbs.

Good the lady said, I’ll take both of them.

o