talk about yourself in the third person

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romelpanzer

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"A lot of young cooks who have read "Kitchen Confidential" ask me for career advice. I tell them if you are serious about cooking and your craft, do the opposite of what I did. I learnt a lot of important skills from my mistake that served me well in both publishing and television. I think the skills I learnt as a junkie are skills of determining if this person is full of shit or not. I'm never going to be the kind of person who talks about himself in the third person or has the red M&M's weeded out of my bowl.You know what you see in the mirror when you are waiting for the lady on the subway to fall asleep so you can take her purse. I'm a pretty good judge of human nature."

The above para is excerpted from the article of Anthony Bourdain entitled "A Few Reservations". What does he mean by (1) I am never going to be the kind of person who talks about himself in the third person, (2) has the red M&M's weeded out of my bowl and (3) what you see in the mirror when you are waiting for the lady on the subway; especially the words in bold letters.
 

shroob

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"A lot of young cooks who have read "Kitchen Confidential" ask me for career advice. I tell them if you are serious about cooking and your craft, do the opposite of what I did. I learnt a lot of important skills from my mistake that served me well in both publishing and television. I think the skills I learnt as a junkie are skills of determining if this person is full of shit or not. I'm never going to be the kind of person who talks about himself in the third person or has the red M&M's weeded out of my bowl.You know what you see in the mirror when you are waiting for the lady on the subway to fall asleep so you can take her purse. I'm a pretty good judge of human nature."

The above para is excerpted from the article of Anthony Bourdain entitled "A Few Reservations". What does he mean by (1) I am never going to be the kind of person who talks about himself in the third person, (2) has the red M&M's weeded out of my bowl and (3) what you see in the mirror when you are waiting for the lady on the subway; especially the words in bold letters.

Not a teacher only a native.

A 'person who talks about himself in the third person' in this context means they are probably regarded as demanding and think they are more important than they are.

How a 'normal' person would speak: I went to the cinema yesterday.
3rd Person: Anthony Bourdain went to the cinema yesterday. (When it is Anthony Bourdain speaking).

'Weeding out all the red M+M's' means removing all the red M+M's from a pack or bowl of M+M's (M+Ms are a type of sweet). This is a famous demand of celebrities who are considered hard to please, what some might call a 'diva'.

With the last one, I'm not so sure.
 

SoothingDave

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For what it's worth, SoothingDave has read that such demands as M&M sorting are meant to be tests of one's attention to detail more than they are actual demands of the artists.
 

TheParser

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"A lot of young cooks who have read "Kitchen Confidential" ask me for career advice. I tell them if you are serious about cooking and your craft, do the opposite of what I did. I learnt a lot of important skills from my mistake that served me well in both publishing and television. I think the skills I learnt as a junkie are skills of determining if this person is full of shit or not. I'm never going to be the kind of person who talks about himself in the third person or has the red M&M's weeded out of my bowl.You know what you see in the mirror when you are waiting for the lady on the subway to fall asleep so you can take her purse. I'm a pretty good judge of human nature."


***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Hello, Romelpanzer:

(1) I may (repeat: "may") have an answer for your third question.

(2) This afternoon I received this week's copy of Newsweek and there

was the complete article.

(3) Two little points that make a big difference (this is a wonderful

lesson for beginners):

(a) First, Mr. Bourdain did what many native speakers do, he did not

start his question with "Do."

(b) Second, you forgot to do something: you did not copy the question

mark at the end of his question.

(4) Here is what he wrote:

[Do] you know what you see in the mirror when you're waiting for

the lady on the subway to fall asleep so [that] you can take her

purse?

(5) I am no great reader (and, frankly, Mr. Bourdain may not be the

best writer), but I think that he is referring to himself. Earlier in the

article he admits to being a very bad person ("I had no moral

compass"). In other words, when he looked at himself in the mirror, he

saw one bad person who had done many bad things (including,

apparently, stealing sleeping ladies' purses).


James

P.S. At least, he waited for them to fall asleep. Today some "ladies" and

"gentlemen" openly attack and rob people on the subway. At least,

Mr. Bourdain apparently had enough of a conscience never to physically

harm other human beings.
 

romelpanzer

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Thanks to, Shroob, Soothing Dave and The Parser. (Romel Panzer)
 
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