Oodles of Noodles for Turtles in Bangladore

We drove over to Barnes and Noble today, with the grey skies threatening a Sunday afternoon shower. After looking over many books, I settled on Thomas Friedman's new "The World is Flat," and am now deep into reading about Bangladore India's 24/7 Company, where outsourcing comes to life.

"A bottle of bottled water held thirty little turtles. It didn't matter that each turtle had to rattle a metal ladle in order to get a bit of noodles, a total turtle delicacy...the problem was that there were too many turtle battles for less than oodles of noodles. Every time they thought about grappling with the haggler turtles their little turtle minds boggled and they only caught a bit of noodles."

This is the text that Friedman was asked to read in his Minnesotan accent, for a room full of trainee call center employees learning to rid themselves of their Indian accents. "The class responded enthusiastically, this is the first time I ever got an ovation for speaking Minnesotan." he said.