[Advocate] Sascha Bollag was running errands in Harahan on Tuesday when he saw a sign that made him turn his car around to see if he had actually seen what he thought he saw.The sign for the Shimmy Shack restaurant on Dock Street was topped with a joke in plastic lettering: "What time does a Chinaman go to the dentist? Tooth a hurty!"
"I was very surprised," said Bollag, who lives in New Orleans. "Obviously, the term ’Chinaman’ is what caught my eye and upset me. That’s a term that I feel generally -- and say what you want about political correctness -- has not been acceptable in polite company for 30 years."
Shimmy Shack owner Jimmy Collings, however, said he often puts up jokes he considers harmless, "goofy stuff" and that he doesn’t consider the term or the stereotype invoked to be malicious or racist.
"It’s a joke my father told me when we were kids," he said.