60%

Posted by Chris

My wife kicked me out of the house so that she could get a little practising in, and so I went to the Starbucks on 7th Ave in Brooklyn. A man in front of me in line was explaining to the cashiers about his philosophy of parking tickets. He made a regular habit of parking illegally to pick up coffee, but owing to his extreme ingenuity he only got one parking ticket a year. Evidently the intrinsic interest of the subject called for much repetition of its main themes - so much repetition that one cashier eventually told him to scram as bluntly as a Starbucks employee can tell someone to scram without getting fired. ("Oh look, I think you might get a ticket now if you're not careful.") Finally, he wandered off to his unticketed SUV (another triumph!) with the collar on his pink sports shirt raised high. I wondered idly what he could have possibly done to merit the rosy glow of wealth that lay upon his puffy cheeks.

I asked the cashier what percentage of his customers are that annoying. Apparently it's 60%. That seems a bit high to me, but he's in a better position than I am to judge. He did not say into which category I fell, and I did not ask.

Posted by Chris at August 13, 2004 04:33 PM