USS Clueless              Voyages of a restless mind

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Stardate 20010922.0953 (Crew, this is the Captain): I just came within about an inch of beating the crap out of a total asshole. There's a Starbucks near me; I used to go there every morning for breakfast but these days when I do go I leave almost immediately. There's an older guy who goes there every morning and sets up shop near the entrance and "holds court". He's maybe ten years older than me (or perhaps more than that) but much less better preserved; he's fat and ugly and obnoxious, he harasses all the beautiful women who come into the place, and he stays there for about three hours nearly every day.

This morning I went there to get some coffee and, blessedly, he wasn't there in his usual spot. But it turned out he was ahead of me in line, and while I stood there waiting he came back with his coffee and noticed that someone was sitting in his usual spot. So he asked a woman with a baby to move so he could sit down.

She had been sitting on one side of his usual table and her baby (maybe 18 months) was sitting on the other side playing with a typical baby toy on the table. There were other things of hers on the table and she had a baby carriage; moving was going to be a hassle. And he had the GALL to ask her to do it.

I have been putting up with him silently for two years and today seeing that I boiled over. I stalked up to him and got in his face and said "Who the fuck do you think you are? Do you think you own this store?"

Then I had to leave. If I'd stay there I would have beaten the crap out of him. I have never in my life seen an able-bodied man ask a woman with a baby to move so he could sit where she was.

The manager wasn't there this morning but next time I see him I'm going to have a long talk with him about this. I suspect this is not the kind of thing he will want to have happening in his store. I almost wish this nation didn't have laws against assault; taking out a miserable scum ought to be legal justification for that kind of thing. (Now you know what it takes in person to make me boil over. I haven't been this angry at a specific person in years.) (discuss)