After lunch today I had to go over to the local bookstore and pick up a book for my job (Gorilla Suit: My Adventures in Body Building by Bob Paris). I walked in, made my selection, and proceeded to the checkout counter. Just as I was walking out, an old lady walked in and attempted to get the attention of one of the bookstores’ employees. Here is the conversation that took place between the two:

Old Lady: Excuse me mam…

Bookstore Clerk: (Turns around)

Old Lady: Oh, I’m sorry, Sir…

Bookstore Clerk: You had it right the first time.

Let’s dissect this. The old lady begins the conversation with a simple “Excuse me mam”. As the clerk turns around to assist, the old lady, thinking she had made a mistake with regard to the clerks gender, attempts to apologize with a “Oh, sorry, Sir”. At this point the clerk advises that the old lady “had it right the first time”. All of this taking place in front of me and three of my coworkers that were in tow. So, not only has this clerk been accosted by way of gender misclassification by the old lady, she was done so in front of four witnesses. Now heres the cherry on top, the clerk still had to help the old lady with what ever she was needing in the first place.

Not necessarily as interesting as the story above, but I also found out they have a bathroom at the Radio Shack where I live. Why is this? The Radio Shack store sells things like batteries and transducers, why do they need a bathroom. Don’t give me any of the crap like “where are the dudes who work there supposed to go to the can?”. The bagel shop next store, that’s where. Anyway, I was there to buy a new soldering iron since my buddy Doodle broke mine and lost my solder. Just as I was bending, at the knees, to grab some high tech silver bearing solder, one of the Radio Shack employees came shooting out of the bathroom, which to my surprise, was right behind me. The door hit me in the keister and nearly pushed me into a stack of Digital Soldering Stations with Detachable Stands. As the guy came out he immediately went to his manager to talk about…well..hmmm.. I wasn’t sure. All I heard was his manager telling the guy he couldn’t go home but that was sorry he was feeling bad.

Well guess who rang up my purchase? Yep, the sick guy. So, in addition to my new soldering iron and solder, Radio Shack attempted to throw in a case of the stomach flu.