Posted on 08/16/2010 11:52:40 PM PDT by JoeProBono
NEW YORK, - A New York English professor said she was kicked out of a Starbucks by three police officers because she refused to follow the cafe's ordering rules.
Lynne Rosenthal, who gave her age as early 60s, said she got into an argument with a barista Sunday morning because she refused to specify whether she wanted butter or cheese on her multigrain bagel, the New York Post reported Monday.
"I just wanted a multigrain bagel," Rosenthal said. "I refused to say 'without butter or cheese.' When you go to Burger King, you don't have to list the six things you don't want."
"Linguistically, it's stupid, and I'm a stickler for correct English," she said.
Rosenthal said a manager called police during the incident and three officers who responded to the scene ordered her to leave the store.
"It was very humiliating to be thrown out, and all I did was ask for a bagel," Rosenthal said. "If you don't use their language, they refuse to serve you. They don't understand what a plain multigrain bagel is."
A Starbucks employee at the store during the incident said Rosenthal was being unreasonable.
She clearly has had no contact with the Latte language.
Ah, the problems that occur in the big city and the suburbs. No Starbucks in this small SE NM town. No Denny’s either. However we have an overabundance of Mexican breakfast burrito joints where English is the second language. Green or red hot sauce with those beans, Senor?
Me too. I wouldn't go out of my way to go to a Starbucks but if I'm in an airport or somewhere where that's all there is I order a "large coffee".
Is that when you just HAVE to eat a Filipino?
Apparently the police will enforce Starbucks terminology, but requiring English language skills in place of oh, say Spanish, is a no-no. Now, repeat after me: it is tall, grande, and venti...never mind enforcing the border, get the sizes right! ;-/
Shoulda tazed the b***h.
I never use their words for things, and I notice they always repeat my order in their language. One of them tried to prompt me to use the right language, and I told him, “you work here, you have to call it that. I don’t. I get to call it anything I want.”
He laughed. He didn’t call the cops, which apparently was lucky for me.
About as stupid as "waitpersons", with all due respect
And they are just waitpersons. “Barista” is just stupid
(What happened to "waiters" and "waitresses"? "Barista" actually means "bartender".)Exactly - the phrase "pick your battles" comes to mind. People have lost all sense of perspective.
>>About as stupid as “waitpersons”, with all due respect <<
That was economy of words. At least I didn’t use the term “Waitrons.” ;)
Sure, why not?
Was she speaking English?
The real question here is...why would an honest to goodness New Yawkah buy a foo-foo bagel from Starbucks when the real deal can be found on just about every corner?
I bet she’s a visiting prof from Berzerkly or something! ;-)
That is fine, but attitude goes a long way. When one lives like a jerk/beeyatch, they shouldn’t be surprised when one treats them in the same manner.
“The customer is always right” has been abused. It used to be applicable when the customer sincerely believed themselves to be right; now people will intentionally lie to get what they want, and act boorish toward the “hired help” just because they feel they can.
It’s quite sickening, really.
The prof may well be a Democrat and not charming, but one has to respect an English professor for using and standing up for the use of proper English. That's more support for our culture than anything I've seen an admitted Democrat do.
Eight out of ten times we'd hear the customer hang up around the word "future".
My conclusion at the time: business people are stupid.
My conclusion 25 years later: business people are stupider than I could have possibly imagined.
I dunno, I sort of sympathize...
I get so irritated when I go to places where they have two sizes, medium and large. What’s with that???
This one is smaller than that one. Call the former small and the latter large. There can only be a medium size if there are three sizes.
Why is that so hard for people to understand?
Arrrrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!
Has Obama weighed in yet? Who acted stupidly to him this time?
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