The other day at work I was talking to my coworker, Alicia (and here I would like to say that when I mention a person in my blog I use their actual name. I do not change it to protect them, and Alicia's last name is Ward. If you want to you can probably find out her phone number with a Richmond phone book. Or on the internet, who knows).
Alicia is a nice woman in her fifties, and she has lots of diseases. Fibromyalgia for example. She has doctor's notes that get her out of all kinds of stuff- closing more than one night a week, covering breaks in the cafe, lifting heavy boxes, ad infinitum.
So I was talking to her, specifically about a new bargain sticker the company is using. The company is using the sticker in a really confusing way, and here I mean that they made it known that it was for bargain books only, and then they put it on non-bargain books. Being in charge of the bargain books at my store, I get this question a lot.
"Hey Andrew, is this book one of yours?"
"Nope. Scan it to be sure."
"Well gee, that's confusing. Why'd they do it that way?"
On this particular occaison I chose to answer that last question with-
"Because the company is run by a pack of retards."
Then I thought for a moment about how a woman my mother's age might respond to this, and corrected myself.
"Maybe I shouldn't say 'retards.' Let's call them 'morons.'" I smiled winningly.
"As the mother of a mentally handicapped man I am offended by both," said Alicia. She likes to be self-righteous. Of course I was "so sorry," and really couldn't "believe I said that," and "it's just a funny thing to call someone, you know?"
Later I would ask Alicia what sort of name it would be appropriate to call a stupid person, and she at last admitted that she could raise no objection to "dumbass."
Posts
