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The Owner's Friends
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: People
- Hits: 1678
Now these are the worst customers.
By which, to explain briefly, all the customers are his friends. But some are old friends, long standing, they have connections outside of the restaurant. And the closer they are, the closer they imagine they are, the worse they are as customers.
Older, middle aged men, between 55 and 60 years old. Single, divorced perhaps once or twice. They walk into the restaurant, don't speak to me or G or the bosses' nephew, they demand the boss, want to know if he's in (he's always in if we're open), help themselves to a table, stay late, too late, presume upon his hospitality, and even more amusing...
...as long as you're not a waitress....
....is the scene where the owner introduces them to the new waitress(es), offers them the chance to "date" them - (he would, only he's married), and then the waitress is left to fend for herself...
and the friends, they never get this skit, coming in again and again to try their luck with a girl (or girls) 30, 35 years their junior, promising them great jobs and houses and spending allowances if only they'd.....
It's slimy and appalling and a little like watching a train wreck. Nonetheless, for all of their money most of these men aren't especially socially skilled and come back again and again, ostensibly to visit the owner but really to check on the new prospects the owner has (laughingly) lined up for them. It's sad. They stay late, waiting for the waitress to get off work, tip badly, are rude to staff (the staff they're not interested in). They are the worst customers.
How are you?
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 3005
Twice today, from regular, our better regular, customers. "How are you?" they ask, and then look at me meaningfully. "Things OK?" Twice. I'm paranoid now that I look as if I have cancer or some other terminal illness, "Fine" I assure them hastily...."Couldn't be better....".... I could, I could be rich or unemployed or painting or writing on a half regular basis, but this isn't what they're asking, so I play it cool and tell them I'm fine. I blame it on the haircut.
Keeping Up
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2363
It's impossible. Much is made of the age of information overload, but even without this, the internet, it would be impossible to keep up. The internet, it swallows an hour, maybe 2 a day. But it points the way to other things, plays, films, books that I should be seeing or reading, music to be listened to, galleries to attend, until, finally, there's no time left whatsoever. I need to seriously rearrange my priorities, not sweat missing a film or two and get to work, because, after all, time is passing...
360 Panoramas of Cities & Other Destinations
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1670
A web based browser that lets you zoom in to incredible detail various of the world's great cities. For the armchair traveler....
Link: http://www.360cities.net/ or try the Strahov Library (were the titles only in English....) or London. Must get out of Calgary....
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