An Ice Cream Parlor Failure and Foul Language


A very popular ice cream shop on Cap Cod tried to re-open this weekend using pre-ordering, social distancing, curbside service and a can-do attitude.  It had to close.   A second, discreet, re-opening was done without one of their staff.  Why?  Because their overwhelmingly white, affluent and—apparently—intellectually challenged clientele were so verbally abusive to the teen-age girls trying to serve them, that one of them quit.  Evidently, she did not like being called the C-word because her customer couldn’t get his ice cream in jig time.  Every worker at that ice cream parlor had been berated for the slower service required by the modified COVID rules.  The “f” word, was thrown at them routinely.  The owner described the crowd as acting like uncaged animals.  I think he was being generous.
           
            All of this puts me in mind of the shortest job tenure I know of.  That position belongs to fledgling local news anchor, A. J. Clemente.  He was fired after his first-ever words on Bismarck, North Dakota’s NBC affiliate, KFYR, were, “f---ing sh-t.”  Those are his exact words, minus the hyphens and including the vowel sounds.  Clemente was immediately suspended and later fired. 
Clemente’s meager defense seems to be that he didn’t know his microphone was on.  Do they not teach these journalistic wannabes that all microphones are presumed to be on?  I can see why his appropriate market share couldn’t even live up to Bismarck’s demographic.  But this mental midget didn’t even realize that the real issue was not the microphone, it was his foul mouth and limited vocabulary. 
Did it ever occur to Clemente, or the clients at the ice cream shop, that worthy people never say things like that?  Not in public.  Not aloud.  Not ever!  For those of you not part of the baby boom, this may come as fresh knowledge. 
There was a time when people were expected to show emotional extremity, or righteous indignation, or even quasi-humorous reference through the studied use of vocabulary, nor profanity.  What was wrong with that?  It required intelligence, discipline and restraint.  Those are all good things. 
I saw this problem coming decades ago when the collective “we” of this land decided that the right of the academically challenged to use vulgar language was more important that the right of the rest of us to not have to listen to oral garbage.   Quite frankly, when I hear total strangers substitute vulgarities for vocabulary, I assume they are too lazy or too stupid to engage in serious discourse.  I treat them accordingly.
The use of disgusting language is a form of bullying.  You can’t win your argument with logic, reason and intelligence so you try to cow your opponent with filthy language.  When you try that with me you will lose by default because I know you can’t reason with a pig.  Therefore, I refuse to participate.  Instead, I will treat you and your ideas for exactly what they are—emesis.    
I am so (SO!!!) tired of people using the f-word like it is a mark of punctuation!  I don’t allow the N-word to be used around me--ever.  No woman allows the C-bomb to be used in her presence.  So why should anyone think that I, or the young girl serving you ice cream, would want to be exposed to their vulgar, unthinking, and insulting use of the F-word.  I categorically (or incontrovertibly, or unreservedly…you get my point, there are better words out there) hate that language. 
Reject baseness; embrace quality; keep the faith.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Witches in Georgia, Nuts in Texas

Some time ago a woman in Georgia won a restraining order against a man who had been stalking her for months.   She had met him when he answered her advertisement in a singles column.   In the ad she described herself as a, “wiccan” priestess—a witch!   She was then shocked that she didn’t attract an intelligent, emotionally mature male.   Instead she got a weird, obsessive stalker.   Whom did she think she was going to get? I realize that I am probably not being as tolerant as the times require, but it seems to me that any adult who calls herself a witch should not be expected to be taken seriously.   Do adults have to be told that there are no such things as witches?   Didn’t we learn that sometime between the Salem Witch Trials and the dawning of the nuclear age?   What seems to be going on here is that the mantra of tolerance which rightly began as a way to combat institutionalized prejudice has been carried to an extreme that says we can n...
Read more

Is Obama One of Our Four Best Presidents?

My default setting for a good book is a biography, add a penchant for American history and you have someone who reads a lot of Presidential biographies.   I am up to 13 so far, and plan on covering every President before I die, God willing.   Naturally, it caught my attention when President Obama said he would put his administration up with the top four Presidents.                 President Obama was clearly one of those children who were constantly told by his parents and grandparents that he was, “special.”   He was a special person; his parents were special people and everybody else, particularly people who didn’t think he was special, were wrong, jealous and possibly evil.   Such children grow up with an exaggerated sense of self.   We usually only see this syndrome in athletes or Hollywood stars, because politicians have to come up the hard way and there are lots of people to let them know ju...
Read more

Chris Christie and the Young Vampires of the Tea Party

The Tea Party has given this nation a much needed fiscal intervention, but they are like young vampires.   I can best explain this discord with an analogy of Stephanie Meyers’ excellent books advocating teenage chastity.   Meyers wrote the Twilight series of novels about vegetarian vampires who are under siege from vampires who want traditional vampire values.   Traditional vampires want to kill humans by sucking them dry (which is what Democrats feel about successful business people).    Our vegetarian vampires want to live at peace with everyone while simply being left alone to enjoy whatever vampire-like existence they choose (much like Americans in general).    But complicating things to the max are an army of young vampires.   Young vampires are undisciplined, emotional and ready to kill everything, including each other.   Enter the Tea Party.   New to the game, new to the town, and obeying only one overpowering and all con...
Read more