So I was this bar tonight hanging out with some co-workers and the place is really crowded. Luckily, my friends had scored a booth so we could sit comfortably and make fun of everybody. Anyway, there was one particular area of the bar that had been cleared out and contained a buncha drunk folks standing around and wasting air.
As we were sitting, talking and minding our own business we noticed that people decided that our table was as good a place as any to place their empty glasses/bottles despite the fact that we were still there. The first time it happened I kept my cool and didn't really do anything. I tried to catch the dude's eye but he never turned around. Then when I went to the bathroom my compatriots told me that two other people did the same thing. So I told them to watch what happens the next time someone does it. As if on queue some other buttmunch turns and puts his shot glass on the table.
I calmly picked it up, tapped the guy on the shoulder and handed it back to him. I know, I know it's a bit anti-climatic but I got my point across. Not long thereafter as we were packing up to leave I tapped the dude again and told him that we were leaving now and he can do whatever he wants with the table. My one friend told me that the guy apologized but I was walking away. As far as I'm concerned I don't care if he was sorry. If he was really sorry then he wouldn't have done it in the first place.
I understand that the bar was packed and standing in the middle of the floor like that leaves you with little options as far as discarding your empty drink container. All I'm saying is that dude (and everyone else) should have asked us if it were cool to put his glass there. We would've said yes 'cause ultimately what does it matter? I'm talking 'bout the principle of the thing. I'm saying he should at least acknowledge our presence, give us that much respect.
So it felt really good to stand up to homeboy even on that non-confrontational a level.
ed [email] said at 4:55 AM 04-16-2005: Heh. That has "The Poorhouse" written all over it.
The Poorhouse is a dive blues bar in Ft. Loddy that Barb and I used to frequent, well, frequently. I don't get down that way much these days, mostly because the bands don't even come on til 11, and I'm officially old, now. But when we did go, being the local-band-whores that we were, we'd get the closest table to the stage. So every drunk idiot in the place (and trust me, they were bountiful) would put their drinks, empties, and cigarette butts on our table. The really amusing ones would actually TAKE drinks and cigarettes from our table, apparently either believing that they belonged to them, or believing that we wouldn't notice and/or mind.
reggie [email] said at 8:15 AM 04-16-2005: Speaking of drunk idiots. On our way to the subway this really wasted white dude walks up to us and garbles out some incomprehensible nonsense and then veers off towards what I think is the hotel he's staying at but it could've been that he just had no control over his motor skills.
I told him to lay off the sauce.
It's funny a lot of people turn to belligerent oafs when they drink, all I do is relax and open up.
jake [email] said at 11:51 AM 04-16-2005: I'd say right on all the way, except maybe for holding it against the guy even when he apologized. He was just following other people's lead, right? So if he took the drink back, apologized, and didn't use it as an excuse to get beligerent, he sounds pretty decent.
reggie [email] said at 12:41 AM 04-17-2005: The thing is, when I gave him his glass back it wasn't just that he apologized but it was more like a "well excuuuuuse me" kind of apology.
brianbibbly [email] said at 4:57 PM 04-16-2005: Reggie, My advice:
When I am sitting at a booth and someone tries to place their empty bottle on the table THAT HAS PEOPLE SITTING AT IT, that is a blatent dickhead move. My response is, take the bottle, throw it as hard as you can at their feet and watch is shatter. As half the bar turns to look what is going down, stand up and stare directly in the face of the dude who placed the bottle on your table. You will know RIGHT THEN if you are going to get into a fight. 90% of the time they will back down because they aren't expecting that kind of reaction. If not, kick the ever living shit out of them. That is how we do it in the South. Because it IS the principle of the thing.
ed [email] said at 5:37 PM 04-16-2005: And by "we", you mean "lawyers". Because us genteel Southerners would never dream of causing such a ruckus over an empty beer bottle.
ed [email] said at 7:26 PM 04-16-2005: PS - Casting a beer bottle on the floor of the Poorhouse might (and I stress might) not earn an ass-whooping at the hands of the jerk who left his stray on your table, but there is little to no doubt that you will be kissing curb if you try to make your point in such a manner 'round these parts, Mister Solicitor.
brianbibbly [email] said at 9:36 PM 04-16-2005: Apparently ed is a first class pussy whose ony ass he ever whupped was his own. What special brand of pussy cloth were you cut from sir?
