Disclaimer

Posts this week may be a bit slow, in light of the combination of RAG week and a draft of a large paper coming due Friday, so hang in there, faithful readers.

I will, however, relate this quick story. On Friday I was having my regular fish dish at a local establishment. It's been unseasonably cold here the last few days (low 40s), so it took me a bit to unload the backpack, coat, etc. But when I put down my pack, it made a much larger noise than it should have. I looked at my bag trying to figure out what I had in it that was breakable. Then people around me rushed over to assist a diner who had keeled over. It hadn't be my bag at all.

A woman in her 60s had just gone ass-over-teakettle off the back of one of those super short "stools" that are popular here. As soon as I saw them picking her up it was obvious: she was trashed. She wasn't in any pain, no flash of embarrassment, just a goofy smile at being picked up and placed back on her low stool. Which, within one minute she rolled off the back of again. This time some of the staff and patrons assisted her right out the door and into a cab. I checked my watch: 3:30pm.

A small, older, weather-beaten man who looked a bit like what I imagine Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley would look like with another 20 years on him saw me check my watch.


"Tis a shame, tisntit, to see a woman like that." I nodded. He looked back to the spot where she had been sprawled out. "Bad enough when it's a man, indeed, but what's it, not even half three in the afternoon?"

"Right, just about." I turned to the bartender. "I'll have a double of whatever you served that lady." Squiggy and I shared a laugh.

"Honestly man, I don't mind the ladies gettin a wee bit randy any more than the next, but to see im go off their stools in the middle of the day is a shame."

Call me sexist, but I had to agree.