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June 8, 20072 snapshots of America, June 2007 - UPDATEThanks to online shopping, I rarely head into bookstores, but today I needed to buy a gift in a hurry and so I ventured into one - the place was empty and I found what I needed quickly and then browsed a bit. While the temperature outside was only about 73 degrees, the day was humid and the store felt very warm to me. We don’t have central air in the house, just ceiling fans, and they pretty much do the trick, but when I’m shopping, I like to feel cool and comfortable, not oppressed. With no air moving, the store seemed unbearably stuffy, so I said the hell with further shopping and headed to the checkout. At the checkout counter I found the rest of the shoppers - there were 8-10 of us in all, diverse in age, gender, race, and I’m sure in other ways, and every one of us was trying to get outside and catch a breeze, so some were becoming impatient. While waiting I tied my hair back with a scrunchy and a woman behind me said, “good idea,” and tied hers back, too…no kidding, it was warm. When I reached the checkout, I asked the cashier if the a/c was broken. “No,” she informed me. “We keep the a/c temperature up a smidge because of global warming. Doing our part to save the planet!” A male voice groused, rather loudly, “Well, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! If you’re running an a/c but still not cooling the building then you’re wasting energy. Either turn it off all together, or turn the temperature down, but don’t run a huge unit without without cooling the building down; that’s like running a car engine in a driveway. This is typical Al Gore liberal nonsense, make everyone suffer the same while they feel noble because they care so much about the environment!” The other warm woman behind me piped up, “this is freakin’ ridiculous. If I have to come here to sweat, I’ll just stay home and order somethin’ online! I don’t need to be here sweating for the privilege of givin’ you my money!” The girl behind the counter (who, I should add, was perfectly pleasant) said, “in third world countries, people don’t have air conditioning” “America will be a third-world country by next year if Bush has his way and keeps the Mexican border opened,” someone else said. I collected my change and headed out, in no mood for a hot-angry mob scene. The last thing I heard was the cashier muttering, “Bush - moron!” and the woman saying, “screw this, I don’t need this book, I’m leavin’, and I’ll tell you somethin’ else - George Bush keeps you safe, and he isn’t telling us to sweat without air conditionin’, either!” Gonna be a long, hot summer, and global warming may indeed have something to do with it…but not as you might think. UPDATE: A friend suggests to me that the store is usually cooler and relays another little snapshot of her own, which I had posted here, but I begin to think they should be together, like so: “I have an even better story for you though,” she said. “A couple months ago, I’m at [a multi-checkout line department store], standing on line behind a young girl - like 15 years old - and two men, one say in his 30’s and the other with grey hair. The girl is wearing a peace sign patch on the back of her jeans. The younger guy says, “young lady do you know what that is you’re wearing?” The girl looked around at him with no idea what he meant. “That so-called “peace” sign, do you know it’s an anti-Christian and communist symbol?” The girl finished her transaction and left quickly, still ignoring the men, but they continued to argue back and forth, the young Christian man carrying on about irreligious liberals and the socialist state, the older man telling him, ‘people like you are the reason everyone hates America!‘ Then they started on Bush, Iraq, Terrorism - I was afraid there would be a fight,” my friend said. “Finally the younger guy finished with his purchase, and he made a quick exit. The older guy - just fuming and so red in the face I was worried about his blood pressure - pays for his stuff and leaves and it’s finally my turn. The cashier and I looked at each other like, ‘good LORD, can you believe that?’ Then the middle-aged woman behind me piped up, ‘that peace patch probably came with the jeans, and the poor kid had no idea what was going on, but what I want to know is, why was the Christian guy looking at her ass to start with?’ “Everyone in the area cracked up, and we all started talking about how ridiculous some people are becoming. But until then, the tension - it wasn’t nice!” Another perfect little snapshot. Americans have become increasingly intolerant of each other and aggressive in their opinions and their opinions are being marketed left and right, even down to the patches on the jeans…people are buying into ideologies that are all partly illusory, and they’re buying the accessories, too. They’re shopping and growling at each other…perhaps that’s the predictable end of any society that is moving away from the spiritual and more deeply into the material. It doesn’t seem like any of us are covering ourselves with glory, these days, does it? I sometimes tsk at the “reactionary Left” but the “reactionary Right” certainly makes itself known. Well…maybe we’ll all do better when the strawberries come out! - another - apolitical - snapshot, from 2006. http://theanchoressonline.com/2007/06/08/a-snapshot-of-america-june-2008/trackback/ 24 Responses to “2 snapshots of America, June 2007 - UPDATE” |
June 8th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
That’s pretty funny. I don’t know any regular or semi regular person who is ready to suffer for global warming.
June 8th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
It was an uncomfortable experience for you and you turned it into a great story. The store clerk did not understand that she set herself up for the angry mob scene, but what is wonderful is that the people in line weren’t necessarily repeating Gore’s talking points.
Yes, there was one person in line who made a lazy attempt to defend the store’s policy, but the more vocal shoppers demonstrated independent thought. That’s great.
It’s also a good case for more online shopping.
June 8th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Great snapshot. And even tho it’s nice to hear a few people are not buying Gore’s nonsense, one can see that there is no conversation and no place in America anymore that is not politicized. Not sure if that climate will ever improve in my lifetime.
June 8th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Life is too short to hear stupidity coming out of the mouths of ignoramuses. Especially if I’m at a store, any store.
Fortunately, I can choose not to talk to any cashiers or hear any nonsense at my local (TX) stores, especially HEB - the local supermarket. All they want to do is to coo at my Little Fig, not tell me that Al Gore is Gaia’s New Avatar and that Bush is Hitler.
And to think that my poor 9-year-old niece has to see that kind of stuff in her own Northeast hometown. How much nonsense she is exposed to everyday, from her school to the local King Kullen, I have little idea.
June 9th, 2007 at 12:11 am
Careful with such words Comrade Anchoress. We would not want to have to report you.
June 9th, 2007 at 2:41 am
Hot town, summer in the city……
Bookstore riot at the Anchoress: When I reached the checkout, I asked the cashier if the a/c was broken. “No,” she informed me. “We keep the a/c temperature up because of global warming. Doing our part to save the planet!”……
June 9th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Poignant political moment in a bookstore…
From The Anchoress….
June 9th, 2007 at 10:24 am
Let me share a conversation in my local barbershop. I live in a county seat and the barbershop I go to is an old type one chair below sidewalk level place where the barber grew up in the community and literally knows every politician and bartender in town. The barber and I were discussing the immigration bill (opposed) when the fellow in the chair a turn ahead of me said that he never sees any Mexicans and if there are 12 million here where are they? He continues that we are all a bunch of racists for not sharing our great land with others less fortunate. Having traveled somewhat extensively in Mexico and the Dominican Republic (no, not all inclusives) I pointed out that soon anyone with anything will be living in gated communities or behind burglar bars and everyone else will be struggling with life out on the streets since this is what I saw in the wonderful third world. Anyhow this guy lived in a gated community and he goes off on me how he worked for it and deserves it. Now the barbershop is filling up and everyone else is on my side and this guy is turning red calling Bush a moron and saying we were all to stupid to understand the benefits of open borders. So the guy leaves and the barber points out to the amused remaining custormers that the fellow was a county Democratic party bigshot who’s entire family (wife, sons, daughter) had county jobs. The four of us in the shop were all self employed (local plumber, insurance agent, barber, store owner). I think that sums up the divsions in America in June of 2007.
June 9th, 2007 at 11:02 am
The store owner might also be using global warming as an excuse to shave a few bucks off his electric bill.
June 9th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Newton (Comment 4): I also live in Texas and love shopping at HEB, and while I wouldn’t mind a clerk cooing at my “Fig,” if she called it “Little” I’d be hurt. Then again, perhaps I misperceive the meaning of the term “Fig.”
June 9th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
[...] A snapshot of America, June 2007 [...]
June 9th, 2007 at 1:22 pm
We’re in Charleston, South Carolina, it’s in the mid 90s and muggy, and believe me, the last thing anybody here is worried about is global warming. All the ACs are on full blast.
June 9th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Mob Scene in the Book Line:…
The Anchoress went shopping and had to sweat it out. “Gonna be a long, hot summer, and global warming may indeed have something to do with it…but not as you might think.” (The Anchoress)……
June 9th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
Kevin,
First of all newton’s “Little Fig” is her six month old baby. Fig newton. Get it? We started calling her that when we found out she was pregnant.
Like rightwingprof, I’m in South Carolina and it is 90 degrees outside right now at approximately 5pm.
I have both central air units going (one for each floor) and keep a ceiling fan going in my bedroom all day and all night.
Heat and humidity tend to make me grumpy. And others too, according to the story.
June 9th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I find this story distressing on many levels. I managed a small independant bookstore in Washington DC for a few years and it pains me to see these types of stores go the way of the dodo. But all too often these places shoot themselves in the foot repeatedly. The first job for any bookstore is to be a comfortable place for people to come and browse around in. Yes, that means it cannot resemble a Finnish sauna temprature wise. And to have a store clerk scold customers who complained about the store being too hot is unbelievable. (How does one find such an employee? I hired dozens of folks, of all different backgrounds and political persuasions, and I cannot think of one who would have come CLOSE to such behavior.)
Mostly I cannot see making a bookstore into an unwelcoming place…I mean I’ve seen it happen plenty of times, but I’ve never been sure why anyone would think it was a good business plan. This doesn’t mean that a place cannot be “quirky” and have a pensonality of its own, but that shouldn’t mean you become unfriendly to folks.
June 9th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Both the Anchoress’ story and freod’s anecdote point out people who are insulated from the consequences of their decisions.
The staff of book stores are almost always out on the left tail of the curve of political opinion. They either don’t realize that setting the temperature that high will drive away customers or they don’t care all that much since it is just a slightly above minimum wage job to them and if the store closes they will either write that great novel that they have been thinking about or go to work at Tas-T-Freez. The Democrat bigshot already lives in a gated community and with his family already secure in government jobs is not likely to experience any of the less pleasant consequences of massive immigration.
June 9th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
#15, Rich, here is another bookstore story from the late and missed Cathy Seipp.
June 10th, 2007 at 1:02 am
freods and Mark,
Can you hear the “Let Them Eat Cake” attitude coming out of the mouths of those “gated community” inhabitants?
We all know what happened the last time someone said precisely that: head, guillotine, some assembly required. That’s something to ponder on.
June 10th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Just Chillin’…
In yet another compelling sign of global warming,the Canadian coastguard has been busy trying to rescue more than 100 seal hunter ships trapped in ice in the Atlantic, which are in danger of being crushed by the freezing ice….
June 10th, 2007 at 11:48 am
#17, you are trying to depress me, right?
It reminds me of the time I went into Euclid Records in St. Louis and saw a sign that read, “We will no longer be carrying the works of Cat Stevens to show our commitment to free speech.” The clerk there was also uninterested in discussions of irony.
June 10th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Where do you guys shop? This never happens to me. What a horrible travesty this is but I actually find some of it difficult to believe.
The dialog seems a little too much like something written in a bad play.
I would think the person working at the store would be more upset to have to work in a “hot” environment like that rather than praising the reason why there was no air.
The best thing would be to probably not leave the house. Leaving the house exposes us to “different” and “different” is gross.
June 10th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
This didn’t happen.
June 11th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Well, I’m going to put my pollyanna hat on to make a few observations…
Sometimes when it is extremely humid but not that hot, the A/C doesn’t really work. Leave it off, and everyone is miserable and stuffy and it feels like it’s going to rain inside. Turn it on, and the occupants’ lips are turning blue and they are shivering. (Except for us perimenopausal women: “You think it’s cold in here? I’ll show you cold!!!” Followed by an iced coffee over your head. Noooo… We’re not cranky… Well maybe just a little bit…) The global warming crap is nonsense, but the underlying point — the choice between paying to be miserable or being miserable for free — is that sometimes the technology isn’t really there to fix the problem. (Although I have to say that in a bookstore I might choose differently — forget the frostbitten customers, humidity is bad for the books you know. That may be the perimenopause looking for rationalizations for turning the thermostat down to 60, though…)
June 11th, 2007 at 11:03 am
#21, I get where you are coming from, but I wouldn’t be so sure.
Once I went into a Del Taco and ordered a combo #whatever, which was supposed to be a burrito and a taco, but when the order comes up it has neither a burrito or a taco on it. So I said, “Hey, I was supposed to get a #whatever!” to which the clerk looks at me and says “Yeah, that’s what you got.” I then point to the big board above her head and said “But it says right there that a #whatever is a burrito and a taco!” To which she says, “Oh, we don’t use those numbers anymore because the register doesn’t,” as if *I* was supposed to know that! In fact, the “new” combo numbers were listed nowhere in the store. And then she refused to exchange the meal I was given for the one with a burrito and a taco!!
The saddest part? She was the manager.
Now, part of me did appreciate all of this, as it lended a perfect Monty Python quality to my life (”Oh you have to say “dog kennels” instead of “mattress” or he puts a bag on his head,”) but it also made me despair for the future. How much worse could things like this get.
So this story is entirely plausible to me.